Crossover Day 2009

The Georgia Legislature is in full swing and we have almost reached crossover day! Crossover Day is Day 30 of the session. Legislation that originates in one chamber must make it to the other chamber by Day 30 in order to be considered for passage this session. Day 30 is rapidly approaching-this Thurs. March 12th. So legislation is starting to move very quickly at the Georgia General Assembly this week.

The bill I am watching is HB 278 - this bill would waive media center expenditure controls for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. This means that the money that is designated (from FTE count) to be spent for media materials (books, periodicals, supplies...) would now just go into the general fund and media centers would get whatever was left. This means money will not be spent on books for students. This is a huge issue for the media centers because I believe once the expenditure controls are waived they will be gone forever.

So I have been busy emailing Senators and the Education Committee today. The bill has already passed through the House 147 to 6 and 27 members excused. Also Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's office has stated that he is in favor of the expenditure control legislation and plans to have the Senate act on it quickly. Additionally, he is already proposing that the sunset provision be extended - here we go already! So it does not look very promising that we can stop this, but just have to keep trying!