Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
The Braselton News
Page 7 A
State roundup
Teacher planning periods and literacy popular
with state lawmakers; vouchers opposed
By Rebecca Grapevine
Capitol Beat News Service
Education bills are get
ting a mixed reception in
the General Assembly this
year.
Measures to protect
teacher’s time and amp
up the state’s literacy
rates have received near
ly unanimous approv
al, while private-school
vouchers have drawn
fierce opposition.
“The teachers I know
don’t want to walk away
... but too many teachers
I know are running on
empty,” Cherie Bonder
Goldman, the 2022 Geor
gia teacher of the year,
wrote at the start of a state
Department of Education
report published last year.
The report recommended
increasing the amount of
time teachers have to deal
with class planning and
grading.
Lawmakers appear to
have taken that advice
to heart, with the state
House of Representatives
unanimously approving a
measure last Monday that
would guarantee sixth-
through 12th-grade teach
ers a daily “duty-free”
period.
The bill has now been
assigned to the Senate Ed
ucation and Youth Com
mittee.
The legislature also
appears eager to improve
Georgia’s literacy rates.
The House has unani
mously passed the Geor
gia Early Literacy Act
(House Bill 538). spon
sored by Rep. Bethany
Ballard. R-Warner Rob
ins, a former teacher who
chairs the House’s Edu
cation-Curriculum Sub
committee. The bill aims
to improve the quality of
early reading instruction.
“It develops a frame
work and it begins to real
ly seriously take a look at
literacy,” said Rep. Chris
Erwin, R-Homer, who
chairs the House Educa
tion Committee. “State
wide, there’s a structure
out there heavily involv
ing our state [Department
of Education] and getting
them involved in working
with the school systems.”
Erwin said school dis
tricts and students could
begin to feel the effects
of the bill as soon as next
school year.
The legislation would
require schools to screen
students from kindergar
ten to third grade on their
reading proficiency three
times a year. Students
who are identified as
falling behind in reading
would receive an “indi
vidual reading improve
ment plan” within 30 days
of being identified and
would also receive “inten
sive reading intervention.”
The bill would also re
quire the state Board of
Education to develop a
list of high-quality, evi
dence-backed reading in
structional and screening
tools districts can use and
boost literacy training for
teachers.
The measure now must
receive approval from
the Senate Education and
Youth Committee and
then the full Senate.
For its part, the Senate
has unanimously passed
separate legislation to
form a Georgia Council
on Literacy. The 24-mem-
ber council would include
education experts, state
legislators, a teacher and a
local school board mem
ber. The council would re
view literacy research and
make recommendations
about best practices.
The literacy efforts take
inspiration from Missis
sippi’s example, where
a years-long concerted
effort has taken the state
from 49th in reading in
the country to meeting
and exceeding national
averages.
Far more controversial
is a Senate measure that
would create $6,000 pri
vate-school vouchers for
Georgia students to use at
private schools or for ho
meschooling expenses.
The original bill would
have applied to most
students in Georgia but
during last Monday’s
Crossover Day bargain
ing, the Senate added an
amendment limiting the
scholarship to just those
residing in the attendance
zones of the lowest-per
forming 25% of schools
in the state.
“The parent never has
access to the money di
rectly - it’s all adminis
tered by a third party,”
said Sen. Greg Dolezal,
R-Cumming. The $6,000
would not be considered
taxable income and the
funds would be limited
to eligible educational ex
penses.
The bill passed 33-23
along party lines.
“It’s a hard ‘No’, ” said
John Zauner. executive
director of the Georgia
School Superintendents
Association and a former
school superintendent,
about his group’s position
on the proposal.
“It appears to me that
they’re beginning the
process of funding two
different school systems
... with differing ac
countability systems for
the same public money,”
Zauner said, noting that
the bill includes no mech
anism to track what hap
pens to the funds or to en
sure that private schools
eligible for the vouchers
are providing high-quali
ty education.
The bill also drew crit
icism from Senate Dem
ocrats for diverting funds
from the public school
system and because it
lacked a fiscal note, the
analysis that is typical
ly required for bills that
would impact state fi
nances.
“Private school vouch
ers undermine public
schools by diverting des
perately needed resourc
es away from the public
school system, which
serves all students, to
fund the education of a
few,” said Sen. Freddie
Powell Sims, D-Dawson.
“There is no fiscal note
on this bill, something
that should be required
of any bill of this magni
tude.”
The fiscal 2024 state
budget the House adopt
ed last Thursday would
provide a $2,000 raise
for state employees, in
cluding teachers, which
would take effect in
September and follows a
$2,000 raise this year.
Georgia is also again
fully funding its educa
tion commitments under
its education-funding for
mula.
