The finish line of the 2016 legislative session is drawing near with the last day scheduled for March 24. Although your state legislators have marked dozens of bills off our to-do list, day 40 seems to be quickly approaching us as we continue improving our state. We took a running start on Monday of last week as we met the Crossover Day deadline and sent our Senate bills over to the House for consideration.
We passed more than 20 bills on Crossover Day, all with the intention of maintaining Georgia’s position as the best state in which to live and do business. A well-trained and educated workforce is the most important factor in economic development. The Senate passed several bills to help facilitate our educational system.
SB 310 – SB 310 is otherwise known as the “Transparency in Education Act.” The bill would require schools and agencies applying for education grants over $20 million to submit a written analysis to the General Assembly. The analysis must include long-term costs of the project, the impact on state and local education policy, the purpose of the grant and the grant’s relationship with existing law.
SB 355 – Titled the “Student Protection Act,” SB 355 would allow students with a doctor’s note for illness or life-threatening sickness be excused from standardized testing and to request standardized tests be provided in paper and pencil format. The legislation also directs the State School Superintendent to develop policies for how non-participants will be evaluated.
SB 409 – SB 409 would instruct public schools, including all local charter schools and state charter schools, to post a sign containing the toll-free number operated by the Department of Family and Children Services to report child abuse or neglect.
We can all take great pride in the fact that our state passes a balanced budget each year. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, we have spent hours working on the Senate budget recommendations for next year. Here are some of the highlights of our budget that came through the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education:
$300 million has been appropriated to offset austerity reduction in order to provide our local school systems the flexibility to eliminate teacher furlough days, increase instructional days, and increase teacher salaries.
$124 million has been appropriated in order to facilitate enrollment growth and provide for additional training and experience for our teachers and other school system employees.
$2.5 million has been added to the budget in order to give a 3% salary increase to school bus drivers along with an additional $912,000 to give a 3% pay increase to our local school nurses. Additionally, we voted in favor of a scheduled increase of the employer contribution rate for non-certificated school service employees such as food service workers and custodial staffs.
The Senate also voted to appropriate $3.5 million for Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education equipment grants to local school systems.
The effects of this year’s budget will positively affect our education system for many years to come.
It is always an honor to have visitors from District 50 here at the Capitol and I encourage you to attend as many public events as possible. As the legislative session continues, I look forward to working on your behalf. If I can be of any assistance, please feel free to reach out to my office at 404.463.5257 or by email at [email protected].
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sen. John Wilkinson serves as the Chairman of the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee and Vice Chairman of the Education and Youth Committee. He represents the 50th Senate District which includes Banks, Franklin, Habersham, Rabun, Stephens and Towns counties and portions of Hall and Jackson counties. He can be reached by phone at 404.463.5257 or by email at [email protected].
