Slim Margin in Georgia House for Charter Schools Amendment
Mike Klein
Georgia voters – the people whose tax dollars pay the bills at every public school system statewide – are one step closer toward being allowed to decide whether the state should have the authority to create and fund charter schools over the opposition of local school boards.
Wednesday afternoon the state House approved HR 1162 by a slim 123 – 48 margin. That is three votes more than the measure needed for two-thirds super majority passage and 13 more than a different version received during the House floor vote two weeks ago. The bill moves to the Senate where an education committee hearing is scheduled for 1:00pm Thursday.
“There have been a lot of people working hard and their efforts paid off,” said Tony Roberts, CEO at the Georgia Charter Schools Association. “This is certainly just the first battle in the war for our children to have options and choices in education which they so desperately need.”
The debate has pitted school choice advocates against a Georgia Supreme Court opinion last May that overturned the state charter schools commission. It polarized political parties with Republicans almost unanimously in support of state alternate authorization and Democrats almost unanimously in support of exclusive local school board authorization of new charters.
The test vote two weeks ago defined what HR 1162 would need to achieve two-thirds House passage. Critics demanded a much more specific definition of charter schools. That definition is now in the bill; state charter schools have been defined as public schools that are not private sectarian, religious or for-profit schools or private educational institutions.
Representatives who opposed the resolution two weeks ago also wanted assurance that local education dollars would not be used to fund state charter schools. “They will be funded only with state monies,” Speaker Pro Tem and HR 1162 sponsor Jan Jones said Wednesday.
Floor debate was scheduled for 90 minutes but lasted less than an hour. Six Democrats – three in support and three still opposed — and House Majority Whip Larry O’Neal all spoke at length about whether local school boards control public education – as the Supreme Court opinion stated last May – or whether the schools are a partnership between the state and local boards.
O’Neal said, “This is bigger than charter schools. Make no mistake; when courts invent their own words like exclusive and sole they are indeed making law. I urge you to vote yes and move this measure across the hall and one step closer to the people to let them make the decision.”
Democrat Kathy Ashe voted no two weeks ago. Over the past two weeks she spoke strongly about revisions. Her floor remarks Wednesday were forceful. “Sausage making is not always pretty but I come to the well today to say this process has worked,” Ashe said.
“I hope we talk long and hard about how charter schools are just a tiny portion of the public school system,” Ashe said. “Yes, charter schools are public schools. I hope we talk long and hard about what’s on the ballot because I want folks in Georgia to know there are going to be two ways to charter schools.
“The way it’s going to happen most frequently is with a local board saying, yes, let’s enter into a contract but in the rare occasion that there is a subject area, if there is a geographic reason to bring different school systems together to create a very special charter school, it may be that a secondary authorizer is the way to go.
“I comfortably ask you to vote for this version of 1162,” Ashe said. “Sometimes this process is ugly. Sometimes we get all fired up and say things we don’t really mean but in the long run, this process is the best way we know how to make law and 1162 is a good example of coming together for the students of Georgia.”
Her fellow Democrat Rashad Taylor was unconvinced: “This bill is about giving a new authority a new power to create schools in communities that have otherwise rejected those applications,” Taylor said. “There is nothing in this resolution, nothing that guarantees that public school funding will not decrease because of charter schools. Mr. Speaker, 1162 is a one-size fits all strategy that really doesn’t fit anything in Georgia.”
Democrat Scott Holcomb – like Ashe — voted against the resolution two weeks ago. Holcomb co-authored a Democratic alternative that incorporated the public charter schools definition and state dollars only guarantees. Wednesday he spoke in favor of the revised resolution.
“I understand many will vote against this on principle. I very much respect that,” Holcomb said. “As the parent of a public school student I want to make sure the public schools are not harmed or defunded because of this resolution. I feel comfortable that will not occur.
“It is right to want to keep control of local schools in the hands of locally elected school boards. Historically that has been our practice in Georgia,” Holcomb added. “But it is also right to want energized and motivated people to get involved in making our schools much more than satisfying the constitutional standard of an adequate public education.”
Supporters were thrilled but cautious afterward. “Now on to the Senate,” said Virginia Galloway, state director for the Americans for Prosperity Georgia chapter which supported HR 1162 passage. “We really appreciate the bipartisan support that it took to get this bill passed.”
The Georgia School Boards Association, Georgia School Superintendents Association, and the Georgia PTA oppose the charter schools constitutional amendment. Roberts at the Charter Schools Association said the Senate Democratic caucus opposes the amendment. Two-thirds approval by the full Senate would put the constitutional amendment onto the November ballot.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Long Awaited Criminal Justice Reform Bill Expected This Week
Mike Klein
Georgia’s criminal justice reform initiative has flown stealth-like under the radar since November when a special council delivered its report. That will change soon, perhaps this week, with the introduction of legislation that will propose the greatest change since get tough policies enacted in the 1980’s and 90’s caused the Georgia prison population to swell beyond its walls.
What you should expect from legislation – we are hearing it could be almost 100 pages long – was the focus of an American Legislative Exchange Council criminal justice reform panel held last week in Atlanta. “Eighty million dollars to build one prison in Georgia – that is the cost of bricks and mortar, not the cost of staffing,” said Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs.
“This may have come about as the result of a fiscal crisis in this nation and in this state. Maybe that’s why we got where we got, because we recognize we don’t have the money,” said Boggs, who serves on the state special council. “But at the end of the day, these are laudable goals.”
