Legislative update [Jan. 22, 2007]

2007 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education

The Week Ahead:
House Higher Education Subcommittee of Appropriations Tuesday, January 30 (9:00 a.m. CLOB Building)
The 2nd Annual "Taste of the Technical Colleges" on Tuesday, January 30, at the Georgia Freight Depot
Useful Links:
For more information on House and Senate members or to track legislation, logon to www.legis.state.ga.us
To access live committee meeting broadcasts in the House, logon to www.legis.state.ga.us, click on House, then select Georgia Legislative Network from the Daily Update which will provide a menu of broadcasts

Week of January 22, 2007
The legislature ended a full week of activity on Friday, January 26, following a prior week off for joint appropriation budget hearings. Both houses will reconvene on Monday, January 29, for Day 10 of the 2007 session. Highlights for the week include:
Representative Bill Hembree introduced House Resolution 86, declaring January 30, 2007 as "Technical College System of Georgia Day" at the Capitol. Senator Seth Harp introduced similar legislation in the Senate (Senate Resolution 84).
Interim Commissioner Ron Jackson presented the agency's fiscal year 2007 amended and the 2008 budget to the Joint Appropriations Committee as well as the House Higher Education Subcommittee of Appropriations. Jackson shared the department's impressive return on investment and stressed the importance of "level funding" for the technical colleges in light of the recent enrollment decline.
Several technical college and university system presidents also testified before Representative Bob Smith's Subcommittee of Appropriations last week on campus successes and accomplishments as well as the need for additional space.
Governor Sonny Perdue and former Governor Zell Miller celebrated reaching the milestone of one million HOPE recipients on Thursday. Three students, including one from Albany Technical College, were introduced as recipients of the three types of HOPE programs.
Senator Dan Weber introduced Senate Bill 39, the Charter Systems Act, which would allow entire school systems to operate under the charter concept. The bill also creates a Charter Advisory Committee to review and recommend charter petitions to the State Board of Education. The committee consists of 9 members 3 from the State Board of Education, 3 appointed by the Lt. Governor, and 3 appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
House Bill 131, introduced by Bill Horne, expands the HERO (Helping Educate Reservists and their Offspring) Scholarship to include benefits to surviving spouses.
Representative John Lunsford introduced House Bill 152, which extends the HOPE scholarship to students who complete a home study course and score in the ninetieth percentile or higher on a standardized college admission test.

For questions regarding information contained in this bulletin, contact Laura Gammage lgammage@dtae.org (404) 374-6557