Contents of May 2012 Georgia Insight:
National Impact of Georgia Gender Con-conformity Case; Q & A about Charter Schools; T-shirts & Pink Bus; Historical Document Displays; Child-only Health Insurance
“In God We Trust”
S.B. 293, by Senator Bill Heath, was the first bill introduced in the 2012 session. The original language required the national motto, “In God We Trust,” to be printed on license plates and made a county name decal available to individuals who wanted to cover the motto. However, the final version of the bill requires tags to “contain a [blank] space for an authorized decal” and allows license plate purchasers to choose a free “In God We Trust” decal or a free county decal.
Passed the last day, when the Senate agreed to the House floor amendment.
Charter Schools
H.B. 797 introduced by Representative Jan Jones is the enabling legislation that would govern state charter schools if the proposed constitutional change outlined in H.R. 1162 passes in the November General Election. It authorizes and establishes an appointed state-level commission to resume the work of the State Commission on Charter Schools that was ruled unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court last summer. H.B. 797 will be more fully outlined later.
Passed the last day, when the House agreed to a Senate committee substitute amended on the floor.
H.R. 1162, introduced by Representative Jan Jones, (a) makes chartering schools constitutional whether chartered by locally elected school boards or by a state-appointed commission and (b) gives the General Assembly policy-making power over public schools. If voters approve this proposal in November, state appointees would enjoy unprecedented control of public education.
Passed March 19th, sent to the governor April 2nd, becomes law with or without his signature.
Pro-Life
H.B. 954, introduced by Representative Doug McKillip, prohibits abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, unless the life of the unborn child is diagnosed as medically futile. H.B. 954 defines the term “medically futile” as follows: “in reasonable medical judgment, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.” Fact: It’s important to note that at 20 weeks gestation or earlier, pain receptors appear throughout the body, but the ability to regulate or lessen pain does not develop until after birth. Therefore, unborn babies, actually, feel pain more intensely than newborns or older children and adults. Another fact: In 2009, four percent of the total abortions in Georgia occurred after 19 weeks from fertilization.
Passed the last day, as both House and Senate agreed to the conference committee report.
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, April 20, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. The legislature convened January 9th, ended March 29th, the 40th day (the most dangerous day of the session, due to the sheer volume of legislation handled). That morning, the House convened at 9:30, the Senate at 10:00 and they ended sine die at midnight.
During that time, the House made decisions about 111 bills and 99 resolutions, while 73 bills and 85 resolutions went through the Senate. Some bills are deliberately left ’til the last day, but their passage or defeat has already been decided. S.B. 293, a good bill that passed the last day, was the first Senate bill introduced this year. It originally required “In God We Trust” to be printed on license plates. Now, it requires license plates to have an open space to accommodate a free state-issued decal. Consumers may choose a decal that says “In God We Trust” or the one with their county name on it. S.B. 293 was handled 15 times before it passed.
Getting a pro-life bill passed was much tougher. H.B. 954 was handled 19 times and survived six floor votes before passing as a conference committee report. A key point in the debate was the proven fact that unborn babies do feel pain. The last hurdle was overcome by a conference committee reconciliation of differences between the House and Senate. The final bill allows an abortion after the 20th week of gestation, if a pregnancy is diagnosed as “medically futile,” meaning the baby has a profound congenital or chromosomal abnormality that is fatal and cannot be corrected. It passed the House 106 to 59 and the Senate 36 to 19 on the last day.
If the governor signs H.B. 954, his signature will trigger the regulation/rule-making process, which would begin July 1st if he chooses not to sign it. With or without his signature, the remainder of the law takes effect January 1, 2013, unless he vetoes it, which is highly unlikely. However, the State Constitution provides a sign-or-veto period of 40 days from a bill’s passage, which is May 8th for H.B. 954.
March 29th was the last day some members of the General Assembly will convene in the House and Senate chambers, because their two-year terms are up when the 2013 session begins. By the end of the session, one senator and 13 representatives had announced they won’t run again. Two representatives are running for Congress and another was appointed Superior Court judge.