The goals to which Boggs referred are primarily these: Slow down exponential growth in the state prison population, treat rather than incarcerate people who have addiction issues but not criminal issues, do both in such a way that public safety is not threatened, reinvest dollars that are currently going into prisons into treatment programs, and then continually re-evaluate it.
(Click here to review the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform report.)
Criminal justice system reform has become one of the better examples of national political bi-partisanship as states realize budgets can no longer accommodate ever expanding corrections costs. Georgia’s annual expense has swollen from $500 million per year to $1.1 billion in 20 years. Almost 20 states have enacted or are currently considering substantial reforms.
ALEC, the Pew Center on the States, the National Conference of State Legislatures and other public policy organizations are all focused intently on criminal justice. Last week the Georgia Public Policy Foundation published a state-focused issues analysis that is available online.
Criminal justice reform has its own rock stars – Texas Republican state Rep. Jerry Madden and his Democratic counterpart Sen. John Whitmire. Starting five years ago they put conventional partisan politics aside to craft a new corrections model that enabled Texas to slow down prison population growth and reduce anticipated state outlays by hundreds of millions of dollars.
ALEC brought Madden to Atlanta – one of several visits he has made since last year to confer with state legislators, the judicial branch and others who are designing Georgia justice reform.
“How many of you would rather spend money on things like schools and highways or tax reduction or something other than spending it on building prisons?” Madden said. “It is easier for a Red State to do this than a Blue State. It’s easier because nobody thinks Georgia is soft on crime. I don’t believe it and nationally nobody is going to believe it.” (Madden discussed criminal justice reform at the 2010 Public Policy Foundation legislative briefing conference.)
Georgia’s prison population – less than 30,000 twenty years ago – is anticipated to reach at least 60,000 within five years if nothing about the state criminal justice system changes. Prison system expense is the second fastest growing segment of the state budget behind Medicaid. “This is sucking up a lot of our money,” state Sen. Bill Cowsert told the ALEC gathering.
Two popular get-tough ideas are being challenged; A) Do the time, do the crime, and; B) Lock them up, throw away the key. That is because another idea – you can rehabilitate almost anyone by having them do time – has proven wrong. “They don’t learn their lesson,” Cowsert said. “It is not working to just lock them up and throw away the key for a certain length of time.”
Georgia has a 30 percent recidivism rate – almost one-third of released inmates return to prison within three years of their release date. Or to consider that from another angle, our $1.1 billion annual corrections investment has a 30 percent failure rate. Recidivism rates are lower – between 7 and 13 percent – when approved offenders participate in accountability courts that are most often used with personal drug use offenders who are not considered a threat.
“We all know you don’t throw water on a grease fire,” Rep Jay Neal told the ALEC audience. “Now we know you don’t throw the addict into prison and think you’re going to correct behavior.” Mandatory treatment combined with very strict – sometimes electronic — monitoring and drug testing are possible options with incarceration still on the table for noncompliant offenders.
Georgia currently has just 33 accountability courts; one reason is because public and private sector treatment options are insufficient. “You can’t have a felony post-adjudication drug court without having treatment options,” said Judge Boggs. “In rural Georgia, that’s hard to come by.”
The state also has just 13 day reporting centers capable of serving about 200 people each.
Governor Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reform cards are on the table in his proposed budget: $35.2 million for additional prison beds, $10 million for accountability courts expansion, $5.7 million to convert three pre-release centers to residential substance abuse treatment centers and $1.4 million to fund additional parole officers.
Much greater use of parole is another idea whose time might have come. Georgia has 22,000 on parole, dramatically fewer than its 156,000 on probation population. Mandatory sentences that must be fully served are the reason for the disparity. But in the wake of do the crime, do the time sentencing inmates have been routinely released without post-prison support.
“We lock them up with criminals and when they get out five years later they’re still addicted, except now they have a felony on their record which makes it more difficult for them,” Neal said, “and they spend the last five years in graduate school learning how to be a true criminal, and they weren’t a criminal when we sent them there. Then we wonder why the recidivism rate continues to be a problem.”
Neal said slightly reducing some prison sentences and combining that with mandatory parole would be preferable to simply releasing inmates into the community “with no guidance, no direction, no accountability, no supervision, you’re just turned loose.”
The special council on criminal justice reform worked for six months. “Criminal justice reform is not a one-time fix in this session of the General Assembly,” Judge Boggs acknowledged. “It is an ongoing process.” In fact, Governor Deal kept the council intact for further unspecified work ahead.
“It’s probably not going to be a package where everybody is going to say I like everything in here,” state Rep. Neal said. “We have to be careful that we don’t let individuals who don’t like one piece convince us that because of that one piece it’s not a good package.”
“The last thing we want to do is be light or easy on crime,” state Sen. Cowsert said. “We have to keep public safety as our top priority. We want to lower the crime rate in the process and we want to do this in a fiscally responsible manner.”
(Mike Klein will moderate a criminal justice reform conversation on Saturday, February 25 at the Georgia Bar Media and Judiciary Conference in Atlanta. Panelists include state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, state Rep. Wendell Willard and Douglas County District Attorney David McDade.)
Pig and Horse Strategy Might Boost Charter Schools Amendment
Mike Klein
Promising that Georgia would never knowingly turn a pig into a horse, House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey suggested Thursday that two changes to a charter schools constitutional amendment resolution might help secure bipartisan support. HR 1162 requires a two-thirds majority vote in the House, and then it would be sent to the Senate.
