Legislative update [Feb. 19, 2007]

2007 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education

The Week Ahead:
House Higher Education Subcommittee of Appropriations Tuesday, February 27 (9:00 a.m., room 341 Capitol)
House Higher Education Committee Tuesday, February 27 (2:00 p.m., room 606 CLOB Bldg.)
Senate Higher Education Committee Tuesday, February 27 (3:00 p.m., Mezzanine room, Capitol)
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 February 19, 2007
The legislature completed day 24 of the 2007 session on Thursday, February 22. Lawmakers will reconvene on Tuesday, February 27 for day 25. The schedule has not been set beyond day 25 but legislators will likely take some extended recesses to stop the clock to until the state-federal battle over PeachCare is resolved. Highlights for the past week include:
Senate Bill 68, legislation that would allow for career academies to be established as charter schools, passed out of the House Higher Education Committee on Tuesday and now awaits consideration by the Rules Committee, chaired by Rep. Earl Ehrhart, before being placed on the House floor calendar.
Representative Lester Jackson introduced a similar version of Senate Bill 68 relating to career academies. However, House Bill 570 would require that the State Board of Technical and Adult Education divide the state into five regions and approve a minimum of one career academy from each region, assuming that they meet the eligibility criteria.
House Bill 243, legislation which would exempt from the HOPE cap hours earned through the dual enrollment program for high school students, passed unanimously out of the House Higher Education Committee and now awaits consideration by the Rules committee for floor debate.
House Bill 63, legislation sponsored by Alan Powell, passed out of the House Higher Education Committee on Tuesday. This bill creates a loan program awarded at a 1% interest rate for students who have at least a 2.5 GPA and have exhausted all other means of financial aid. The loan program would be funded by private donations and administered by the Georgia Student Finance Commission.
The House Higher Education Committee passed an amended version of House Bill 152 on Tuesday. The committee substitute extends the HOPE scholarship to students who complete a home study course or a program at an unaccredited school and score in the eighty-fifth percentile or higher on a standardized college admissions test. According to the bill's sponsor, Representative John Lunsford, this legislation attempts to level the playing field for students who are home schooled or attend an unaccredited school.
House Bill 229, which revises current provisions relating to the shortfall reserve account for the HOPE program, has been assigned to the Higher Education Committee and is on the agenda for Tuesday, February 27. Specifically, the bill requires the reserves to drop by at least 10% before students would be hit with potential reductions for book and fee payments.

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