ATLANTA (Georgia Recorder) — A bill aimed at preparing Georgia for the potential dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education passed through a House subcommittee Wednesday with an addition from a Democratic state representative.
Senate Bill 154 changes references to the department throughout state code, adding “or its successor.”
The bill’s author, Cornelia Republican Sen. Bo Hatchett, said the change will allow Georgia to keep accrediting professionals like dentists, nurses, optometrists and others if the agency is abolished.
“Who its successor is, we are not aware of right now,” he said. “It may be kicked back to the states or maybe another federal agency, but that’s not for us to decide. What’s for us to decide is do we want Georgia to be prepared or not? And this will help Georgia to be prepared if and when the U.S. Department of Education is disbanded.”
Hatchett said he began work on the bill after President Donald Trump made campaign trail pledges to get rid of the department, but recent developments have made the measure more urgent.
“Timing is everything, and I had no way of knowing this was going to happen, but if you haven’t seen the news lately, I think the U.S. Department of Education is probably on its last few weeks if not days,” he said.
On Tuesday, the department announced it will be cutting about half of its current workforce.
Democrats and education advocates say gutting the department would risk programs Georgia students benefit from like speech services, career counseling and after school programs.
Newly sworn-in Education Secretary Linda McMahon has indicated she intends to wind the agency down and return its duties to the states, though eliminating it entirely will require an act of Congress.
Powder Springs state Rep. David Wilkerson said that’s not likely to happen.
“Defunding something does not remove the agency,” he said. “And I can pretty much be assured, as much as the president has made promises, you’re not going to get the votes in the (United States) Senate to do this. So you may have an empty building, you may have half of the staff, but I would be shocked if one side of the aisle decides to abolish the Department of Education. And they need that in the Senate, as we know how it works there. So is this just encouraging the behavior that we see coming from D.C. to say, ‘Look, states are already passing things to anticipate this?’”
“I don’t know of any other state that has done this yet,” Hatchett said.
“So every other state is going to be out of work, except for Georgia?” Wilkerson asked.
“I honestly haven’t looked at other states’ laws,” Hatchett answered. “What I’m doing is just trying to make sure – I mean, I looked at our laws, and the way they’re written, we would not technically be able to license a nurse moving forward if we don’t make this change. What happens in D.C., like you said, I can’t read their mind, but at least we know – and it looks like it’s going in this direction – we’re gonna be ready. And if nothing happens, we’re still gonna be ready.”
Wilkerson moved to amend the bill so that the relevant parts of it would not go into effect unless the department is officially abolished. He pitched it as a way to get Democratic support in the House after it passed along mostly party lines in the Senate.
Hatchett demurred at first, but eventually gave his support to the amendment because he said it would mean the bill could go into effect sooner if the Trump administration drops the ax on the department before the summer.
“Now that I’m thinking about it, I probably support this, because if it is to be dissolved faster, if it were to be dissolved tomorrow, his amendment would help that. So right now it’s effective on July 1, 2025, and if it were to be dissolved in the next couple of weeks, this would actually help us out.”
Before the bill can become law, it will need to pass out of the full House Education Committee as well as the full House before April 4 and receive Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature.
