New legislation at the state Capitol seeks to block raises for school superintendents and administrators if teachers are furloughed.

It would require a public hearing for others anytime they’re proposed during a school year when teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and any other “non-administrative” school workers are furloughed. The bill comes as state employees prepare for another round of furloughs — three unpaid days they’ll likely take between now and June 30.

“I just thought this was a clear message,” said state Rep. Ed Rynders, the bill’s sponsor. “We need to apply common sense all across the country.”

Rynders, R-Lee County, said he has “scores and scores” of other legislators supporting House Bill 977, including bipartisan support. The bill says school systems “shall not use any state funds to provide a salary increase for the local school superintendent or administrators” during a school year teachers or other workers are furloughed. If a school board wants to use local tax money to give raises, it would have to hold a public hearing.

The Georgia School Boards Association is willing to work with Rynders and others on the bill, but a representative pointed out Wednesday that most superintendent salaries are “almost entirely made up of local funds.”

“(Board members are) elected officials,” said Angela Palm, GSBA director of legislative services. “They’re responsible to their voters. ... How local funds are used should be determined by the body that raised the funds.”

Peake’s ban on texting while driving hits bump in the road

State Rep. Allen Peake’s push to ban texting while driving will go to a House study committee, state legislators decided Wednesday.

Many times study committees are where legislation goes to disappear. But Peake, R-Macon, said Public Safety Committee Chairman Burke Day has promised the bill will come back to the main committee for a vote.

The study committee, Peake said, has been tasked with merging his bill with at least one other on the same subject, which was offered by state Rep. Amos Amerson, R-Dahlonega. Peake and Amerson announced their bills in a joint news conference earlier this legislative session, and they made their case to Day’s committee together Wednesday.

CRCTs for first-graders possibly on way out

During last week’s budget hearings, state Rep. Jimmy Pruett, R-Eastman, noted that the state spends $36 million a year testing K-12 students, and that $21 million of that is used for tests mandated by the state, not the federal government.

State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox said her department is looking at changing some of that, but her hand could be forced. State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, D-Atlanta, plans to push legislation requiring the state Department of Education to drop Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests for first-graders. Cox has said that would save about $700,000 a year.

Benfield’s bill also would require the state to study dropping the tests in second grade.

“Georgia is the only state that has the CRCT in first grade,” Benfield said Wednesday. “And we’re in the minority on the second grade as well.”

Benfield is a Democrat, which typically doesn’t help get a bill passed in the Republican-controlled Legislature. But new Speaker of the House David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has promised repeatedly to take good ideas from anyone interested in working together. And Benfield’s suggestion has at least some bipartisan support.

“I’m encouraged,” she said of the effort’s chances.

Overseas ballots from soldiers could come over Internet

New Secretary of State Brian Kemp, whom Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed to the position this month, is pushing legislation to adopt electronic voting for soldiers overseas.

House Bill 665, which cleared committee Wednesday “with bipartisan support,” Kemp said, would allow Georgia to take part in pilot electronic voting programs that essentially would put new technology to the test.

Sometimes overseas military ballots don’t count in elections because they don’t arrive quickly enough by mail.

“One ballot cast by a member of our military that is not counted due to slow mail service or a missed deadline is one too many,” said Kemp, one of several candidates seeking a full elected term as secretary of state this year.

There’s a pilot program to test this technology in West Virginia already, and three other states are considering similar programs, the Secretary of State’s Office said. The new legislation would allow Georgia to do the same.

Irwinton pastor in the House to offer day’s opening prayer

Each morning, the Georgia House and Senate open their legislative day with a prayer offered by a pastor or other religious leader from a member’s district.

Wednesday, the Rev. Judd Drake of the Irwinton-Toombsboro-Salem Charge of the United Methodist Church gave the opening invocation. He was invited by state Rep. Bubber Epps, D-Dry Branch.

The pastor’s message: “It’s in your hands to trust in God to make good decisions.”

Telegraph staff writer Travis Fain compiled this report.