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GAIC
Legislative Update
March 23,
2009
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House Supports
Afterschool Funding in FY10 Budget
This past week the House passed its version of the FY10 budget (July 1, 2009 - June
30, 2010). The $14 million in federal TANF funding for afterschool services, administered by
the Department of Human Resources, was level funded in the
budget. The other major budget line item that supports
afterschool, the Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS)
program, which provides subsidies for low-income
working families to access afterschool and child care, will
get a $27 million boost from the federal stimulus package for
"time limited child care" in the House budget. At the same
time, the House removed $3.5 million from the program to fill
budget gaps in other health and human services areas. It is
unclear at this time how the stimulus dollars will be
allocated and what impact they will have on the existing CAPS
waiting list. Hopefully, once the Senate provides its
recommendations for the FY10 budget, there will be more
clarity.
Other budget
highlights include the restoration of $29.1 million for school
nurses (the Governor proposed cutting the entire $30 million);
maintaining graduation coaches as a separate program (the
Governor proposed moving them into the school funding formula
to allow school systems to decide whether or not to fund
them); and providing stipends for National Board Certified
teachers (the Governor proposed eliminating the stipends).
While teacher furloughs were not included in the House FY10
budget, Education Appropriations Chair Ed Lindsey suggested
six educator furlough days may be required to save the state
enough money to keep local systems from laying off teachers
and school staff. Stay tuned for more on this and the Senate's
FY10 budget
soon. | |
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Governor Signs AFY09
Budget
The Governor took quick action by signing the Amended Fiscal Year 2009 budget only
three days after receiving it from the General Assembly.
Education advocates are pleased the Governor agreed with the
House and Senate's decision to draw on $145 million in federal
stimulus dollars to offset education budget gaps this year.
The Governor did, however, include a signing statement of
interpretation that
the implementation of these funds is subject to forthcoming
guidelines from the US Department of
Education. |
Minimum Dropout Age
Many
of our readers have emailed and called asking, "Whatever
happened to those bills to raise the dropout age?"
Indeed, a number of bills to raise the compulsory
school age were filed this session (SB 60, SB 132 and HB 634) but none of them survived
Crossover Day in order to remain alive in 2009. However, they
can still move in the 2010 session, so keep your eye on them
next year. Better yet, use the summer and fall when
the General Assembly is not in session, to contact your state representative and state
senator and let them know your interest in this
issue.
Also, while the Move on When Ready Act and the BRIDGE Act do not raise the
compulsory school age, they are efforts to support students
and prevent them from dropping out. These bills are still
alive this session and could ultimately pass if the
Senate acts on them in the next couple of
weeks. |
GAIC
Legislative Tracking
The following list
includes status updates of relevant bills that moved this past
week.
Children,
Youth and Families
HB 228 (Rep. Mark
Butler, R - Carrollton) would reorganize the state's
health and human services agencies. The bill has been
stripped of its House language by Senate committee and
Senate-preferred language has been inserted. The House prefers
to have a Department of Public and Behavioral Health to
include all relevant agencies while the Senate would like to
break up the agencies into a Department of Health and a
separate Department of Behavioral Health. Status: Passed
the House; Passed Senate Government Oversight
Education HB 149 (Rep. Jan Jones, R -
Alpharetta), entitled "The Move on When Ready Act," would
allow 11th and 12th grade students to attend
postsecondary schools for high school credit. Status:
Passed the House, Passed Senate Education and Youth
HB 229 (Rep. Brooks Coleman, R -
Duluth) would require school systems to conduct annual fitness
assessments for 1st through 12th grade students during
physical education class. Aggregate results would be reported
to the State Board of Education; individual results would be
provided to parents. Status: Passed the House; Passed
Senate the Senate; Sent to
Governor
Revenue and Taxes
HB 100 (Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R - Powder Springs) would
increase the tax credit for contributions made to Student
Scholarship Organizations (SSOs), which provide funding for
public school students to attend private schools. If passed,
the tax credit would equal actual expenses up to 75% of income
tax liability (up from $1000 for single filers and $2500 for
joint filers). Status: Passed
the House; Passed the Senate; Sent to Governor
HB
481 (Rep. Tom
Graves, R - Ranger) passed out of Senate Finance last week. It
would establish a number of business tax breaks and the Senate
Finance Committee added back language to phase out the
corporate income tax. See GBPI's brief for more information.
Status: Passed the House; Passed Senate
Finance |
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Federal Budget Increases Afterschool
Dollars!
Congress included a $50 million increase in 21st
Century Community Learning Centers in the federal FY09
budget. More info here.
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Afterschool and the
Economic Stimulus Bill
See the Afterschool
Alliance's wiki to read about how stimulus dollars can
support afterschool, tips on accessing stimulus funds, and
much more.
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Track the Stimulus Funds
Find out where the American Recovery
and Reinvesment Act money is going at Recovery.gov.
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| Contact Information |
Korynn
M. Schooley
Policy
and Advocacy Manager
404.527.7280
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