At issue is whether voters in November will be asked to decide whether the state shall become an alternate authorizer for charter schools after they are initially turned down by a local board of education, and, how to fund those new schools.
During remarks that lasted just a few minutes, Lindsey told a House education hearing that the state’s official definition of a charter school would be placed into HR 1162 – something the resolution currently lacks — which became a priority for critics who contend it could give the state too much power to authorize new charter schools and fund them with local dollars.
“No one has to worry that someone is going to later come around and try to turn a pig into a horse,” Lindsey said, “call something that clearly shouldn’t be a charter school, a charter school. We thought it was important to allay concerns like that.” House education chair Rep. Brooks Coleman asked Lindsey for brief remarks after a day of conjecture about possible compromise.
Lindsey said another change would “make sure folks are reassured that local dollars will not either directly or indirectly be used to support a school that is chartered by the state of Georgia.”
Lindsey said legislators “from both sides of the aisle” helped to craft language “so that local systems can be reassured, if the state should elect to charter a school, those funds will be from the state of Georgia and will not either directly or indirectly be pulled from local school systems.” There was no discussion about where Georgia would find those state funds.
Conjecture about HR 1162 revisions has circulated since last week when the legislation lost a House floor vote 110 – 62, needing 120 votes for a two-thirds super majority to pass. The vote was largely along party lines with heavy Republican support and heavy Democratic opposition.
Democrats offered their own constitutional amendment resolution – HR 1335 – which had a fairly timid public hearing on Wednesday afternoon. Democratic Rep. Scott Holcomb testified that he voted against HR 1162 last week because, “What we advocate is that if the state wants to have state charter schools, we think that’s great, but they should fund them.” Holcomb was a principle behind HR 1335 and he was seated in the committee room Thursday when Lindsey discussed compromise.
Holcomb released this statement on Friday morning: “Democrats are proud to enforce limits on the state with regard to charter schools. The original legislation gave the state unrestrained powers. This puts sensible restrictions on how we operate. We also unequivocally require that if the state wants to create charter schools – they must pay for them. Under the changes, no local funding can be reduced.”
Sources familiar with the plan say a new version of HR 1162 is now expected on the House floor next week. “Someone asked me when we should expect to bring the bill to the floor,” Lindsey said on Thursday. “The simple answer is, we’ll bring it to the floor when we are comfortable that we have the language right and that we have the 120 plus votes.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
New Possible Strategy for Georgia Health Insurance Reform
Mike Klein
A behind-the-scenes coalition that believes the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the federal health care reform law is working on a new health insurance strategy for Georgia.
Almost certainly, this summer’s biggest headline will be the Supreme Court decision to uphold or overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which President Barack Obama’s administration counts as one of its finest achievements. Two federal appellate courts upheld the law and one rejected it. Supreme Court arguments are scheduled for the final week of March.
Federal law trumps state law, so nothing in the evolving state strategy could be implemented in Georgia if the Supreme Court upholds the federal health care reform law. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has hosted meetings of interested parties working on state health insurance reform options, but the Foundation has not assisted with drafting legislation nor has it taken a position on possible legislation.
A staggering 1.8 million Georgians have no health insurance. They are not in group plans. They do not have individual plans. One-in-five men, women and children living in Georgia have no health insurance.
Coalition principles include restructuring the private market to increase competition and improve portability, protection against loss of coverage, and improved affordability for people and small businesses. A core strategy is the expansion of defined contribution plans administered by employers.
Employers who cannot afford to offer health insurance will be able to make a defined contribution to a tax-free Health Reimbursement Account or HRA. Employees may use these pre-tax dollars to pay insurance premiums. Pre-tax dollars in health savings accounts, another type of tax free account, could be used for deductible co-pay charges and a wide variety of wellness programs.
Consumers who do not have access to employer health plans would be allowed to deduct 100 percent of health insurance premium expense from their state income tax. Current law does not allow for that deduction. In addition, the proposal would allow small businesses to take advantage of “list billing” that would allow employees to pay for their individual health policy premiums with pre-tax dollars.
All of these efforts address the tax inequity of the current system that critics contend needlessly places the cost of health insurance beyond the reach of many families.
Small firm employers often find it almost impossible to offer comprehensive major medical insurance benefits. The strategy proposes several ideas. Companies with 10 or fewer employees could receive state tax credits for each employee who is enrolled 12 consecutive months in a major medical program. Credits would be available for three years. The entire program would end after ten years.
The strategy includes a focus on keeping currently insured Georgians insured. Small businesses and their employees would have the same access and protections available to large firms and their employees. People who lose jobs after age 55 would have better access to COBRA extended coverage. They could purchase extended coverage until Medicare eligibility at age 65.
Another idea addresses health insurance access for employees who leave small firms. Currently small firm employees are eligible for just three months while large firm employees can extend and pay for insurance coverage for 18 months. The proposal would equalize both groups at 18 months.
Another effort would focus on providing access to primary care for the uninsured. A new “Georgia Charity Care Network Tax Credit” would be similar to the existing private school tax credit. The credit could be taken by an individual or corporation that makes a cash contribution to an approved charity health care network. There would be maximum annual contribution levels and the program would be capped at $2 million maximum per year for three years.
Federal health care reform requires that Georgia must create an insurance marketplace or the federal government will impose one in 2014. A state health insurance advisory committee report published in December said the state should opt for its own program, but it stopped short of saying the General Assembly should begin to plan for that program now. Georgia is waiting on the Supreme Court ruling.
