The PI reports on one of the biggest stories of this legislative session, & rest of press (and teachers) may have missed it!! - Stealth new GOP tool.

Sir Walter Scott wrote the following in the late 1700s, but how fitting they are in the year 2005 for Gov. Perdue's attempted shenanigan:

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”

Baxter & Galloway break so many stories that sometimes we fail to differentiate the good from the great. This one qualifies for the latter.

Their 1-29-05 PI reported on something that I have not seen reported elsewhere, but truly should be front-page material on two fronts:

(1) the two Georgia teacher organizations are not going to like one bit the sneaky way the Gov. tried to slip legislation by them that affect their members; and

(2) there is a message here for all Georgians, including Republican and Democrat legislators -- be on guard on every piece of legislation offered up on behalf of the Gov.

Will the Gov. get away with this? It depends on whether the GAE and PAGE realize what he was about, which was, as reported by the PI (excerpts):

An education bill that wasn't as sweet as it might have been

When a group of Republican leaders assembled at the beginning of this session of the Legislature, a basic rule was driven home:

No matter what happens, declare victory.

And so on Friday, when the state Senate passed his bill to create a master teacher program in Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue complimented himself on the "unanimous" success.

But he never mentioned the icing he wanted to spread across the bill at the last minute — to sweeten his relationship with Georgia's educators and to undercut the state's two powerful teachers organizations.

SB 34, the governor's own bill, introduced by state Sen. Dan Moody of Roswell, was on the floor when state Sen. David Shafer of Duluth offered an amendment. It would have required the state to pay premiums for insurance policies to cover teachers who are sued for their actions in the classroom.

The cost is minimal. Florida does it. Such policies are currently offered as membership incentives by the Georgia Association of Educators [GAE] and by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators [PAGE].

The idea for state-funded insurance, we hear, was the brainchild of Ben Scafidi, the governor's education policy adviser. But stealth was required to prevent organized opposition — thus the last-minute nature of the amendment, and the lack of gubernatorial fingerprints.

The amendment was questioned by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, the Democrat presiding over the Republican chamber. He called upon Senate Majority Leader Bill Stephens, a Republican. Stephens objected to the amendment, which he said was a surprise to both Republicans and Democrats in the chamber, on the grounds that it was irrelevant to the rest of the bill.

"It was simply not germane. Insurance law in an education bill would not work," Stephens said on Sunday. Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson, another Republican, agreed.

Neither was he aware of governor's interest in the legislation. "That's news to me today, even on a Sunday afternoon," he said. "If it was something the governor wanted, somebody — the senator or the governor's people — should have given us the warning we needed."

So we have two choices. Either Perdue was sandbagged, or he paid the price for being too cute by half. You pick.

There's one overt sign that the episode was less than friendly: Yes the vote for SB 34 was unanimous. But it lacked the vote of Moody, its sponsor, who stalked out of the chamber in anger.
______________

You don't need to pick between the PI's choice of either the Gov. was sandbagged by his own party members or it tried to be too cute-deceptive, and lost. It was the latter, and the Gov. paid a price by being deceptive. He did not get what he wanted in the legislation.

And why didn't the Gov. want the let GAE and PAGE know what he was up to? As noted by the PI, his bill would undercut the state's two powerful teachers organizations.

Presently, when a teacher becomes a member of either GAE or PAGE, he or she gets automatic coverage if sued for his or her actions or inactions in the classroom. This can be significant, even if the teacher did nothing wrong. Read attorney fees.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the coverage the Gov.'s bill would have offered. My wife Sally teaches, and is not a member of either GAE or PAGE (teachers generally seem to choose GAE; administrators PAGE). I would not have minded her having such coverage.

The legislation is not the issue. As the Baxter & Galloway put it, the issue is stealth, that is, "stealth was required to prevent organized opposition."

Share this post with a teacher, and suggest that the teacher share it with the local GAE and PAGE representative.
_______________

The attempted stealth in gaining passage of this teacher benefit so as to avoid organized opposition was the brainchild of Ben Scafidi, the governor's education policy adviser.

This we know. I can only speculate that phase II of Mr. Scafidi's ploy really would have put GAE and PAGE in a bind. With the legislation having passed the Senate, their hands would be tied in arguing against passage of the legislation in the House. After all, these organizations exist to further the interest of those in the teaching profession.

To understand this, you should realize that the likely opposition by GAE and PAGE to this teacher benefit legislation in the Senate -- had the legislation been aboveboard -- would not have been public. This is just how it works.