Legislative update [Feb. 26, 2007]

2007 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education

The Week Ahead:
House Higher Education Subcommittee of Appropriations Tuesday, March 6 (10:00 a.m., room 606 CLOB Building)

Week of February 26, 2007

The legislature adjourned on Thursday, March 1, which was day 27 of the 2007 session, for an extended break. They will resume on Monday, March 19 for day 28. Lawmakers must resolve the PeachCare issue before moving forward with the 2007 amended budget. The remaining schedule has been set as follows:

March 20 day 29

April 10 day 34

March 27 day 30

April 11 day 35

March 28 day 31

April 12 day 36

March 29 day 32

April 17 day 37

March 30 day 33

Newsletters will resume the week of March 19
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

Highlights for the past week include:
House Bill 243, legislation which would exempt the hours earned through the dual enrollment program for high school students from the HOPE cap, passed unanimously out of the House and now moves to the Senate Higher Education Committee for consideration. Representative DuBose Porter offered an amendment that would remove all caps for the HOPE grant. However, no vote was taken on the measure since it wasn't accompanied by the required fiscal note.
Representative Bob Smith introduced House Resolution 426, which creates a joint House and Senate Higher Education Finance and Formula Study Commission to review current financing, make recommendations to the current funding formulas, and evaluate alternatives for a performance-based funding component for both the Board of Regents and the Department of Technical and Adult Education.
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.
House Bill 363 adds Georgia Military College to the list of colleges where a student can receive the HOPE grant. The bill passed out of the House Appropriations Committee and now moves to the full House for consideration.
Senate Bill 39, known as the Charter Systems Act, passed out of the House Education Committee and now moves to the full House for consideration.

House Bill 229, which requires the reserves for the HOPE program to drop by at least 10% before students would be hit with potential reductions for book and fee payments, passed out of the full Appropriations Committee on Wednesday and now awaits consideration by the full House.
For questions regarding information contained in this bulletin, contact Laura Gammage lgammage@dtae.org (404) 374-6557