By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Making schools and school systems accountable for their students' progress will be at the forefront as the Georgia General Assembly starts its year 2000 session next week, says Greg Hecht, who represents north Fayette in the Senate.

“The debate of the session,” the Jonesboro Democrat told The Citizen, “will be what happens to schools that don't measure up. This session will determine the direction of accountability for years to come,” he said.

Voucher systems, the idea that parents should be allowed to choose whether to use their education tax money in public or private schools, “certainly will be debated,” Hecht acknowledged, but wouldn't say where he stands on the issue. “I'm going to listen to the debate,” he said.

Hecht's star is rising in his second year since being elected to the legislature in November 1998. He has been named vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and chairman of its Subcommittee on Criminal Justice.

He also is a member of the Defense, Science and Technology Committee, which looks for ways to make Georgia more competitive in attracting and maintaining a strong base of technology industries.

Hecht got a jump start on the session, introducing his Georgia Mentoring Act last month in advance of the 2000 session.

The bill, he said, will provide rewards for counties that have mentoring programs in place for at-risk youths.

“The program is done in other states and has been quite successful at helping with their retention rates,” he said.

Another education-related measure he hopes to see passed, Hecht said, is a program in which teachers in top performing schools could go into those that don't perform as well, to help them improve.

A three-year review cycle to assess performance is a good bet for passage this year, he added.

Legislators will continue several tax relief measures that were begun last year, Hecht predicted, including more property tax reductions.

Plans are to have granted about $700 million in property tax relief over the eight-year period starting last year, and gradually exempt up to $50,000 of a home's value from taxation.

The state also will continue a moratorium enacted last year on unemployment insurance taxes charged to businesses, he said.

On crime, Hecht said he will support efforts to expand availability of the state's DNA database, so that it can be used for additional crimes.

Currently, the database is used only for sex crimes.

“The technology has grown so far, we can really use it to catch people and to prevent other crimes,” he said, “and to gain convictions in otherwise difficult property crimes.”

Efforts to devote more of the state's mental health and retardation dollars to client care and less to administration also will get his attention this year, said Hecht.

And in general, “We need to be sure that we spend state dollars in ways that draw down federal dollars better,” he said.

Lawmakers will be looking for ways to expand prison space, Hecht said. “We want to make sure we have sufficient prison space in the future to incarcerate violent criminals for their [full] prison terms,” he said.

“I believe that violent offenders should serve their full time.”