by Ty Tagami | Feb 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Georgia public schools were short 5,300 teachers as of December, an ongoing problem state lawmakers have been unable to fix.
They have a new proposed solution, but it would take awhile to put in place: let more retired teachers return to the classroom with both pay and pensions.
Senate Bill 150 would allow former teachers to return to the classroom 60 days after they retire following 25 years of service.
It would expand on a current, but temporary law, that lets teachers return to the classroom after a year of retirement following 30 years of service.
That older law restricts this post-retirement service to a handful of high-demand academic subjects in high-vacancy parts of the state. About 450 retired teachers have been re-employed under that law, which is in its third year and expires next year.
The proposed law would expire in the summer of 2034.
“We’ve got a real issue that we’ve got to deal with,” Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, said Tuesday of the teacher shortage. He is the chief sponsor of SB 150, which he said would address the problem “on a temporary basis until our schools can gear up.”
A Senate committee voted unanimously to pass the bill on for a cost analysis. However, it likely won’t come up for further action until next year’s legislative session.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
The Georgia Senate adopted legislation Monday that would enhance lawmakers’ authority to overrule the results of the process that agencies use to enact laws.
Senate Bill 28 would require the state to produce an analysis of an agency’s rule that could cost the public or local governments at least $1 million to comply with during the first five years.
It would also empower lawmakers to call for a review of the impact of any proposed legislation on businesses with 300 or fewer employees. And the bill calls for periodic reviews of existing rules.
Rules that lawmakers disagree with could be dismissed.
The “Red Tape Rollback Act” triggered a lengthy debate that was less about the bill than about federal cutbacks led by President Donald Trump’s billionaire appointee Elon Musk.
Republicans opened the door to this critique at a hearing earlier this month, when the chairman of the reviewing committee for SB 28, Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, likened the measure to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been slashing federal jobs.
“It’s kind of our DOGE if you will,” Beach said. “We’re going to cut back on regulations and cut back on government.”
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of SB 28, told his colleagues on the Senate floor Monday that his bill merely intends to reduce the number of burdensome rules that result from the hundreds of laws passed each year.
Rulemaking is currently the purview of agency experts trained in the subject matter addressed by the laws they are implementing, but Dolezal said lawmakers bring their own expertise: they regularly bump into constituents — on their kids’ soccer fields, in grocery stores — who are affected by rules.
“We have connectivity with the people that have to live under these rules,” Dolezal said. The legislation “gives them a touch point to reach out to us and raise a flag if there is something coming from an agency that they may have an objection to.”
Democrats said this would open the door to further influence by lobbyists. They also tied the measure to what’s happening under the new Trump administration.
Sen. Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, called Musk’s actions a “mean spirit … a bad spirit,” adding that his constituents are afraid of what’s happening. He reasoned that the intent of SB 28 is either to cut jobs in Georgia government or reverse state rules created under the leadership of Republican governors and their appointees for two decades.
Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, lamented that the senators had occupied an hour and a half debating the bill, which she deemed to be trivial. But Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, said agency rules were important to his constituents, who have complained that copious state park regulations were affecting them.
SB 28 passed along party lines, with Moore, who often opposes legislation – even from his fellow Republicans – voting for passage. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which did not pass a similar measure last year.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Transgender people, particularly youths, remain a subject of Republican-led policy in Georgia, as lawmakers consider several bills that would regulate their interactions with the medical industry and with female athletes.
Both the Georgia Senate and House of Representatives have measures that would ban transgender students born male from female teams in K-12 schools and in higher education.
The Senate has gone further, with legislation that would ban puberty blockers and the use of state resources — health insurance, hospital facilities and medical personnel — for gender-related procedures.
The conflict has made for confusing hearings, where experts disagreed about core facts.
For instance, one doctor testified at a recent hearing on Senate Bill 30 that substances known as puberty blockers have long-term consequences, and that children should not be deciding whether to take them.
“They’re not capable of making life-altering decisions,” she said. “We don’t leave them alone for the weekend.”
Another doctor contradicted her, saying puberty blockers are reversible. He described the legislation as government overreach. The committee passed SB 30 that evening.
Senate Bill 39, the bill that would ban the use of state resources for gender-change procedures, and Senate Bill 1, which seeks to ban transgender athletes from female athletics, have already passed the full Senate.
The sports measure may get the most traction in the House, which is moving its own legislation on transgender athletes.
House Bill 267 passed the House Education Committee on Friday. Like SB 1, it seeks to ban transgender students born male from participation on female teams — and from using female locker rooms and other shared facilities where nudity occurs.
HB 267 is named the “Riley Gaines Act.” Gaines is a collegiate swimmer whose encounter with a transgender athlete at a 2022 national championship meet at Georgia Tech has been widely reported.
Like other women who’ve testified at recent hearings about that event, Gaines was outraged about having to compete against — and share a locker room with — a transgender woman whom Gaines said was unlike a woman due to “fully intact” male genitalia.
“I am very proud and really honored to lend my name to the fight to reclaim the English language and, of course, to save women’s sports,” Gaines said at the committee hearing on HB 267 Friday.
She introduced herself as a 12-time NCAA All American, a five-time Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion, an SEC record holder in the 200-meter butterfly, a two-time Olympic trial qualifier, and “one of the fastest Americans of all time.”
Yet, she said, she could not beat a transgender athlete at that 2022 event who had previously performed poorly against male swimmers.
Democrats have mostly opposed these measures, asserting that they are not grounded in fact or science.