The announced changes are: Sen. Greg Goggans is not running again; Rep. Roger Lane was appointed Superior Court judge for the Brunswick Circuit; Rep. Mark Hatfield is campaigning for Senator Greg Goggans’ seat; Rep. Lee Anderson is running for Congress, 12th district; Rep. Doug Collins is running for Congress, 9th district.
Representatives not running again: Roberta Abdul-Salaam; Amos Amerson, Stephanie Benfield; Elly Dobbs; Joe Heckstall; Sistie Hudson; Billy Horne; Lynmore James; Gene Maddox; Martin Scott; Tommy Smith; Roger Williams. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, March 30, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. In the November Election we’ll be asked to change the Georgia Constitution, so the state can charter schools. Before you decide that’s okay, let me give you a little background.
The first President Bush trampled states’ rights in 1991 when he created the charter school movement. Six years later 1,000 public schools had been chartered, with more to come. In 1998, the Charter School Expansion Act passed and schools clamored for a slice of the 500 million federal dollars appropriated to entice schools to be chartered. Also in 1998, the Georgia Office of Charter School Compliance was created to allow businesses and colleges to establish charter schools, in addition to the chartering of up-and-running public schools.
To speed up chartering in Georgia, the Charter Systems Act passed in 2007 to charter entire school districts at once. In 2008, the Charter Schools Commission was created, but it was ruled unconstitutional in 2011. However, the Court did not rule on the constitutionality of charter schools, which have been unconstitutional since their inception. Now a year after the Commission was deemed unconstitutional, H.R.1162 passed the Georgia General Assembly as a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Georgia that would authorize a state-controlled parallel school system to interfere with the constitutional authority of locally elected boards of education.
But here’s the big secret. Parents do not control charter schools. Actually, charter schools are controlled by the federal government, because Georgia law allows charter schools to waive state and local laws, rules, policies and regulations. However, they cannot waive federal laws, rules, policies and regulations.
So these are the facts. (a) The charter school movement is a mechanism for central control of K – 12 schools. (b) Charters govern the schools, so charter schools are removed from representative government. (c) Meaning, voters lose control of their children’s education. (d) Site-based management by appointed councils and school staff replace the authority of parents and locally elected school boards. (e) Taxpayers, parents and voters provide the students and bank-roll the schools, staff, supplies, and maintenance, but (f) appointees and hired hands make decisions without voter input.
Here’s another secret. When schools were under local control, the great majority of students learned to read, write, spell and do math … without a calculator. They could even find a foreign country on a map, but with diminishing local control, excellence in education has all-but disappeared.
The charter school bill did pass the legislature this session, but voters will decide in November whether the constitution should be changed. As for me, I’ll be voting against it. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, March 23, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. State Representative Doug McKillip has been in the General Assembly since 2007. This year he said, “I became a Christian in 2009. You start reading the Bible and you realize life begins at conception.” That was on February 9th, the same day he introduced H.B. 954, the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”
The title was chosen because scientific research has proven that unborn babies DO feel pain. Specialized nerve endings used in transmitting pain are seen at seven weeks after fertilization and are throughout the baby’s organs by the 20th week of gestation. During surgery on unborn babies in the womb, a 19/20-week old fetus flinches or jerks and recoils from sharp objects and incisions. So, anesthesia is routinely given unborn babies before corrective surgery begins. You might remember the AJC’s front-page picture of Baby Samuel clutching the doctor’s finger from a slit in his mother’s womb at 21 weeks after fertilization.
Pro-abortion researchers try to claim that preborn children cannot feel pain until later in the pregnancy, when nerves reach the cerebral cortex. But since 2007, medical research has shown that those connections are NOT essential for a preborn child to experience pain. At 20 weeks gestation or earlier, pain receptors appear throughout the body, but the ability to regulate or lessen pain won’t develop until after the baby is born. That means unborn babies, actually, feel pain more intensely than newborns or older children and adults.
