by Ty Tagami | Jan 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Sex and school sports are among the first items on the agenda for the Georgia Senate this year, as lawmakers took up legislation Thursday to control participation in team competitions.
A Senate panel heard and passed Senate Bill 1, which would prohibit students from competing on teams that do not match the sex on their birth certificates.
These restrictions already exist at the high school level after the state empowered the Georgia High School Association to enforce restrictions in 2022. But SB 1 would write these rules into law in middle school and in high school — and extend them to higher education. It would also apply to private schools that compete against public schools.
The proposed law would “put a boundary around women’s sport that excludes those who have male advantage,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the bill’s chief sponsor and the chairman of a special legislative committee that studied the issue late last year.
Public schools would face loss of state funding for failure to comply.
Democrats on the committee pushed back, saying lawmakers should be focusing on learning loss instead. The bill would empower parents to file complaints against athletes, and Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, said girls misidentified as male could face taunting, with consequences for their mental health.
Several current and former women college swimmers spoke in support of the measure via Zoom. They complained about losing at a 2022 NCAA swim meet at Georgia Tech when Lia Thomas, a transgender student born male, competed against women.
They also complained about having to share a locker room with Thomas.
“This was the pinnacle of our competing careers, but it wasn’t just about losing a trophy or a spot on the podium,” said Kaitlynn Wheeler, who was swimming for the University of Kentucky. “It was about our dignity.”
Critics said the bill’s supporters were cherry-picking one well-known incident and that they were pushing a solution to something that isn’t really a problem.
A girl’s athletic coach said she’d never heard of another such incident in Georgia. A lawyer with Lambda Legal, which advocates for transgender people, said the bill would invite lawsuits and that taxpayers would bear the cost because transgender students have won against such prohibitions in other states.
A transgender person called the bill “dehumanizing,” and a pediatrician said it would undermine mental health.
“Transgender girls are not predators. They’re children, they’re students,” said Dr. Jodi Greenwald, of Roswell. Excluding them from sports would lead to ostracization, she said. “They fall into depression and often commit suicide.”
The vote to pass SB 1 out of the Senate Education and Youth Committee was 9-3, with Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, the lone Democrat to join the Republican majority. It now heads to the full Senate.
by Dave Williams | Jan 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled comprehensive tort reform legislation Thursday aimed at reining in huge jury verdicts Republicans say are making it hard for Georgia citizens and businesses to afford insurance premiums.
“Georgians should have every opportunity to pursue their constitutionally guaranteed day in court, and if were wronged, they should be made whole,” Kemp said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “(But) our businesses and hardworking Georgians need relief from the increased costs of doing business, having car insurance, and getting access to health care. I believe this package accomplishes those goals and strikes the right balance.”
The tort reform legislation the governor is proposing is based on a report the state insurance department released last fall that showed the five-year average of claims has increased by 25%, much faster than Georgia’s population growth. The number of large claim awards of more than $1 million also has grown steadily.
Kemp has vowed repeatedly in recent months to make tort reform a top priority of his 2025 legislative agenda.
Among other things, the governor’s tort reform package would:
- shield property owners from liability claims stemming from criminal acts committed by third parties outside of the owner’s control.
- allow lawyers for defendants in suits stemming from car accidents to introduce evidence showing the injured party was not wearing a seatbelt.
- require plaintiffs in liability cases to show the jury their actual medical costs when the jury is deliberating on compensation.
- limit third parties, including foreign adversaries like China and Russia, from financing tort litigation.
Legislative Democrats argued the tort reform package is aimed at the wrong target.
House Minority Caucus Chair Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta, said natural disasters fueled by climate change – not lawsuits – are what’s driving up insurance premiums. She said Kemp’s tort reform legislation would deny Georgians injured by the negligence of others their day in court.
“We’re open to conversations, to trying to find a compromise,” Miller said. “But we’ll oppose anything that hurts Georgians and their families.”
by Ty Tagami | Jan 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Scores on a biennial federal test for Georgia fourth and eighth graders show that students on the whole are not progressing enough to regain academic losses sustained during the pandemic.
“Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which collects and analyses education data.
The U.S. agency administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known informally as the nation’s report card. It is given to a sampling of students at two grade levels nationwide. It is the only government measure that allows comparisons between the states.
“Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students,” Carr said. “Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”
Georgia’s average scores moved a bit, but the changes were considered statistically insignificant: reading dropped two points in fourth grade and one point in eighth grade while math rose a point in fourth grade and dropped two points in eighth grade.
Georgia’s fourth grade students matched the national average in reading and their score was not statistically different from the nation’s in math, according to the Georgia Department of Education. The state’s eighth grade students beat the national average in math by two points but scored three points lower in math.
“Multiple data points indicate we are moving in the right direction, but more work is needed,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
Woods predicted NAEP scores will rise over time because of increases in results on the Georgia Milestones tests after new math standards were implemented several years ago. He said recent state mandates in literacy instruction could improve reading scores as new literacy coaches are added to schools.
by Dave Williams | Jan 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation named in honor of a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant Wednesday became the first bill signed into law by President Donald Trump.
The Laken Riley Act requires federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest, detain and deport illegal immigrants who commit nonviolent crimes including theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting.
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered last February while jogging on the campus of the University of Georgia. An illegal immigrant from Venezuela was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Jose Ibarra had previously been detained on shoplifting charges but was released from custody.
“This horrific atrocity should never have been allowed to happen,” Trump said during a ceremony at the White House. “As president, I’m fighting every single day to make sure such a tragedy never happens again.”
Both of Georgia’s Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, supported the Republican-sponsored bill, as did two of the state’s five Democratic representatives – Lucy McBath of Marietta and Sanford Bishop of Albany. All nine Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation also supported the measure.
Riley’s parents and a sister attended Wednesday’s bill-signing ceremony, as did Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the state Senate.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail last year to clamp down on illegal immigration, making the issue a centerpiece of his successful bid for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House. Since taking office last week, he has ordered the nation’s southern border closed.
“There’s nobody waiting to get in,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been working on for a long time.”
by Dave Williams | Jan 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Calvin Smyre made history as the longest-serving member of the Georgia House of Representatives, and now his likeness will grace the state Capitol for years to come.
Lawmakers unveiled his official portrait Tuesday, the seventh of a Black person to be mounted on the walls of the Gold Dome. It’s an honor usually reserved for the dead.
“I am grateful beyond words to see this happen in my lifetime,” Smyre said after his former colleagues spent more than hour sharing praise and humorous and endearing stories about him on the floor of the state House.
Moments later, he helped pull the cover off the portrait, which hangs next to a passage to the chamber.
Smyre represented Columbus, and hometown artist Steven Tette painted his portrait using several photographs. The painting depicts Smyre seated in a dark suit, his hands clasped in front of him, a slight smile crossing his face. The crowd was pleased.
Smyre was 26 in 1974 when he was elected as a Democrat to the state House. He served 48 years until 2022, stepping down at age 74. He’d planned to serve 50 years, but President Joe Biden had nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
Smyre would not take that post though. The U.S. Senate never confirmed his nomination, nor did it confirm him when the Biden administration switched the posting to the Bahamas.
Biden’s State Department named him in 2023 to serve as the U.S. representative to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Smyre also was tapped to join Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Smyre rose to prominence in the Georgia House, helming the powerful Rules Committee before Republicans took control of the chamber in 2004. He also chaired the House Democratic Caucus.
His colleagues gave him a reverential nickname, calling him “Dean Smyre.”
He played a key role in high-profile legislation, such as making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday, replacing the 1950s-era state flag and its Confederate battle symbol, passing a hate crimes law, and repealing Georgia’s 19th-century citizens arrest law after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. That last, Smyre said, was a personal request by Arbery’s mother.
Smyre also was active in national Democratic politics, co-chairing Bill Clinton’s Georgia presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996 and serving as a deputy of the 2000 Al Gore campaign.
Despite his partisan loyalties, colleagues from both sides of the political aisle praised Smyre as a bridge builder.
“I believe Calvin puts people in two groups: friends and future friends,” said Rep. Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro, the current chairman of the Rules Committee.
Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican from Newington, called Smyre a mentor.
Among the high-ranking political figures who came to pay their respects were former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, who spoke as former Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican (and the current chancellor of the state university system) watched from the House floor.
A friend of Joe Frank Harris, another former Democratic governor, read a letter that was signed, “with deep love.”