They dismiss arguments that the sports legislation is intended to promote fairness for girls, countering with their own measures that demand equity in “funds, facilities access, equipment, supplies, and other resources.” Senate Bill 41 and House Bill 221 have yet to get a hearing.
For Rep. Karen Lupton, D-Chamblee, the role of religion is a concern. Frontline Policy Action, a Christian group, helped write HB 267, and she saw hypocrisy in that.
“Did Jesus say that the highest expression of faith is to love a neighbor?” Lupton asked at Friday’s hearing, suggesting that HB 267 was not “loving trans kids as you would wish to be treated.”
Frontline Policy Action also helped write SB 1, the Senate’s version of HB 267. And a representative of that group, along with one from the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, have been a consistent presence at these hearings.
The transgender sports issue has proved a popular one for Republicans, who suggest alarming scenarios where these athletes could overpower and even injure females.
The GOP pushed through a bill in 2022 that allowed the Georgia High School Association to ban transgender athletes from teams that don’t match their birth certificates.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in early February that withholds federal funding from schools that do not “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports.” And the GOP-led U.S. House narrowly passed its own bill with the same goal in January.
Critics contend that Republicans are capitalizing on a handful of well-publicized events, such as the one involving Gaines. They say such high-stakes competitive scenarios are rare, with injury rarer still.
“Why do we keep hearing about Riley Gaines every time we have one of these hearings?” complained one woman at a subcommittee hearing on HB 267.
Critics also say that the GOP initiatives against transgender people will expose an already marginalized group to more bullying, raising their risk of suicide, which is already relatively high.
Republican lawmakers acknowledge they have no data to describe the scope of transgender participation in sports in Georgia, but they and their supporters counter that just one occurrence is too many.
The conflict around the medical regulation of gender may be the most emotional.
Transgender people and parents of transgender children say they are being targeted like gay people were decades ago.
Peter Isbister, an Atlanta-area dad, said at a hearing earlier this month on SB 30 that such measures can’t turn back history. He also implied that they would mainly affect those from lower-income households. He said he can take his child out of state to obtain puberty blockers or other gender-affirming care if necessary.
“My 11-year-old son will get the health care he needs, I am privileged to say, because I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that he does,” Isbister said. “Why? Because I love him as you love your children, because our love is not different than your love.”
The full Senate has yet to consider SB 30, the bill Isbister was testifying against. But that chamber has already sent SB 39 and SB 1, the sports bill, to the House.
SB 1 may get the most support there, since the House’s version, HB 267, could soon get a vote before the full House.
In a rare appearance that was clearly intended to send a message of support for the bill, House Speaker Jon Burns spoke at Friday’s hearing on the House bill.
The Republican from Newington said he was concerned about transgender participation in sport because he has four granddaughters.
“It’s simple,” he said. “Biological men have an undeniable and scientifically proven advantage against women when it comes to athletic competition.”
Burns said the legislation “levels the playing field and ensures that our daughters and our granddaughters are not robbed of their opportunity for fair and safe competition.”
by Ty Tagami | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Drones would be subject to more restrictions under a couple of pieces of legislation that passed the Georgia House of Representatives Friday.
House Bill 58 would prohibit flights over public gatherings. It would require that drones stay at least 400 feet from the airspace of ticketed entertainment events, unless they are being used for an authorized official purpose.
House Bill 205 seeks to address national security by banning official use of certain drones due to concerns about data security. The measure is aimed at China.
Rep. David Clark, R-Buford, said nine out of 10 drones are manufactured by two companies in that nation and that those companies must share any data they acquire with the Chinese government.
“This legislation does not ban drones outright,” he said. “Instead, it ensures that drones used by our government agencies can be rendered safe from foreign interference. And the key requirement is simple: drones must not be capable of transmitting data to unauthorized parties.”
Fellow lawmakers spoke favorably of the bill. Among their concerns were the risk of using drones to spy on military bases absent this proposed regulation.
Local and state governments would be encouraged to acquire drones from a list that the state would develop, based on Federal Aviation Administration standards and clearance by the U.S. Department of Defense.
But the compliance would cease to be voluntary in three years, which, Clark said, is the average lifespan of a drone.
Starting Jan. 1, 2028, officials in Georgia would have to acquire drones only on the state’s safe list, which would be updated semiannually.
Both bills passed with bipartisan support, with only four votes against HB 58 and one against HB 205. They now head to the state Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
The Georgia General Assembly has adopted its first bill of this year’s legislative session, a measure that allows bail bond businesspeople to hold more elective offices.
The state House of Representatives passed the legislation 159-6 Friday, following Senate passage of the measure 51-2 in early February.
A mostly forgotten state law says people in that business can only serve on a local school board. Senate Bill 16 expands that to any local office as long as it is not in a county where the person does business.
On Friday, Rep. David Huddleston, R-Roopville, said deleting the prohibition would help attract good candidates for elective office in rural areas, where he said they are hard to find.
No one spoke against the measure on the House floor, though one representative asked if SB 16 was being pushed by a bail bondsmen association. No, Huddleston responded.
The bill by Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan — the Senate’s majority caucus vice chair — came about after a candidate who had won an election in Heard County discovered the old law and chose not to take office. Huddleston said lawmakers subsequently learned of instances where people in the bail bond business had held office in violation of the 1980s law without realizing it.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, prefaced the brief debate on the measure with a slight nudge to his colleagues in the other wing of the Gold Dome to get things moving. The session ends in less than two months, just before the Masters Tournament in Augusta, as is customary.
“We’re taking up a Senate Bill,” Burns said. “We hope they’ll do same for us in the Senate.”
The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
