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2017 Legislative Session

Wrapping up the 2017 legislative session

Georgia’s Legislature adjourned for good last week, just in time for the Masters Tournament (as always). While the at-times tumultuous session was set to end on Thursday, the gavels didn’t come down officially until early Friday morning, capping off 40 days of the most intriguing political theater in recent memory. Here’s what happened: Rigged Maps: House Bill 515, sponsored by disgraced former judge Johnnie Caldwell (WATCH Samantha Bee’s piece on Caldwell here), went down in

School Takeover

School takeover 2.0 passes the House

In a vote of 138 to 37, school takeover 2.0–House Bill 338 passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It allows state intervention in schools labeled “unacceptable” by whatever measure the state chooses to use. The bill still silences parents and educators and still takes away local control. As passed, the bill offers no additional funding to schools and places almost all control under the governor. The takeover would create the position of a “chief

School Takeover

School Takeover 2.0

We don’t know the details for school takeover 2.0 but we do know that Gov. Nathan Deal isn’t listening to the people of Georgia. Even though 60 percent of Georgians voted against school takeover, Deal is working on another plan that will be equally bad for Georgia’s students. Although voters said no, Deal is working on pushing a new plan through state legislature. The AJC has reported that part of the plan could include students being

2017 Legislative Session

The governor’s state

Yesterday, Gov. Deal gave another State of the State address and once again laid out a vision out of touch with everyday Georgians. The governor’s state is one where hundreds of thousands of Georgians go without access to health care, thanks to Gov. Deal’s refusal to expand Medicaid. Georgia citizens lost years of progress when @GovernorDeal refused to expand Medicaid. #gapol https://t.co/DvjMqaOzHw — Better Georgia (@bettergeorgia) January 11, 2017 While @GovernorDeal waits, Georgia's rural hospital crisis

Healthcare

How a Trump presidency will likely affect Georgia policy

We expect that there will be a lot of talk about health care and education during Georgia’s 2017 Legislative Session. But what will these debates look like in a world where Donald Trump is the incoming president, in a state where Gov. Deal’s school takeover push has been roundly rejected by voters? Healthcare State Senator, and Chairwoman of the Senate’s health committee, Renee Unterman was one of the Republicans considering working toward a Medicaid solution. However, she

Education

Ga. Politicians have failed our vulnerable students

In a speech about education earlier this year to the Georgia Education Leadership Institute, Gov. Nathan Deal euphemistically talked about “students who come from difficult backgrounds,” meaning low-income students, particularly low-income students of color, as well as other marginalized students. Talking about the ways race, class and other factors impact student achievement is really important. Unfortunately, when Deal talks about wanting to improve things for “students who come from difficult backgrounds,” he’s not talking about