The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked educators, policymakers and advocates to share what they deem the most important priorities for the upcoming 2025 General Assembly. Their answers are included in a collection of guest columns. This is the latest of these columns.
In the wake of November’s nail-biting national elections, eyes are turning back home and toward Georgia’s upcoming 2025 legislative session.
Though we are still around a month away, we can get some glimpses into legislators’ priorities moving into the new year.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Artificial intelligence is a groundbreaking development with capabilities we have only just begun to explore. The Senate Office of Policy and Legislative Analysis’ recent report on AI demonstrates an awareness of the issues, and it’s a step forward in the necessary path to managing and monitoring AI. For the safety of their constituents, legislators are obligated to involve themselves in its regulation to ensure that progress is positive, not destructive.
As far as serving Georgia’s people — more specifically, Georgia’s students — legislators finally seem to be coming around to the idea of revamping the Quality Basic Education formula — the calculation the state uses to dole out funds to its school districts.
For years, there have been calls for overhauling the 1985 formula, which — in its current state — does not contain a “poverty weight” or extra funding for students living in notably impoverished districts. The southern half of Georgia — whose rural districts often have the highest percentage of families living in poverty — contains the state’s highest concentration of “funding gap” public schools, where the amount of money being spent per student is severely below required spending.
Released Dec. 2, the Georgia Department of Education’s legislative priorities identify several other issue areas along with its proposed QBE modernization. One of these is school safety, which the DOE looks to improve by — along with dedicated safety funds — installing school resource officers in every Georgia public school.
Already, Georgia officials seem to be skirting the issue of gun safety, opting to supply school resource officers rather than implement regulations to preempt access to dangerous assault weapons.
In theory, SROs are the ideal solution to the safety issue — as trained officers, they can step in and swiftly disarm a gunman, or stop a dangerous fight, or prevent weapons from entering school premises. In practice, however, the effectiveness of SROs is unclear.
Without an exact description of what their position entails, SROs aren’t confined to any particular protocol. Students going to schools with SROs tend to face staggeringly higher rates of disciplinary action than students who do not, and research points to SROs disproportionately targeting disabled and minority students.
By contrast, state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, the chair of the Senate Safe Firearm Storage Study Committee, proposed six recommendations aimed at reducing the number of children killed by gunfire. These recommendations include a systematic approach to identifying “potentially dangerous” students and a buffer period before the purchase of an assault rifle. Not only are these proposals sensible, but they are also necessary. SROs are merely a bandage on the open wound of unattended mental health issues and unregulated firearms.
Looking back at failed legislation proposed last session, there is a concerning trend of legislators targeting Georgia’s students and teachers. These failed bills should not be resurrected as some legislators want; the legislation threatens both students and staffs of schools.
For example, Senate Bill 154 seeks to remove public school librarians’ exemption from criminal prosecution for distributing “harmful materials” to minors. The bill fell in line with legislators’ ongoing war against student access to information, this time targeting the professionals whose job it is to dispense content that broadens young people’s worldview.
Legislators even targeted students themselves. Senate Bill 365 aimed to vastly expand parents’ access to students’ records including all materials they consulted from the school library, which would be especially concerning for LGBTQ+ students hailing from unsafe households. Senate Bill 88 curtailed student access to sex education and hindered their ability to change their name or gender identity on school records.
And in a shortsighted attempt to ameliorate Georgia’s counselor shortage — with a student-to-counselor ratio of 396-1, far above the American School Counselor Association’s recommended 250-1 ratio — legislators proposed Senate Bill 379. The bill would have allowed noncertified volunteer clergy members to serve in place of trained professionals in school counseling roles. SB 379 raised constitutional issues about the separation of church and state, as well as fears that the counseling could cross into proselytizing.
Students don’t need more policing; they don’t need more restrictions on what they can read; they don’t need more barriers to self-expression; and they don’t need volunteers in lieu of counselors prepared to advise, assist and administer care.
It’s safe to say — based on what we know so far — that we’re dealing with some good, proposed policies and some bad ones as well. Legislators need to forgo culture war posturing and partisan grievances, and prioritize the people they represent, including Georgia’s students.
Hunter Buchheit is a student journalist from Marietta who focuses on Georgia politics, student issues and LGBTQ+ rights. He attends Emory University and is pursuing a degree in history and English and creative writing.
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