ATLANTA – High school accrediting agencies would have to rate schools and school districts primarily on academic performance rather than the performance of their school boards under legislation that cleared the Georgia Senate Tuesday.
Senate Bill 498, which passed unanimously and now moves to the state House of Representatives, was prompted by a recent review by the accrediting agency Cognia that criticized the governance of the Cobb County Board of Education, made up of four Republicans and three Democrats.
The agency subsequently voided most of the review’s findings after determining it didn’t account for the school district’s response to how it spends tax dollars.
But such issues should not be front and center of an accrediting agency’s review, Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, the bill’s chief sponsor, said before Tuesday’s vote.
“The core business of education is academic performance,” said Tippins, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee. “What [colleges] are not looking for is an evaluation of whether the adults play well together.”
Under Tippins’ bill, 80% of accreditation reviews must be based on academic performance. The other 20% would be based on financial accountability and efficiency.
“This bill focuses on the students … and the quality of education they receive,” Tippins said.
The legislation also would subject all documents created by accrediting agencies to Georgia’s open records law.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House and Senate passed separate bills Tuesday aimed at restarting a medical marijuana program that has been sidetracked by a dispute over the awarding of licenses to produce low-THC cannabis oil.
Both bills would throw out the selection process a commission the state created to oversee the program used to tentatively award licenses to six companies to grow marijuana and convert the leafy crop to cannabis oil.
The Senate bill, which passed unanimously, instructs the commission to restart the selection process and award six licenses by May 31.
The House version, which passed 169-5, sets an Aug. 1 deadline for the commission to obtain enough oil to meet the current needs of Georgia patients.
However, it goes a step further by requiring the state Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) – rather than the commission – to issue a new request for proposals. The DOAS would bring in an independent consultant to score the bids.
After legalizing possession of cannabis oil in Georgia seven years ago, the General Assembly created the commission in 2019, with the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker appointing its members.
The commission tentatively awarded two “Class 1” licenses last summer authorizing the winning bidders to grow marijuana in up to 100,000 square feet of space and four “Class 2” licenses to grow the crop in a space of up to 50,000 square feet.
Sixteen companies denied licenses have filed legal protests claiming the selection process was unfair and arbitrary, threatening to tie up the program in lengthy litigation.
Starting over with consultants playing a key role in the licensing process is the fairest way to get the long-delayed program off the ground, Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, told his House colleagues Tuesday.
“It moves this process out of the hands of a bunch of appointed folks and puts it in the hands of professionals,” he said.
Rep. Micah Gravley, R-Douglasville, who sponsored the 2019 bill, urged lawmakers to stay focused on the 20,000 Georgia patients who are on the state registry to receive cannabis oil once the program gets started.
“There are constituents in just about every one of your districts who need this,” he said.
“The sole purpose of the bill is to move the ball forward toward getting medical cannabis to folks on the registry,” said Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the Senate bill’s chief sponsor.
The House bill also would add Georgians with ulcerative colitis to the list of those eligible to obtain cannabis oil. The list of eligible diseases already includes seizure disorders, Parkinson’s disease, terminal cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and sickle-cell anemia.
The two bills passed on Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to clear at least one legislative chamber to remain alive for the year. The House bill now heads to the Senate, while the Senate measure moves to the House.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia voters would decide whether their representatives in the General Assembly should get a raise under a proposed constitutional amendment the state House of Representatives passed Tuesday.
The House approved the legislation 136-33, well above the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional amendments to clear the chamber. It now moves to the Georgia Senate.
If voters ratify the amendment in November, annual salaries for members of the state House of Representatives and Senate would be set at 60% of the median household income in Georgia.
Based on the state’s current median income of $58,000 a year, lawmakers would be paid about $35,000 annually. Legislators currently are paid just more than $17,000 a year.
Lawmakers haven’t gotten a raise since the 1990s, Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, the constitutional amendment’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues before the vote.
The amount of the proposed raise was based on research conducted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, which concluded that Georgia legislators typically work enough hours to justify two-thirds of a full-time position, Cantrell said.
The amendment would take effect in July of next year. After that date, lawmakers would no longer have any say over the politically dicey decision of how much they are paid.
“This is an issue that represents a conflict of interest for all of us,” Cantrell said. “This constitutional amendment protects us from having to recuse ourselves. … We will never have to address this issue again.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – College students needing a financial boost to complete their degrees would get help from the state under legislation the Georgia House of Representatives passed Tuesday.
Lawmakers voted 171-3 let students who have earned at least 80% of the credits required for the degree they are seeking receive a grant of up to $2,500 to help pay their tuition.
The money would help plug a “small gap to get [students] across the finish line,” said House Higher Education Committee Chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“Higher education changes life,” added Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta. “The more kids we can get in our educational system, the better they’re going to be and their families are going to be.”
To qualify, students would have to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application.
The Georgia Student Finance Commission would administer the grant program, subject to state appropriations. The bill would have a sunset date of June 30, 2025, to give lawmakers a chance to determine whether the program is working.
The bill now moves to the state Senate.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers may be about to start over the state’s long-delayed medical marijuana program.
A state House committee approved legislation Monday that would cancel the current program and authorize a new request for proposals (RFP) from companies interested in growing marijuana in Georgia and converting the leafy crop into low-THC oil for eligible patients.
Also Monday, a committee in the Georgia Senate approved a bill aimed at moving the current program forward by restarting the evaluation of companies that already have bid for state licenses.
The General Assembly legalized possession of cannabis oil in 2015 but gave Georgians no way to obtain the drug. In 2019, lawmakers created a state commission to oversee the growth of marijuana and the production and sale of cannabis oil.
The commission awarded licenses to six companies last July. But companies whose bids were denied complained about the licensing process and filed legal protests that have kept the program from getting off the ground.
“We’ve got patients we’ve been trying to get [cannabis] oil to for at least four years,” Rep. Bill Werkhiser, R-Glennville, the House bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the House Judiciary Committee.
Under House Bill 1425, the state Department of Administrative Services would oversee the RFP in partnership with an independent third party. Licenses evaluated during the RFP process would have to be issued by the end of December.
The bill also would expand the number of licenses by two for every increase of 50,000 patients on the state registry to receive cannabis oil. There are currently about 20,000 Georgians on the registry, which includes patients suffering from a variety of diseases.
The bill could reach the House floor for a vote as early as Tuesday, the Crossover Day deadline for bills to pass at least one legislative chamber to remain alive this year.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 609 also is due for a floor vote on Tuesday. The Senate legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, contains the same provision for expanding the number of licenses as more Georgians are added to the cannabis oil registry.
However, rather than put out a new RFP, the Senate bill would instruct the commission to review the licenses that already have been awarded and the protests that have been filed, then issue six licenses to the “highest qualified applicants.” The commission would be given a deadline of July 1.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
