Public school funding to be a priority for state lawmakers

ATLANTA -- While some Georgia lawmakers are eager for big debates on the hot-button topics of casinos and medical marijuana, one of their biggest jobs during this year's upcoming legislative session will be dealing with a stack of recommendations from a blue-ribbon study committee on K-12 education.

The committee, set to work by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal over the past few months, thinks the state should loosen rules on how public school systems spend state money. State school spending across Georgia is set at roughly $8.5 billion for the fiscal year that started last July. The committee also thinks the state should support county and city school systems that want to pay teachers for performance.

Though neither the governor nor the state Legislature has to follow any of the suggestions, lawmakers tend to think at least some of the suggestions will show up in legislation, possibly broken into several different bills.

Talk of changing teacher pay -- to put more emphasis on student progress and less emphasis on tenure and degrees -- attracted dire predictions from some teachers and teacher groups. They fear it could tempt teachers to teach to the test rather than educate a student broadly.

If the Legislature moves strongly in that direction, lawmakers are sure to attract some angry teachers to the Capitol.

Yet the committee report says Georgia's rigid teacher salary schedule and limited chance for advancement within the classroom make it hard to keep educators on staff. Even so, they were carefully broad in their recommendations.

The report said the state should help with "guidance" for those city and county school systems that want to tinker with pay more than they already do. That guidance could include advice for emphasizing merit pay and de-emphasizing degrees and longevity in the classroom.

State Rep. Robert Dickey, R-Musella, said he has heard school administrators and teachers express concern, but he also said he has yet to see any bill with details.

"I don't think we're fixing to switch all the way to merit-based pay, but it might be something to look at in a specific situation," he said.

The committee also recommended erasing the formula the state now uses to decide funding for local K-12 spending and replace it with a simpler cash allocation for each student. Each school system would get a basic sum per student, plus extra for certain students, such as gifted students, English-language learners and poor students.

"Most of my people are glad that it seems to be putting more responsibility back in the hands of local boards as far as deciding how best to utilize funding that comes down" from Atlanta, said state Rep. Buddy Harden, R-Cordele.

The committee also wants the state to add $258 million to the K-12 budget starting in fiscal 2018. The committee says an additional $209 million should be added as soon as possible thereafter.

Budget critics who say there should be more K-12 spending applaud the idea of adding the cash, but they say it does not make up for years of shortchanging students.

Looking further up the educational ladder, some lawmakers are starting to eye the gap between the amount HOPE scholarships and grants can pay versus the actual bill for college. They're thinking casino taxes might fill that gap nicely.

At a series of summer hearings, lobbyists for casinos and related industries testified about the taxes they could pay and the destinations they could build if that kind of gaming were legal in Georgia.

Savannah Republican state Rep. Ron Stephens is pushing a bill that would allow the state to issue six casino licenses: two for metro Atlanta and the rest spread out across the state.

But his House Bill 677 may have long odds. Deal has said he does not view casinos as positive, and several legislators have said they don't see the bill going very far this year.

And the debate over medical marijuana will enter a new phase in the coming days. State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, will soon file a bill to allow cultivation in Georgia of specially-bred cannabis to make a certain kind of liquid medical marijuana.

Peake is responsible for the 2015 law that allows Georgians on a state medical cannabis registry to legally possess the liquid. But he wants in-state cultivation because there is no way for Georgians to get the liquid without getting it from a marijuana-legal state.

His opponents on the issue, mostly from law enforcement, are not convinced that Georgia should allow such plants or could control them. Deal has taken law enforcement's side and said he's not supporting in-state cultivation.

Aside from the big statewide issues, the Legislature also oversees some of the most local decisions.

Dickey said he wants to ask voters about merging Crawford County and the city of Roberta.

"It will lower taxes in both the city and the county," he said.

There are a lot of steps between now and any referendum. To start with, he said, there will be public meetings on the topic in January that would help shape any merger contract between the city and county. The contract would need to answer questions such as how many county commissioners there would be and how tax rates would be set.

The Legislature would then need to approve a referendum for Crawford County's ballot.

Dickey said the Macon-Bibb merger has saved money, and he thinks consolidation could mean the same for Roberta and Crawford County.

The state Legislature begins meeting Jan. 11.

To contact writer Maggie Lee, e-mail mlee@macon.com.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Public school funding to be a priority for state lawmakers ."