The coalition believes a private, free market health exchange would provide all the benefits of a government-run model, but without the drawbacks. Georgia, which leads the nation in health information technology, is home to several companies already providing similar services.
A regional health insurance idea would enable Georgia to partner with four or more states to create a large private marketplace. Major medical and group insurance carriers whose policies are approved in any member state would be able to offer those policies in other member states. Georgia’s insurance commissioner would be authorized to explore major medical partnerships with other states. Any plan approved by a partner state would be available to consumers in the other partner states.
One feature of federal health care reform enables children to remain on their parents’ health insurance policies until age 26. The Georgia twist would revise that to “tax dependent” children. The distinction is that insurance eligible young adults must be dependents, not just grown children who have begun their independent lives, except where they are riding on parents’ health insurance policies.
Several other strategies are being considered. One would create a high risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions, which would help stabilize the individual and small group market. Pre-existing conditions restrictions would be standardized to not more than 12 months in group and individual plans. Expanded physician choice options would benefit health care consumers.
Overall, the emerging Georgia health insurance strategy is not an attempt at medical care reform – who gets medical treatment, how much they get and who decides their treatment. All of the ideas currently being discussed pertain only to insurance factors. By one estimate, it might be possible to reduce the number of uninsured, non-Medicaid eligible Georgians from 1.8 million to 600,000.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Full Court Press Behind the Savannah River Expansion Project
Mike Klein
Here’s something you might not know about the Savannah River and Harbor expansion project. Georgia sturgeon living about 130 miles up the river would get a new bypass to their spawning grounds. In fact, $225 million or about one-third of total cost has been allocated to environmental mitigation, including the purchase and permanent preservation of some 2,000 shoreline acres.
Dredging the Savannah River and harbor to 48 feet from its current 42-foot depth might be Georgia’s most significant economic development project since Atlanta was rebuilt after the Civil War or, perhaps more realistically, the development of Atlanta’s international airport. It is almost impossible to overstate the critical nature of this $625 million venture. With an improved river and harbor, Georgia remains on the world stage. Without it, well, you really don’t want to think about that.
There was a full court press behind SHEP – the Savannah River and Harbor Expansion project – on Wednesday at the fourth annual Georgia Logistics Summit in Atlanta. Governor Nathan Deal told 1,500 conference guests that federal decisions are close-at-hand, probably this summer. “We are doing everything in our power to move that project forward,” Deal said during his summit opening address.
Savannah is the world’s shallowest major port. It is unable to accommodate larger international tankers that will begin to transit the Panama Canal in 2014. “Deeper than you are today is important,” morning keynote speaker Curtis Spencer told reporters during an informal roundtable. Spencer is President and CEO of IMS Worldwide, Texas-based consultants in worldwide shipping logistics.
Georgia Ports Authority Terminal in Savannah
Despite Savannah’s current depth – again, shallowest major port in the world – it is wildly successful. Industry data shows the Savannah Garden City Terminal is the fourth busiest and fastest growing port in the nation during the past decade. Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York – New Jersey are the busiest ports. The Charleston, South Carolina port was tenth busiest during between 2005 and 2011.
Larger ships will dwarf today’s supertankers that currently travel up the Savannah River. They will be longer, taller and their width will nearly double. “Ships aren’t going to change to accommodate us,” Georgia Ports Authority executive director Curtis Foltz said during his luncheon keynote address. “That’s why it’s so important that we get this project done as quickly as possible.”
Seventy percent of the U.S. population lives in the eastern one-third of the country with 44 percent living in the Southeast. “That’s our back yard, “Foltz said. “That’s what our ports are built to service.” Some 62 percent of all import and export trade from Savannah is with Asia.
Congress approved a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers harbor deepening study way back in 1999. It took ten years to complete the study and now another two years for other federal officials to analyze the findings. Contrast that with Panama which started the Canal expansion project in 2006 and will complete all work before 2014. Georgia hopes the federal approval and funding process would enable work to begin next year.
The federal government and Georgia would share Savannah improvement costs in a 60 – 40 split. Georgia previously committed $134 million and Governor Deal included $47 million in new bonds in his next budget. The project includes $400 million to dredge and $225 million for environmental mitigation. The entire cost was estimated at about $250 million when this conversation began back in 1999.
Governor Deal said some 21,000 U.S. businesses ship through Savannah each year and three-fourths of those businesses are headquartered outside Georgia. The Governor said a deeper Savannah River and Harbor could save businesses up to $100 million per year over other their next best trade route options.
Georgia’s fourth annual logistics summit attracted 1,500 guests from 28 states and seven countries to the World Congress Center in Atlanta. The summit is tag-teaming this year with MODEX, the gigantic logistics industry trade show that opened Monday. Governor Deal announced that the state’s new comprehensive freight plan is complete and will be released later this month.
Deal also lobbied for passage of this summer’s TSPLOST vote that could unleash billions of dollars for local transportation projects, including some that would affect freight logistics. Voters in twelve regions statewide will vote thumbs up or down in July. The state business sector is solidly behind the TSPLOST and it is prepared to spend millions of dollars advocating passage.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
More Robust Rail Strategy Anticipated in State Freight Plan
Mike Klein
Georgia has many transportation challenges but with an eye on simplicity, you can group them into about two categories: moving people through congested urban areas and moving freight everywhere. The idea is you want to minimize how often people and freight compete in the same space.
