by Ty Tagami | Jan 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Homeschool students would have guaranteed access to college admission testing at their local public school under legislation backed by prominent Republican state senators.
School districts that offer the SAT, ACT, PSAT/NMSQT, PreACT, or an AP exam would have to post testing dates on their websites and allow students zoned for the school to participate like enrolled students.
Senate Bill 63 says homeschool students starting in middle school would not have to pay any testing fee or meet any qualifications that aren’t required of enrolled students.
“They’re not allowing these students into the schools,” said Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, the bill’s author. “They’re saying it’s a security issue, saying they don’t have room. So then, they’ll set up a testing site that they have to pay for. It could be an hour away.”
Dixon said he wrote the bill because homeschool parents are paying taxes, and he thinks their neighborhood schools should serve them even if their children aren’t enrolled.
The state is expecting to see more students in this situation after the establishment of a new private education voucher program during last year’s legislative session.
Starting next fall, any student who lives in a lower-performing school attendance zone will be eligible for $6,500 toward a private education, which can include costs for homeschooling. Officials estimated the vouchers would cost the state about $140 million the first school year, enough for about 21,000 students.
SB 63, which was introduced this week, is backed by several leading Republicans, including Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, the majority leader, and Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the majority whip. It will likely be assigned to the Senate Education and Youth Committee led by Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, who is also backing the bill.
by Dave Williams | Jan 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Power will continue to rely on coal and natural gas to generate electricity in the coming years while increasing investments in renewable energy.
Those are among the commitments included in the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) the Atlanta-based utility submitted Friday to the state Public Service Commission (PSC).
IRPs, typically updated every three years, outline the mix of energy sources Georgia Power intends to rely on for power generation during the next two decades.
The 2025 IRP acknowledges a soaring growth in demand that has come from power-hungry industries that have set up shop in Georgia in recent years, notably data centers. Georgia Power projects it will need an additional 8,200 megawatts of generating capacity during the next six years, an increase of more than 2,200 megawatts compared to updated projections in an IRP the commission approved just last spring.
“As Georgia continues to grow, this state is well-positioned for the future thanks to proactive planning, policies, and processes like the Integrated Resource Plan,” said Kim Greene, Georgia Power’s chairman, president, and CEO. “The 2025 IRP provides a comprehensive plan to support Georgia’s continued economic growth and serve Georgians, with clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy well into the future.”
The new IRP calls for Georgia Power to continue operating coal-burning plants at Plant Bowen near Cartersville and Plant Scherer near Macon, which would provide about 4,000 megawatts of electricity. Those are among the most advanced coal units in the world, equipped with state-of-the-art technology that reduces their carbon footprints, according to a news release from the company.
Georgia Power also plans improvements in natural gas production at Plant McIntosh near Savannah, which would produce an additional 268 megawatts of capacity.
The IRP also proposes increasing the utility’s renewable energy capacity by 4,000 megawatts by 2035 to a total of 11,000 megawatts. Renewable sources of power would include new utility-scale and rooftop solar projects, battery storage, and modernizing Georgia Power’s fleet of hydroelectric plants.
Additional investments at the company’s Plant Hatch and Plant Vogtle nuclear facilities would add another 112 megawatts of carbon-free energy.
Critics attacked the new IRP Friday as over-reliant on coal and gas. Groups including the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) have called on Georgia Power to retire both Plant Bowen and Plant Scherer.
“We’re the No.-1 state to do business and one of the U.S.’s fastest growing tech hubs. Are we really going to power progress with gas and coal?” said Jennifer Whitfield, a senior attorney at the SELC’s Georgia office. “Coal hasn’t been economic for years, and paying for even more methane gas is incompatible with the future Georgians want and businesses are demanding.”
Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, questioned whether Georgia Power actually needs the additional 8,200 megawatts it is requesting.
“By asking for far more generation than is needed, Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission will end hearings by accepting less than requested, allowing everyone to claim a win for an expensive plan that is unreasonable,” she said.
Opponents also argued that fossil fuels leave customers vulnerable to costly spikes in utility bills. The average residential bill for Georgia Power customers already has increased by more than $43 a month during the last two years.
On the other hand, environmental organizations praised the utility’s proposal to increase its investment in demand-side management programs, which would allow Georgia Power to move closer to its Southeastern peer utilities in conserving energy usage.
The PSC will vote on the new IRP later this year following several rounds of hearings.
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.