Burns urges Fulton DA not to ignore
case backlog while investigating
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
While Fulton County
District Attorney Fani
Willis investigates allega
tions that then-President
Donald Trump interfered
with the 2020 presiden
tial election in Georgia,
her office also should
handle its day-to-day du
ties, state House Speaker
Jon Burns said Thursday.
“They need to make
sure they have the re
sources and bandwidth to
take care of both issues,”
Burns, R-Newington,
told members of the At
lanta Press Club during
a luncheon speech in
downtown Atlanta.
The special-purpose
grand jury Willis empan
eled last year to inves
tigate Trump’s alleged
role in trying to overturn
Democrat Joe Biden’s
victory in Georgia com
pleted its work and issued
its findings in December.
The portion of the pan
el’s report Fulton Supe
rior Court Judge Robert
McBurney allowed to
be released concluded
the election results were
legitimate and recom
mended that one or more
witnesses who appeared
before it be indicted for
perjury.
On Thursday, Bums
cited remarks Georgia
Chief Justice Michael
Boggs made on Wednes
day in his State of the Ju
diciary address to a joint
session of the General
Assembly.
While Boggs’ theme
was the huge backlog
of criminal cases courts
throughout Georgia face
in the aftermath of the
pandemic, he put some
numbers to the backlog
in Fulton County. He
said Fulton is currently
saddled with more than
4,000 pending felony in
dicted cases and almost
14,000 unindicted felony
cases.
Burns made his re
marks Thursday while
defending legislation the
House passed this week
calling for the creation of
a Prosecuting Attorneys
Oversight Commission
to investigate complaints
against prosecutors and
hold hearings.
Democrats have com
plained legislative Re
publicans are pushing
the bill in response to
Willis targeting Trump, a
charge Burns rejected by
pointing out that judges
in Georgia are subject to
commission oversight.
“I don’t think our dis
trict attorneys in this state
should be treated any dif
ferent than our judges.”
he said. “We just want
them to adhere to the law
and apply it equally to ev
ery Georgian.”
During his speech,
Burns also praised his
House colleagues from
both parties for passing
legislation following
through on last year’s
landmark mental-health
reform bill steered
through the chamber by
his predecessor as speak
er, the late David Ralston.
“The House has been
champions of men
tal-health reform in
this state,” Burns said.
“It began with Speaker
Ralston.”
Burns, who was elect
ed speaker by his fel
low House members in
January, also urged the
state Senate to follow the
House’s lead by passing
bills aimed at breaking a
legal logjam holding up
Georgia’s medical canna
bis program, giving ten
ants more legal rights in
dealing with “troubling
landlords,” and funding a
proposed state police pa
trol post in the Buckhead
neighborhood of Atlanta.
Georgia tax revenues still going strong for now
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
The economic slow
down in Georgia many
economists have been pre
dicting for this year hasn’t
arrived yet.
The state Department of
Revenue collected more
than $2.12 billion in taxes
last month, an increase of
8.7% over February of last
year, the agency reported
Friday. For the first eight
months of fiscal 2023, tax
revenues were up 5.9%
over the same period in fis
cal 2022.
Individual income tax
receipts rose by 9.2% in
February over the same
month last year, as tax re
turn payments increased
by 31.3% while refunds
were down 3.3%.
Net sales tax collections
were healthy last month,
increasing by 10.6% com
pared to February of last
year.
Typically volatile corpo
rate income tax revenues
soared by 382% in Febru
ary, with payments up by
97.5% and refunds down
by 61.2%.
Tax collections on gas
oline and other motor fu
els - which had been vir
tually non-existent since
Gov. Brian Kemp tempo
rarily suspended the tax
last March - still declined
in February by 24.4%
compared to the previ
ous February. The gover
nor reimposed the tax in
mid-January.
The mid-year budget the
General Assembly adopted
this week includes $1.1 bil
lion to help offset the loss
of gas tax revenue that oc
curred last year.
Jeffrey Dorfman, the
state’s chief economist,
told Georgia House and
Senate budget writers in
January that state tax rev
enues are likely to drop
sharply this year because
last year’s huge increase in
capital gains tax payments
is not likely to be repeated.
Georgia chief
justice: Case backlog
plaguing court system
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
While Georgia’s judiciary is
emerging from three years of
pandemic, a serious backlog of
cases still looms over the state’s
judicial system, Georgia Chief
Justice Michael Boggs told state
lawmakers Wednesday.
“The numbers in certain parts
of Georgia are truly astounding,”
Boggs, who became chief justice
last July, said during his first State
of the Judiciary address to a joint
session of the Georgia House and
Senate. “The resolution will not
be easy.”