Governor Nathan Deal is expected to discuss state freight transportation strategy during his keynote address Wednesday morning at the fourth annual Georgia Logistics Summit in Atlanta. The strategy with all its detail is targeted for release at this month’s Department of Transportation board meeting.
Georgia transportation assets include the Brunswick and Savannah ports, thousands of rail miles, the Atlanta international airport and interstate highways that bisect nearly every section of the state.
Transportation challenges include better access for moving freight at those ports, better use of those rail lines, ensuring that air cargo can move easily around airports and – here’s the big one – bypassing Atlanta when trucks carrying freight do not need to be in conflict with metropolitan commuters.
One long haul freight strategy is a western bypass along state Route 27 that would create a loop from near Macon to Chattanooga. The bypass would alleviate congestion caused by long haul truckers who use Interstates 75, 85 and 285 for north – south transit. Another strategy is the Fall Line Freeway option that could create a middle Georgia freight hub between Columbus, Macon and Augusta.
Page Siplon, Executive Director, Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics
“Logistics impacts more than just trucking and rail,” said Page Siplon, executive director at the Center of Innovation for Logistics. “It impacts us as individuals. I joke when I do presentations, who here in the room is involved in logistics and a few people raise their hands. Then I say who here has ever bought anything? Then I say the folks who raised their hands the second time are more important than the folks who raised their hands the first time.”
Siplon said freight strategy proposals will include a more robust reliance on rail than seen in earlier state plans. “We know there’s no silver bullet, but if we’re going to move cargo efficiently, railroads become increasingly important,” Siplon said. “The plan reflects that.” He described the next plan as “all very big number items, billions and billions of dollars that need to be invested. This is not a one year strategy. This is a looking out to the year 2050 kind of thing.”
Georgia’s fourth Logistics Summit will draw 1,600 attendees from 28 states and seven countries. About 400 primarily Georgia based attendees were at the first summit three years ago. The event moved from Atlantic Station to the Cobb Galleria Centre when attendance jumped to 800 in 2010. It was back in Cobb last spring when 1,200 attended. Now it has moved to the World Congress Center. Sold out with 1,600 registered, there also is a 200-person waiting list.
“State agencies don’t generally have conferences that draw people from all over the world,” said Siplon, “We talk about that a lot.” The Center is attached to the state Department of Economic Development. Its primary office is on the Georgia Tech campus in Savannah. MODEX 2012 – a giant supply chain solutions conference – is also being held at the World Congress Center this week.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Hundreds in Georgia Prisons Remain Locked Up After Earning Parole
Mike Klein
Georgia penitentiaries continue to feed, clothe and pay medical expenses for hundreds of inmates who were approved for parole but cannot be released because they have nowhere to live. About two-thirds are convicted sex offenders. About one-third require mental illness treatment but otherwise they are not considered a threat to public safety.
“We have got to do something about the housing situation, about the need for these individuals to have stable housing in order to be able to assimilate back into communities,” state Rep. Jay Neal said during a hearing that he chaired this week. Testimony was heard from officials at state pardons and parole and community affairs, the Clayton County sheriff’s office and Support Housing Atlanta.
Having nowhere to go means inmates approved for parole have no family able or willing to take them, and no publicly supported housing facility willing to accept them. One of the challenges associated with Georgia corrections reform is, where will released inmates go when they leave prisons?
The 2011 state special council on criminal justice reform delivered its report before Thanksgiving. The emphasis was on establishing alternatives to incarceration to reduce budget devouring prison system costs. The new Legislature has been in town nearly a month. The committee that will turn the special council recommendations into a bill is currently drafting the legislation.
Governor Nathan Deal
Governor Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reform cards are on the table: $35.2 million for additional prison beds, $10 million for accountability courts expansion, $5.7 million to convert three pre-release centers to residential substance abuse treatment centers and $1.4 million to fund additional parole officers. Those priorities were named in his State of the State address and also in his proposed FY 2013 budget.
Moving away from a strategy that emphasized incarceration to one focused on alternative treatment for non-violent persons who do not pose any public safety threat means the state criminal justice system must change the tools it needs. Beds would be reserved for bad guys. Other people who need treatment more than incarceration would be placed into community settings
This week a House committee met for 90 minutes to discuss the lack of available housing statewide for paroled inmates. State parole director Michael Nail told the committee Georgia currently has 367 former sex offenders and 147 people with treatable mental illness needs who are still locked up even though they served all required time and were approved for release from the prison system.
How long might they stay locked up? Most inmates are freed within 30-to-45 days after the parole board grants release. That is not the case for hard-to-release inmates. Nail said, “We’ve had inmates (who) have been there two years beyond their parole date simply because they have nowhere to go.”
Patients who require mental health treatment are a special challenge. The systemic approach to help them is a larger question than the impact it has on criminal justice reform. Georgia and the federal government entered into an October, 2010 consent decree that requires the state to transfer mental illness patients out of hospitals and into community settings. The state must be able to serve 9,000 persons on a strict timetable that concludes not later than July 1, 2015.
Paul Bolster is director of Support Housing Atlanta. Support Housing conducted a survey of mental health patients being held in several metropolitan area county jails. Bolster said inmates were asked where they would live if they were released. Twenty percent said they would be immediately homeless and 12 percent more said they did not know.
