Passage of Gov. Roy Barnes' education bill is a sure thing, according to Sen. Rick Price.

“I will not lie to you, the bill will pass, but how will we make it work?” Price said Wednesday night during a town hall meeting attended by about 45 Fayette County parents and teachers at Starr's Mill High School.

The controversial 149-page bill was expected to be voted upon in the Senate Thursday and be kicked back to the House again next week, Price predicted. While Price and Sen. Greg Hecht said they were not sure how they would vote, they agreed that their decision would be in the “best interest” of Georgia, particularly Fayette County. “I may vote for the bill... I have concerns about it, but I want to be on the inside when it comes to distributing money in Fayette County,” Hecht said.

Rep. Kathy Cox voted against the bill when it was in the House and said she will vote against it again. “I've fought... I feel like I've been through battle, but I cannot in my heart vote for it,” Cox said. “It will be political suicide for me in the Capitol, but I cannot cast a yes vote.” Cox admitted that she had learned a lot about “politics and power” in the last few weeks.

“A large number [of elected officials] don't want to give the power to Linda Schrenko [state school superintendent],” she said, adding, “We have 70,000 children in failing schools. Why not give the hammer to the department of education?”

Cox said one of the major points among Republicans in the House was that reform should begin now and not be phased in over four years, which is a point in the education plan.

While the assembly of parents, teachers and paraprofessionals expressed their displeasure with the bill and asked questions concerning various facets of it, it appeared that its passage is a done deal.

Janet Smola, local education and fund-raising activist, pointed out that the delegation is in a difficult position. “Georgia education needs reform now... if [the bill] doesn't pass, there will be a whole year of nothing going on.”

She advocated that the legislators support the good parts of the bill and try to make the undesirable portions “more palatable.”

Key items of concern voiced by those assembled included the mandatory age for children to begin school, which has reportedly been lowered to six; the funding formulas which could affect Fayette County positively or negatively at this point; the growing teacher shortage; appointment of school advisory boards, and how school districts could expand facilities if the teacher-student ratio is lowered.

“It's a bad bill,” Mike Nelson Palmer, a Peachtree City resident and parent of two school-age children, told the delegation. “I can't keep up with page 233, line 15 of the 12th version. “It's ugly... the governor is going to pass it... you stay in there fighting.”

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