** Education Update **

As Day 11 approaches, Tuesday, February 5th, action on the education front has already taken place.

Budget Hearings

The House and Senate Appropriations Education Subcommittees met to review the Amended FY 08 and FY 09 budgets.  Highlights from the joint hearing included a presentation by State Superintendent Kathy Cox.

55.4% of the Governor’s FY 09 budget, or $11.8 billion, has been earmarked for education.

·      The top goals that came out of an education agency heads meeting are to 1) Increase the graduation rate; 2) Decrease the dropout rate; and 3) Increase college/post secondary enrollment.  Thus, money allocated in both the 08 and 09 budgets is geared toward the graduation rate.

·      Three key components are to: 1) Raise expectations of students; 2) Support students and teachers; 3) Give children more options for learning.

·      Funds have been put in place to enhance Georgia’s math programs, much in the same way the DOE and Governor tackled science programs several years ago.

·      $40 million in the amended 08 budget will go straight to school systems for technology improvements.

·      $14.2 million has been added in the 09 budget for the Governor’s VIP – Very Important Parents – Program which, creating parent liaisons for Title I schools and other schools struggling with low attendance.

·      $330,000 in the 09 budget will go toward beginning a “Mentor Teacher Program”, a program the Governor hopes will keep new teachers in the schools; Master Teachers will be used as mentors.

·      There is $12 million in the 09 budget to continue the programs offered by RESAs.

·      $159 million in the 09 budget goes to teacher pay raises – including a 2.5% general increase to be effective January 1, 2009.

·      The Gift Card program will be continued, totaling $11.5 million.  A $100 card will be given to every teacher and media center to be used during the tax free holiday in 2008.

As always with any pending legislation, including the budgets, stay tuned for changes that may occur along the way.  The House and Senate subcommittees have already held separate meetings, and have begun making adjustments to the supplemental 08 budget.  

  

Legislation Assigned to House Education Committee

House Education – Academic Achievement Subcommittee – David Casas (R – Lilburn), Chair

HB 877 – Education Coordinating Council – performance indicator of freshman graduation rate

HB 939 – Georgia’s Pre-K Program – expand to three-year-olds

HB 1014 – Georgia Higher Education Savings Plan

HB 1040 – Juvenile courts; deprived child; permanent guardian

HR 791 – Create House Study Committee on Georgia’s Pre-K Program

House Education – Academic Support Subcommittee – Howard Maxwell (R -Dallas), Chair

HB 871 – QBE – Driver education courses

HB 955 – QBE – Foreign language credits – provide that computer language courses are accepted

HB 962 – Local boards of education; budget deficit; require public notice

HB 994 – Duty-free lunch periods

HB 1031 – Public high school; interscholastic athletics program; at least one defibrilltor

  Charter School Legislation on the Move

House Bill 881 – Georgia Charter Schools Commission

On Thursday, January 31st the House passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Jan Jones (R – Alpharetta), Chair of the House Appropriations Education Subcommittee, that would establish a Georgia Charter Schools Commission.  A House subcommittee met over the summer and fall to hear testimony on this highly controversial bill.  The legislation is now assigned to the Senate Education and Youth Committee, where we expect it will also pass, moving to the Senate floor for a vote later this session.

 More action is sure to happen later this week.  Let us know if you have any questions or if you need further information on other education related issues.  Otherwise, stay tuned… 

Lasa Joiner

Michelle Crider

Touching the Future

I had occasion lately to update my Teaching Philosophy. As I was writing it (or rewriting it, because professors get to do this a lot), it occurred to me once again what a privilege it is to do the job I do. My job, as I try to explain to family members and new acquaintances, is to prepare school librarians for their careers.

This alone is a fine thing. People come to our program at the University of Georgia in search of a new career. From many options, they have chosen to be school librarians. They are smart, and they are highly motivated. In most cases, they express a desire to help young people make the most of their lives and opportunities. Teaching these people is a great privilege and pleasure.

The thing that they may not yet realize is the potential for great impact they will have in the media center. A regular teacher works intensely with perhaps 20-30 children per year in elementary school, up to perhaps 100 per semester in high school. Over a career, teachers have great influence over many young people.

However, a school librarian influences every student in every school. Just by math alone, this amounts to a minimum of hundreds each year – and often thousands, in our larger schools. Over time, the number can become quite staggering.

Of course, the degree of that impact depends upon many different things, but the potential is always great. This is one thing I know for sure: the school librarian at Morgan Elementary School in Bibb County who took me under her wing as a “library helper” when I was in 6th grade is probably the person most responsible for the career I have today. I would not have thought to consider a career in school libraries without her kind example and dynamic way of running a busy library for a large school. (Her name is Mrs. Janet Walton. I loved to read and all things about libraries; she encouraged me. She also treated me kindly when a neighbor’s dog “ate” my library book.)

As school librarians (or media specialists, or whatever we want to call ourselves), you have opportunities every day to make a positive impact on many, many children. Every act of teaching, selection, technology integration, staff development, etc., on and on, has the potential to make that difference. Every time you support a teacher, you are touching each of his/her students. You may not recognize any of your actions as important, but they are. You can never tell when one smile or word of welcome to a certain child might be a turning point on a particular pathway.

There is one more way that you can have great impact. I supervise the internship experiences of all our school librarian candidates. Daily, I am thankful for the many mentors out in the field who make these internships possible. Hosting an intern is a lot of work. When I view the final documentation that students produce of their experiences, I often marvel at the effort spent by mentors to explain what they’re doing and to offer feedback and encouragement, and to tolerate the disruption inevitably caused by a well-meaning extra adult. Working with these future school librarians, however, allows each mentor to touch the lives (in advance) of all the students who will be touched by that student librarian.

As February gets off the ground, we are in the depths of winter and it seems like summer vacation will never arrive. It’s easy to think that what you do is unappreciated and unnoticed. But your work does matter, and occasionally someone will say “thank you.” I say “thank you” to the mentors out there, and to all of you, for your excellent work for the children of Georgia.

Mary Ann Fitzgerald

University of Georgia