State Parole Director Michael Nail
“Thirty-five hundred people with serious mental illness will be discharged from metro jails within a year’s time to, probably, homelessness,” Bolster told the House committee. “This explains why you have recidivism.” The survey was conducted in Cobb, Gwinnett and DeKalb county jails, and statistics were incorporated from Fulton County.
Clayton is Georgia’s third smallest county by land mass, but it has the state’s fifth largest county population. Last year the county processed 26,000 prisoners. Those inmates consume between $7-to-$8 million annually in medicine and other health care expenses. About 900 of the jail’s 1,700 capacity prisoners require mental health services and between 300-to-400 require intensive mental health treatment. Sheriff Kem Kimbrough said those services could be provided at less expense outside a jail setting.
Kimbrough’s varied assignments have included work on the implementation of mental health community service boards and he holds an Emory University law degree. “We’re spending god awful amounts of money to keep them behind bars when the reality is we could probably spend less to support them in treatment, support them in housing, get them back out into the community and maybe even rehabilitate them into quality citizens,” said Kimbrough.
Governor Deal and the special council on criminal justice reform advocated expansion of accountability courts, including drug courts, that substitute strict monitoring and treatment programs for incarceration when the offender is not a public safety threat. The Clayton drug court program has 30 participants.
“We could have up to 300 folks that would meet drug court parameters but for one component, one very key factor, that they have stable residential housing outside the jail,” Kimbrough said. “That is the number one thing that gets them knocked out. If they don’t have a place to stay that is stable then they are not eligible for the drug court program.”
Clayton County Sheriff Kem Kimbrough
Pardons and parole, in partnership with corrections and community affairs, operates a program known by its acronym RPH – Residential Problem Housing. RPH residence slots – don’t call them homes, folks do not get their own home – are available to paroled offenders who have mental health treatment or substance abuse backgrounds, but slots are not available to convicted sex offenders.
RPH began to place former offenders in 2006. It uses primarily federal funds to pay $600 per month for room-and-board for three months to help paroled offenders return to the community. Almost 600 people have been placed in RPH housing at a total cost of $874,000. “That’s a lot of money but if this program did not exist and these inmates stayed incarcerated, it would have cost $5.3 million for that time frame,” parole director Nail said. Currently the state has 44 licensed RHP facilities.
Successful re-entry into the community reduces recidivism, the rate at which prisoners return to jail. Having somewhere to live is considered essential for transition to have a chance.
“We can get you clean, sober, on your meds and everything else, and then we send you back to the house where there is no order, all the people around you are engaged in drug activity, no one is checking on you to make sure are taking your meds,” said Clayton Sheriff Kimbrough. “All of those things are going to put that person right back into the mix. They are coming back to the county jail.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Will Parents or Politicians Decide Georgia Charter Schools Future?
Mike Klein
Last week’s State Capitol hearing about whether voters should be allowed to decide school choice in Georgia had nearly concluded when this final question was posed: In the event that no constitutional amendment is passed, and no other action is taken by the General Assembly, would the state be unable to intervene in any local school board decisions that are deemed to be harmful to children?
The answer in a moment, but first here is some perspective. Georgia thought it decided one aspect of school choice four years ago when the General Assembly created a charter schools commission, but last spring the state Supreme Court ruled the commission unconstitutional in a 4-to-3 opinion. That vote has placed literally thousands of students in jeopardy; they could lose their charter schools.
Georgia Cyber Academy is the state’s largest blended learning charter; it has 10,000 students who live in all but two of the state’s 159 counties. In theory, Georgia Cyber could be forced to apply for individual charters from every county. Currently, the Cyber Academy is operating as a state special school.
Ivy Preparatory Academy recently had its 2012 charter request rejected by the Gwinnett County local board. The Fulton County local school board rejected Fulton Science Academy, which received a 2011 National Blue Ribbon School Award from the U.S. Department of Department of Education. Ivy Prep and Fulton Science would need state special school charters to open again next fall.
House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones
House Resolution 1162 seeks to reinstate the state’s ability to authorize charter schools, and it would also create a vehicle to direct state funds to support those students. The chief sponsor for HR 1162 is House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, who also was chief sponsor of the charter school bill four years ago.
Last Thursday Jones told a near overflow committee hearing room that the state has 29,000 students in startup charter schools, a pittance among the 1.6 million total public school pupils statewide. “To say we want that kind of framework is simply not to be in support of charter schools,” Jones said. Click here to view the House TV video archive.
The proposed constitutional amendment has adamant supporters and opponents. Supporters must gain two-thirds approval in both the Senate and House to get the amendment onto the November ballot. Opponents can prevail if HR 1162 comes up just one vote shy in the Senate or House, meaning voters would not get to decide this school choice question in Georgia.
As to the question that began this discussion – what might happen if no action is taken – here was the powerful response from House Majority Whip Ed Lindsey who also is a co-sponsor of HR 1162:
“Quite frankly, we worked very hard with a lot of legal scholars who said (charter schools commission legislation) was constitutional. Three justices agreed with us and one of them wrote a damn fine 75-page minority decision that I ask all of you to read,” Lindsey said.
“The fact of the matter is, what’s contained in that decision needs to make anyone who is concerned about any of the state reform packages that we’ve passed, or any of these state initiatives that we have, including teacher pay scales and everything else, it better give you pause because the language is expansive. The language does say that basically our job is to write a check and shut up, and I’m not even sure that we should be writing a check.
“You may have some very distinguished attorneys out there who say, oh, it’s not that broad, it only applies narrowly. Well, folks, I’m here to tell you, we had an awful lot of good legal scholars who told us four years ago that HB 881 was perfectly constitutional.
