Now Georgia voters will decide in 2016 whether to allow the state to intervene in what the ballot question will call “chronically failing schools.”
Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed constitutional amendment to set up a special state school district drew enough Democratic support to clear the House 121-47 Wednesday, two votes over the two-thirds majority needed. A handful of Republicans cast negative votes. Three members didn’t vote, and eight were absent. Senate Bill 133, the corresponding proposal setting up the special school district’s structure, later passed the House 108-53.
Reps. Valencia Stovall, D-Lake City, Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, and Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, spoke in favor of the resolution.
“If we wait, students will sit longer in schools that are failing them,” Evans said. “How long can we wait? Parents all across this state are waiting.”
House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, and Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton, also came to the well to urge passage.
“I’m not scared of education reform,” Jones said. “I tell you what I’m scared of. I’m scared of accepting more of the same.”
The bill was presented by one of the governor’s flood leaders, Christian Coomer, R-Cartersville, who said, “There are some districts with failing schools that simply refuse to use the tools we give them.” He said the proposal will “act as a challenge to those local boards, if you can’t get your house in order, then we will intervene.”
Before the vote, Rep. Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, gave a minority report to counter the House Education Committee’s positive report, saying the resolution didn’t provide checks and balances to the governor’s power.
State Rep. Margaret Kaiser, D-Atlanta, was one of the most vehement Democratic opponents of the bill. Kaiser, who confirmed to InsiderAdvantage Georgia that she plans to run for Atlanta mayor in 2017, said, “A lot of the changes that I requested be made weren’t made. I honestly feel the changes would have made it a better bill, more palatable.”
Like other Democrats, Kaiser objected to the ballot question asking voters to decide if the state can intervene in “chronically failing schools.” The language to be placed in the Constitution, though, merely would refer to “failing schools.”
Kaiser said her vote on the resolution had nothing to do with the mayor’s race, and that she will continue to serve her district to the best of her ability in the next two years.
She was also among legislators named in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article who took a one-day trip to Memphis funded by StudentsFirst, a Washington school choice group. Kaiser told InsiderAdvantage Georgia that she didn’t know the trip was funded by the organization and took a work day to make the “informational” trip. “I kept an open mind on the legislation,” she said.
Deal in a statement Wednesday afternoon said, “I commend members of the General Assembly for putting aside partisan politics to prioritize the needs of our children. We have both a moral duty and a self-serving interest in rescuing these children.
“I believe the voters of Georgia will wholeheartedly endorse this proposal because they want these children to have a chance in life, they want them to get an education, they want them to have good jobs, support their families and be productive, law-abiding citizens.”
Haleigh Cox celebrates victory: Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, received a standing ovation from his colleagues Wednesday after the House agreed to the final passage of his medical marijuana bill, sending it to Gov. Nathan Deal for his expected signature this week. “This has been a long time coming,” Peake said.
Haleigh Cox, the Forsyth child for whom Peake’s House Bill 1 is named, was present along with her mother, Janae, for the House’s approval of Senate changes to the bill, which Peake endorsed. Haleigh and her mom came on the House floor, to the lawmakers’ applause.
Peake said that Haleigh, who’s condition has dramatically improved since her family moved to Colorado to receive cannabis oil treatment, will now be able to return to Georgia, along with 16 other Georgia families that followed her. He also thanked his colleagues for supporting the legislation, first introduced last year. “Thank you for standing with me. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for having my back,” he said before the the House voted 160-1 to send the bill to Deal.
New autism bill: Rep. Richard Smith, R-Columbus, said Wednesday that the Senate bill on insurance coverage for autism will not pass his Insurance Committee. Instead, Smith will offer a new bill Thursday morning asking Georgians to vote on a two-tenths of a percent sales tax to pay for autism treatment. He said the sales tax would generate $200 million to $300 million.
Smith, speaking from the House well, said that Senate Bill 1 sponsored by Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, “Is bad policy.” He said that under the bill, which would require insurance coverage for a specific autism treatment, “If you have 110 students in a classroom and all have autism, only 15 to 17 would receive treatment. How can you explain to Mom and Dad that their child is not going to receive treatment?”
The Senate leadership backed SB1 as one of its priorities. The bill not leaving the House Insurance Committee drew criticism from Bethel and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle on the Senate floor Tuesday during debate on the medical marijuana bill.
Smith said his bill would provide treatment for all children from birth to age 18 suffering from autism, while the Senate bill would just cover families who work in small businesses.
