Committee Reports
House Education Committee
The House Education Committee, chaired by Representative Matt Dubnik (R-Gainesville), met this morning to consider two bills and hear a presentation from State School Superintendent Richard Woods.
HB 32, authored by Representative Dave Belton (R-Buckhead), amends O.C.G.A. 20-2-251 to require the State Board of Education to create a teacher recruitment and retention program by providing a refundable tax credit of $3,000 per qualifying teacher per year, for up to five school years. The department must pick no more than 100 schools from the list of qualifying schools to become a part of the program. The Office of Student Achievement is required to create program objectives and annually measure and evaluate the program. The program is limited to 1,000 teachers statewide. No new applications to the program can be accepted after December 31, 2031. Representative Belton presented the bill to the committee and fielded questions.
House Subcommittees Drop Hints on Amended FY21 Budget
Moving quickly after last week’s budget hearings, the subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee convened in sequence this morning to sign off on their assigned agency budgets. While actual tracking sheets were not released to the public, subcommittee chairs shared some highlights and hints about what we are likely to see in the full Appropriations Committee tomorrow:
Public Safety
The Public Safety Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Representative Bill Hitchens (R-Rincon), reviewed the changes to the Governor s proposed budget for Amended FY21, which include:
Provision of funds for a temporary judge on the Court of Appeals;