The most recent survey on fetal pain estimates that 18,000 of the 1.2 million abortions performed every year in the United States are done at 19 weeks or more after fertilization. In 2009, 1,000 babies were aborted in Georgia at or after 19 weeks from fertilization. That’s 4 percent of the total abortions performed in Georgia in 2009.
H.B. 954 would allow abortions that are necessary to save the life of the mother or to prevent serious risk of substantial permanent physical impairment of a major body function, but would prohibit abortions 20 weeks after fertilization.
H.B. 954 passed the House February 29th and is in Senator Balfour’s Rules Committee. Please call 404 656-0095* and ask him to pass it out of his committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.
(Room number to be announced)
If it has no such label, there’s no indication it has been tested and proven safe.
UL’s full-page list of smart meter tests does not mention radio frequency radiation, but indicates more testing should be done to prove their safety. UL states that it is developing at least one other safety standard – UL2735 – for smart meters.
ACTION – Support S.B. 459 by attending the meeting Monday.
If you would like to speak at the meeting, please contact Robert at goldeagle2 (at) bellsouth (dot) net -> (replace items in parentheses with actual punctuation)
Please contact the following House Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications Committee:
Representatives Parsons, Ch., 404 656-9198
Geisinger, V. Ch., 656-0254
Horne, Sec., 656-0287
Amerson, 657-8443
Baker, 656-0202
Dempsey, 463-2247
Drenner, 656-0202
Dudgeon, 656-0298
Frazier, 656-0265
Fullerton, 656-0126
Hamilton, 656-5132
Harbin, 656-3949
Holt, 656-0152
Hudson, 656-7859
Lucas, 656-0220
Chuck Martin, 656-5064
Scott, 656-0254
Earnest Smith, 656-6372
Coach Williams, 656-0202
Roger Williams, 656-3904
All this must be done within seven days or the bill is dead!
Step 1: S.B. 459 is in the House. Senator Shafer, author, must ask for a committee hearing.
Step 2: Then, if it passes there, it must pass Rules Committee, so the full House can vote on it.
Step 3: Death to S.B. 459, if any of these steps fail.
ACTION – Support. (a) Ask Senator Shafer – 404 656-0048 – to request Representative Parsons to schedule a hearing and pass it into Rules Committee.
(b) Ask Representative Parsons – 404 656-9198 – to pass S.B. 459 out of his committee. Then it goes to the Rules Committee, where it must pass before the full House can vote on it.
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, March 16, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. We should be glad H.B. 1114 passed the House 124 to 45 March 7th and should pass the Senate without any trouble, since it prohibits assisted suicide in Georgia. This bill was introduced after the Georgia Supreme Court recently overturned the law against assisted suicide. The case was filed by The Final Exit Network, claiming the law infringed on their free speech right to advertise assisted suicide services.
H.B. 1114 makes it a felony for anyone to knowingly and willfully help a person commit suicide. Anyone found guilty and convicted of providing such help could be sent to prison for one to ten years. However, this would not interfere with a patient’s written non resuscitation order or living will or durable power of attorney for health care or a Physician Order for Life-sustaining Treatment or an advance directive.
A health care provider who is convicted of violating this Code section could lose his license to practice or if convicted of homicide in a civil suit, the court could award the plaintiff reasonable attorney’s fees and legal expenses. Please call Senator Hamrick at 404 656-0036 and ask him to pass H.B. 1114 out of committee.
S.B. 459 passed the Senate 36 to 13 March 7th. It authorizes the Public Service Commission to allow consumers to elect NOT to use smart meters that have two-way communication capacity to transmit between the meter and the electric supplier to record the quantity of electricity used and calculate the amount to bill consumers. It, also, authorizes the PSC to create and regulate a surcharge for consumers who choose NOT to have a smart meter.