House Majority Whip Ed Lindsey
“The best way not to have to deal with that issue is to pass this constitutional amendment. I’ve had some folks tell me, well, let’s just pass legislation and try to fix what the Supreme Court says. Well, here’s the problem. You’re going to end up with three more years of litigation before the case gets back to the Supreme Court and then we find out again,” Lindsey said.
“And in that meantime, we’re going to spend three years with different organizations around the state, different parents around the state not certain whether the charter school they are sending their children to is constitutional in terms of the funding as opposed to clearing that up right now.
“I’ve been a litigator for 27 years. This is a piece of advice I give to all my clients. The best lawsuit is one that we don’t have to file because we come up with some a resolution to avoid a case. You’re only in court because you have no other alternative,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey held up the HR 1162 resolution. “This or some version that we come up with because we work our way through it together, is the alternative to paying a lot of lawyers on both sides a lot of money and leaving children and their parents uncertain for three years. To do the alternative is, my opinion, irresponsible.”
Organizations that testified in favor of HR 1162 include the Council for an Educated Georgia, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, 100 Dads, Georgia Charter Schools Association, and the Georgia chapter of the Students First organization. Organizations that opposed the bill include the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, Georgia School Boards Association, Georgia School Superintendents Association, and the Georgia Education Coalition.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Tax Foundation: Georgia 34th for Best Business Tax Climate
Mike Klein
This morning the conservative Tax Foundation released its comprehensive analysis of state tax structure policies that impact business growth. The message for Georgia: We Can Do Better. Georgia is ranked No. 34 nationally, unchanged from one year ago. Georgia lawmakers continue to struggle with how to enact comprehensive revenue neutral tax reform.
The Tax Foundation annual report compares states against each other in five tax categories: corporate, personal income, sales, unemployment insurance and personal property. Georgia collects all five; some states do not. With no personal income tax, Florida ranked fifth nationally. Three states have no personal or corporate income taxes. Some states impose no sales tax.
The Tax Foundation wrote, “The lesson is simple: a state that raises sufficient revenue without one of the major taxes will, all things being equal, have an advantage over those states that levy every tax in the state tax collector’s arsenal.” The Foundation ranked Georgia ninth best for corporate income tax, 12th for general sales tax, 22nd for unemployment insurance tax paid by employers, 39th for personal property tax and 40th for individual income tax.
The Tax Foundation said ten southern states rank ahead of Georgia: Florida (5), Texas (9), Tennessee (14), Missouri (15), Mississippi (17), Alabama (20), Kentucky (22), West Virginia (23), Virginia (26) and Louisiana (32). (By virtual of editorial discretion Missouri is included here because next year it plays Big Boy Football in the Southeastern Conference.) Only South Carolina (36) and North Carolina (44) finished lower than Georgia among southern states.
It would be somewhat surprising if the General Assembly does not agree this year to eliminate the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing. All the momentum is in that direction. Governor Nathan Deal made it a priority. He also wants sales and use tax exemptions for construction materials used in what the Governor has described as “projects of regional significance.”
Much less clear is whether the Georgia Legislature can agree on changes to general sales and personal income taxes, which likely would be tied in a revenue neutral conversation. The state unemployment taxes structure is perhaps the thorniest briar in the patch.
Georgia has borrowed $721 million from Washington since December 2009 to help pay monthly unemployment benefits. Some perspective on that number; Georgia’s emergency fund is $328 million, less than half the amount owed to the federal government. This year Georgia will also make a $33 million interest payment that will not reduce the principal amount.
Unemployment insurance benefits are funded by taxes on employers. States set tax rates and they determine the maximum taxable wage base. Georgia’s maximum tax rate is tied for lowest in the country and the wage base is almost lowest in the country. More taxes paid by Georgia businesses and reduced unemployment benefits are both possible this year.
The Tax Foundation said last year the index was downloaded 487,000 times, cited in hundreds of news reports and mentioned by four governors in their State of the State addresses. Here is a link to the 2012 Tax Foundation business tax climate index report.
Georgia Tech: “This Time We Are In the Room”
Michael Meyer, Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Tech’s Michael Meyer was understandably still pretty excited when we spoke this week while he attends a conference in Washington, D.C. Meyer will coordinate the Georgia – Florida – Alabama, ten-university national transportation research center housed at Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“I’ve been at Georgia Tech for 23 years. When we won the (regional) transportation center four years ago, that was a foot in the door to let folks know we really are good at what we do,” Meyer said. “This time we are in the room. I’m at this conference and everyone up here is basically saying, Georgia Tech was the big winner.”
The $7 million public-private partnership brings together seven Georgia universities plus two from Florida and one from Alabama. The project focus will be on transportation infrastructure, safety and economic development from more than just a local perspective. That means best business practices to reduce fatalities, how to evaluate infrastructure priorities and much more.
Meyer posed his own questions: “How do we define success. Is it the amount of vehicles or people who can be handled? Is it the level of satisfaction or the level of dissatisfaction? What we have to offer is a national and international perspective on what has worked or not worked elsewhere.” Atlanta HOT lanes – subject of recent debate – will be on the table for review.