Boggs said the backlog would
have grown worse were it not for
$110 million in federal pandem
ic relief funds Gov. Brian Kemp
and the General Assembly com
mitted to the court system. After
the number of serious violent
felony cases increased by 36.3%
between 2019 and 2021, circuits
receiving pandemic relief grants
saw pending cases fall by nearly
12% between the end of 2021
and last August, Boggs said.
Alter plummeting 75% be
tween 2019 and 2020, the num
ber of felony jury trials had risen
more than 182% by the end of
2021, Boggs reported.
Like many other industries
and professions, the Georgia ju
diciary also is suffering from a
workforce shortage, especially in
rural parts of the state, the chief
justice said. As a result, a grow
ing number of suspects charged
with crimes but not convicted are
languishing in jail, he said.
“In our system, punishment is
supposed to follow conviction,
not precede it,” he said.
Boggs thanked Kemp and the
General Assembly for respond
ing to the workforce shortage by
bringing the salaries of the state’s
public defenders in line with
what prosecutors are paid.
During a 29-minute speech,
Boggs also pointed to innova
tive initiatives the judiciary is
undertaking to improve access
to justice in Georgia, including
deploying technology that allows
remote conferencing, setting up
treatment centers for juvenile
victims of human trafficking,
expanding legal services to vet
erans, and adding interpreters to
help Georgia’s increasing popu
lation of foreign language speak
ers.
Boggs praised the governor
and legislature for creating the
Behavioral Health Reform and
Innovation Commission to ad
dress the need for improvements
in mental health-care delivery in
Georgia. He noted that 25% of
the state’s incarcerated popula
tion have been diagnosed with
mental health issues.
Moving forward, Boggs said
the safety of judges will be a fo
cus of the court system this year.
Last month, the Georgia Su
preme Court created a standing
committee on judicial security.
“Our judicial system depends
on judges deciding cases without
fear,” he said. “This includes fear
for their personal safety or the
safety of their families.”
Georgia posts record
high job numbers
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
Georgia’s unemployment
rate was flat in January, but job
numbers hit an all-time high,
state Commissioner of La
bor Bruce Thompson reported
Thursday.
The jobless rate of 3.1% in
January was the same as De
cember. three-tenths of a per
cent lower than January’s na
tional unemployment rate of
3.4%. But the number of jobs
rose by almost 17,000 from De
cember to a record 4.87 million.
“Georgia continues to lead
the nation in job creation while
outpacing the nation with low
unemployment numbers.”
Thompson said Thursday. “Em
ployers are hiring at a record
pace, affording hardworking
Georgians with opportunities in
nearly every sector.”
Job numbers reached all time
highs in the private education
and health services sector as
well as leisure and hospitality
and financial activities.
The sectors with the most
over-the-month job gains in
cluded accommodation and
food services; health care and
social assistance; and arts, en
tertainment and recreation.
The number of employed
Georgians was up 5,331 to
nearly 5.1 million.
At the same time, initial un
employment claims also rose
by 14,257 in January to 42,178,
an increase of 51%. First-time
jobless claims year over year
were up as well, by 49%.
In January, more than
129,000 job listings were post
ed online for Georgians to ac
cess. The top five industries in
cluded health care, retail trade,
and accommodation and food
services.
State unveils new voter
information system
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
Georgia Secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger launched a
new computer system this week
designed to improve the tracking
of registered voters.
The $4 million Georgia Regis
tered Voter Information System
(GARViS) will contain more
than 12 million voter records,
including more than 7 million
active voters.
“GARViS is a tremendous
step forward in the security and
accuracy of Georgia’s voter reg
istration system,” Raffensperger
said. “This voter registration
system truly reinforces Geor
gia’s status as the No.-l state in
America for election administra
tion.”
The integrity of Georgia’s
voting process came under fire
after Democrat Joe Biden car
ried the Peach State over incum
bent President Donald Trump in
2020. But a series of audits and
hand counts after the election -
including a forensic audit of the
Dominion Voting Systems ma
chines the state used - found the
results were accurate.
“When people ask us, ‘How
do we know who voted? How
do we know it’s real? How do
we know it’s fair? Because we
have the receipts we keep on
this secure system.” said Gabriel
Sterling, chief operating officer
for the secretary of state’s office.
“Don’t let anybody believe there
are dead voters voting or double
voting in any significant way be
cause it’s just not true.”
Raffensperger’s office and
two private partners - Califor
nia-based software company
Salesforce and Texas-based
technology consulting firm
MTX Group - spent more than
150,000 hours developing and
testing the new system, as well
as training employees how to
use it. GARViS will replace the
agency’s ENet system.
The new system also is ex
pected to shorten wait times at
the polls. Early voting in 2020
saw voters in some cases wait
ing for hours to cast their bal
lots.