It’s important to understand that the PSC fully regulates Georgia Power Company, because it is an investor-owned electric utility. However, PSC has limited regulatory authority over the 42 electric membership corporations (EMCs) and 52 municipally-owned electric systems in the state. The PSC regulatory system can be changed only by federal law. Please call Representative Parsons at 404 656-9198 and ask him to move S.B. 459 out of his committee. For Georgia Insight, I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, March 9, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. H.B. 797 passed the House Wednesday. So, now we know how state charter schools would be created, regulated, funded and controlled in Georgia. An appointed State Charter Schools Commission will grant state charters, especially for new start-up schools, while locally elected school boards will continue chartering schools in their respective districts.
There are two other categories of charter schools. A conversion charter school is a public school already in existence, but applies for and receives a charter. A start-up charter school is a new public school that may be created by an organization, business or individual. State charter schools will have more latitude than locally chartered schools and will not be limited to a specific enrollment area. They may choose one of three attendance zones and enroll students from one local school system or from a combination of local school systems or from a state-wide enrollment zone. H.B. 797 does not specify whether state-wide enrollment applies only to virtual schools that are available only online or to schools built in communities.
H.B. 797 moves k – 12 schools into another situation, altogether. It allows nonprofit organizations to charter schools with only two restrictions. Their governing board members must be United States citizens and residents of Georgia. Otherwise, the chartering process is wide open, meaning the Commission could be charged with discrimination if they deny charters to unsavory individuals who want to educate children.
This is also troubling. Charter schools may receive donations of any kind from any public or private entity, IF the money goes to the State Board of Education first, then to the Charter School Commission, then to the school. The phrase, “donations of any kind from any public or private entity,” is much too broad. It prohibits Charter Schools Commission members from refusing money from unacceptable sources and money always comes with strings attached.
Authorizing non-profit organizations to charter and govern charter schools in Georgia throws public education into a public-private partnership (PPP), meaning government and the private sector jointly provide public services and facilities. That could be the final blow to local control.
H.B. 797 passed the House Wednesday 115 to 49 and went to the Senate where it needs several amendments. However, it won’t be implemented unless a majority of voters pass H.R. 1162 in the November Election. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.
May 11th Radio Commentary
Students are Sitting Ducks
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, May 11, 2012
By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. It was just another day in Georgia, when a little boy decided to wear his green T-shirt to school. He was SO proud! That shirt with the globe-and-anchor Marine Corps symbol and U.S.M .C. in big block letters on the front was a gift from his Marine-Corps uncle! And it had “Marine Corps” spelled out right across his shoulders on the back. He was SO proud and his buddies liked his shirt, but somebody at his public school in Walton County told him he could not wear that shirt in school! His granddaddy is REALLY upset, because the boy’s uncle is granddaddy’s other son who’s still in the Marine Corps, serving in Afghanistan!
That story makes me wonder what happened when those gay-straight alliance club T-shirts were worn to school with the homosexual agenda spelled out on the front. Students got them last October to wear to school the next week, so they could entice other kids to promote homosexuality, too. I can’t imagine anyone telling them they can’t wear those shirts to school!
Now, go to a website called H8SUX.com and you’ll read this: “We are recruiting kids to the cause of promoting the acceptance of homosexuality in schools. This free T-shirt will be a pro-gay billboard plastered on the chests of thousands of kids in classrooms across the nation. Our agenda is simple: to tell kids that it’s ‘OK4U2BGAY.’” Then, they remind the kids they don’t need anyone’s permission to get those T-shirts!
But that’s not all H8SUX.com is doing. They say they’re sending “a pink school bus traveling the nation school-to-school giving away thousands of free ‘OK4U2BGAY’ tees to teens to fight homo-H8! Soon, H8SUX.com will be loading up a team of activists … and doing free t-shirt giveaways outside schools and in front of media cameras.” AND, they’ll send a free pro-gay T-shirt to any teenager who’ll make a YouTube video pledging to speak out in support of gay marriage and against homophobia at school.
How could it happen in the United States that school children can be walking billboards to recruit more kids into alternate lifestyles, but a seven-year-old can’t wear a Marine Corps T-shirt to school? The answer is simple. When God was kicked out of school, morality was dismissed as irrelevant and students became sitting ducks for every kind of evil. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.