Meyer said the immediate challenge will be coordinating researchers from the ten universities and designing their unique projects. He noted Georgia State has an expertise in finance while the two Florida schools – Central Florida and Florida International – are noted for research into how people respond when they use driving simulators. The project is funded for two years with half from a federal grant and half in matching funds. The Woodruff Foundation stepped up with $300,000. “Woodruff was a fantastic shot in the arm,” Meyer said.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
HOPE Should Not Become Just Another Government Spending Program
Mike Klein
HOPE, Again: About those reports that the HOPE scholarship could face a new economic tsunami because so many Georgia kids are qualifying for the full tuition Zell Miller Scholarship: Really? Are these kids nothing like the 50 percent who lose HOPE after one school year? And if we suddenly have so many super smart kids, why do our national test scores still suffer?
New proposals are already being floated to address HOPE financial stability one year after the General Assembly thought it had bought the scholarship program some time. While all those numbers are being crunched, perhaps someone should look at why more than half lose the scholarship after one year, two-thirds after two years and nearly three-fourths after three years.
HOPE matters. But HOPE should not become just another government spending program.
Congratulations: Georgia Virtual School science department chair Asherrie Yisrael has been selected as a finalist for National Online Teacher of the Year. The award has two sponsoring entities: the Southern Regional Education Board and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.
Asherrie Yisrael, National Online Teacher of the Year Finalist
Yisrael was honored as the 2010 – 2011 Georgia Virtual School Teacher of the Year. Her specialties are advanced placement physics, forensic science and physical science. Georgia Virtual School (GAVS) is the state Department of Education online learning program resource. It has about 10,000 students who select online courses from a broad-based curriculum.
Thirty-nine online teachers from 26 states were nominated for the SREB – iNACOL award. The winner will be announced on March 1 during SREB’s virtual learning conference in Atlanta. Other finalists are Leslie Fetzer from North Carolina and Tracey Seiler from South Carolina.
SREB and iNACOL established the national online teacher award two years ago. Yisrael is the second Georgia teacher nominated. Gabrielle Bray of Gwinnett County was nominated in 2010.
School Choice Rally: It’s looking like at least 1,500 will rally for School Choice outside the State Capitol at 10:00am Wednesday. And perhaps the weather will cooperate — mild and partly cloudy!
Georgia legislators will address alternate authorization for charter schools during the current General Assembly. The latest negative headlines include Gwinnett County again turning down a charter for Ivy Preparatory Academy whose students have an outstanding academic record, and Fulton County’s rejection of the Fulton Science Academy which was named a 2011 National Blue Ribbon School Award recipient by the U.S. Department of Education.
The Americans for Prosperity Georgia chapter will present screenings of its new film “Making The Grade in Georgia” hourly start at 2:00pm in the Georgia Room of the Twin Towers office building directly across the street from the State Capitol. Here is a link with more information.
Georgia Tax Climate: Wednesday morning the conservative Tax Foundation will release its 2012 business climate index that measures how states compare in five categories: corporate tax, personal income tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property tax. Data is based on tax policies as they existed last July 1 when most states began their new fiscal years.
The Tax Foundation ranking is not against any specific baseline. States can move up or down even if they make no changes because revisions in other states can affect overall rankings.
The Tax Foundation ranked Georgia No. 34 nationally last year. Foundation economists found 33 states with overall better business tax climates and 16 that were worse. Georgia tax reform remains a work in progress this year after the 2011 Legislature was unable to enact reform.
Unemployment insurance tax gets less attention than it deserves. Georgia began to borrow federal funds starting in December 2009 because the state could no longer afford to write unemployment benefit checks. Georgia owes $721 million in principal plus tens of millions of dollars in annual interest. Options to find repayment dollars include imposing higher taxes on employers and reducing benefits, which could mean fewer weeks, smaller checks or both.
The Tax Foundation business tax climate index will be released at 10:00am Wednesday.
Yellow Jackets 1, Volunteers 0: Friday’s announcement that Georgia Tech will become a national tier one university transportation research center means the state made a better case than our nearest northern neighbor. Tennessee would have located a national think tank at the Center for Transportation Research on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
Governor Nathan Deal announced Georgia’s plan to pursue the transportation research center initiative last May when he addressed the state Logistics Summit in Atlanta. Georgia Tech will coordinate research by seven state universities plus three in Alabama and Florida. Tech was also named to participate in a regional initiative coordinated by the University of Florida.
Here’s a salute to the Woodruff Foundation that provided essential local startup seed money. The total investment for two years will be $7 million with half from the federal government.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
-
Recent
- Slim Margin in Georgia House for Charter Schools Amendment
- Long Awaited Criminal Justice Reform Bill Expected This Week
- Pig and Horse Strategy Might Boost Charter Schools Amendment
- New Possible Strategy for Georgia Health Insurance Reform
- Georgia Charter Schools: Entrenched Status Quo Won Out Over Enlightenment
- Full Court Press Behind the Savannah River Expansion Project
- More Robust Rail Strategy Anticipated in State Freight Plan
- Hundreds in Georgia Prisons Remain Locked Up After Earning Parole
- Charter Schools Amendment Magic Number: 120 Votes
- What Did 6,811,499 People Watch?
- Will Parents or Politicians Decide Georgia Charter Schools Future?
- Tax Foundation: Georgia 34th for Best Business Tax Climate
-
Links
-
Archives
- February 2012 (9)
- January 2012 (14)
- December 2011 (6)
- November 2011 (8)
- October 2011 (2)
- September 2011 (8)
- August 2011 (13)
- July 2011 (12)
- June 2011 (14)
- May 2011 (14)
- April 2011 (8)
- March 2011 (8)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
