Rules

Today Governor Brian Kemp told Greg Bluestein of the AJC that he wanted to sign a school voucher bill into law by the end of the legislative session.

The House Education Committee will be hearing Senate Bill 233 tomorrow and will not allow for public comment.

The bill does not give private schools any guidelines regarding the funds, nor does it require them to be accredited. This is a huge problem because it can allow for private schools to raise their tuition over the amount of the voucher while not even offering a valid high school diploma.

For those who may not be familiar, Crossover Day is the halfway point in the Georgia General Assembly. All bills that have been proposed so far in each chamber (meaning house or senate) MUST pass in order to go to the second chamber to be voted on. If a bill doesn’t pass today, it is dead. If a bill does pass one chamber, but eventually fails in the second chamber, it is also dead for this session.

So in this case, the senate has passed SB 390, which will restrict libraries from getting funding. If it fails in the house it’s a dead bill. If it passes it goes to the governor for his signature. I can’t find an article link for this bill, it was only tweeted by WABE News. Not uncommon with the sheer volume of legislation that is getting voted on today.

So the other day I shared an article about "School Chaplains Act" which would allow schools to replace counselors with chaplains and it kicked off some really interesting discussions. I wanted to follow-up on those discussions with a link to the Georgia Budget Policy Institute if anyone is interested in seeing some of the bills making their way through the Ga General Assembly this year. I am still keeping an eye on SB 379, but at the moment it just says "Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute." I guess we will see if it makes it.

For those of you in Georgia who voted for Biden last election, yet plan to support Trump in 2024, my question for you all is if you voted for Biden last time solely because you felt disgusted and repulsed by Trump's behavior and actions, how is it that you're suddenly okay with them now? I especially ask this because Trump has only gotten worse since then. I mean, the Jan. 6 insurrection happened after the last election, not before it. As a matter of fact, Trump not accepting the results of the last election was the reason to why the Jan. 6 insurrection even happened. On top of that, if you don't want to vote for Biden again, we have other candidates besides Trump including RFK, Jill Stein, and Cornel West, and maybe Joe Manchin and Liz Cheney even. Or, you could write in a name, leave the presidential ticket blank, or just not vote at all. If you don't like what's been happening under the Biden admin and regret voting for Biden because of this, I don't see how suddenly becoming okay with Trump's behavior would resolve any of this, especially when Trump has made it clear that turning this country into an autocracy is a bigger priority of his as opposed to resolving the issues we're currently dealing with right now. Like, how do you not see that even? So again, with all that said, if you voted for Biden last time just to get Trump out of the Oval Office, how is it that you're suddenly okay with him and how he acts now?

After reviewing so many politicians, Marjorie Taylor Greene is the 2023 Dumbest American Award Winner. During 2023, she worked very hard to achieve this award. I bet Georgia’s 14th congressional district is so proud of having someone winning this award.

· She promotes Christian values, yet she continues to violate the following commandments.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me - She worships Donald Trump like a god.
2. Thou shalt not commit adultery – She cheated on her husband.
3. Thos shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor – She continues to endorse conspiracy theories.

· She promotes Christian values, yet she continues to violate Christian virtues such as acceptance, caring, forgiveness, honesty, and respect.

· She promotes hate and violence.

· She is anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic.

· She supports killing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

When you see her, please congratulate her on this award.

GOP culture wars - which states ban the most books:

30% of banned books include characters of color or themes of race and racism.

26% include LGBTQ+ characters or themes

38% include topics on health and well-being for students (mental health, bullying, suicide, substance abuse, sexual health and puberty.

71% of voters oppose book bans