Lawmakers will aim to leave education with less money and more freedom when the Georgia General Assembly convenes in January to trim the state’s budget by at least $1.3 billion.
Rather than broad-based mandates, Georgia Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette, and House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, plan to file bills to loosen education requirements and give school systems more say on how to use reduced state funding.
Lawmakers can’t tailor-make bills to address individual systems, but “one of the most important things we can do is give those systems the flexibility with the funds,” Rep. Neal said.
“We’ve done a lot of that (previously), but the local systems had to apply for exemptions and there was a lot of paperwork,” said Rep. Neal, who attended an education appropriation hearing for Georgia educators on Dec. 14.
Those educators suggested lawmakers grant exemptions for requirements such as class size, he said, giving systems spending flexibility and time to plan for the coming year.
In early December, state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox said at the Georgia School Boards Association conference that she expected school funding will be cut $39 million before the fiscal year ends June 30.
Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, said education funding will draw considerable attention because it’s “the biggest pot of money in Georgia and we’ll be looking for $900 million to $1.5 billion” in cuts.
“Education is normally the sacred cow and we’ve tried to leave it alone,” he said. But K-12 education accounts for more than 46 percent of the total state budget, and broad cuts to all state departments won’t answer needs without making some “surgical” cuts in education, he said.
Rep. Coleman said legislative steps taken now will be temporary, with most scheduled to end between 2013 and 2015.
He and Rep. Neal are using ideas from the mid-December hearing and another hearing he held Dec. 22.
In addition to spending and class-size measures, the proposals shift requirements for teacher contracts to be issued in May rather than April, to give local officials more time to respond to state budget moves, Rep. Coleman said.
Developing proposals include more leniency for daily school schedules, capital outlay for construction projects and funding for middle schools, he said.
Legislators want to let local officials who are “closest to the people” decide on measures to take, he said.
He said he and Rep. Neal still want to hear more cost-cutting ideas from the public.
“This stuff is not a done deal until it’s passed,” he said.
GEORGIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The annual legislative session will begin Jan. 11 and runs for 40 legislative days. The General Assembly begins its annual session on the second Monday in January. Sessions normally end in mid- to late-March, depending upon the number of recess days.