It turns out that passing a poorly-written bill out of committee while refusing to allow public comment does not guarantee final passage! We are very happy here!

 

Breitbart

March 15, 2022

The Georgia Senate has blocked a draft bill that would have sent taxpayer funds to illegal migrants, says D.A. King, an activist for pro-American bills.

“Senate Bill 601 was voted down about 2.10 in the afternoon here in Georgia and I’m extremely happy and very proud,” said D.A. King, the founder of the Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for pro-American immigration policies

The bill was backed by the GOP leaders, including state Sen. Butch Miller (R-49), who is the Senate President Pro Tempore. Miller is also a candidate for the Republican nomination in the state’s pending lieutenant gubernatorial election.

“I can tell you, them being hammered with enough facts on the illegal immigration angle and the facts that the students in the country illegally could easily be put in private school while American citizens were skipped over,” King added. “Having illegal alien parents in charge of not only disbursement of the money — but oversight of the expenses — did not help them.”

The legislation would have created a small-scale school choice program for all students, including illegal-migrant youths. The bill also allowed illegal immigrants to play a role in overseeing the funding.

However, the program would have been funded by appropriated funds, so… the rest here.

 

 

 

We will have more facts and analysis later, including the interesting absences and “no” votes after I do the traditional Happy Dance.

Please see here if you are new to this one. We’ll have a better view of the tally board tomorrow.    See below for vote count and record.

* The Georgia Senate is made up of 34 Republicans and 22 Democrats. Green votes below are “YES.” Red votes are “NO.” Names in yellow are “excused” and did not vote.

Quick count from here: Eight (corrected) Republicans voted “NO.” Six Republicans were excused and did not vote. One Democrat was excused.

 

VIDEO: Go to 1:45-ish on the counter.

We note that Sen Jason Anavitatre voted “YES” in committee but “NO” on the floor.

 

 

 

 

Update: Noon, March 16, 2022: SB 601 failed to see final passage on the senate floor yesterday by a vote of 20-29. More here.

 

A phone conversation with the Senate President Pro Tem’s Chief of Staff, Steve Tippins

12:05 PM MARCH 9, 2022. I just got the promised call from Steve Tippins, Sen Butch Miller’s Chief of Staff who said he is pretty comfy with the unworkable and poorly researched language (his, apparently) they concocted on almost excluding illegal alien students from SB 601. He did not want to talk about the illegal alien parents who would be involved in handling state money and could easily have oversight on the spending rules. Tippens told me he was getting calls from members who don’t want to deal with the illegal immigration issue at all. For clarity, I asked him “you mean you are hearing from senate members who do not want to answer questions about excluding illegal aliens from Sen Miller’s “school choice” bill?” – “yes,” was his answer. It was very enlightening. But not surprising.

Tippins allowed that he would check with “lawyers here” to ask if they agreed with my recommended fix – which he judged far too involved even though he would not let me finish my short explanation of what needed to be done. I did not ask if he would be checking with the same lawyers who helped him create the unworkable “exclusion” wording in the bill now. I was assured that SB 601 is meant to become law and not a campaign ploy.

He told me he wanted any change on the illegal immigration topic in “school choice!” to be “as surgical as possible” – meaning he didn’t want to draw attention to that matter in SB 6o1. There is more.

While I have only been involved in drafting numerous pieces of legislation (many of those bills are now law) and immigration politics under the Gold Dome since 2005, this was the most incredibly arrogant conversation I have ever had with any staffer – or legislator. It was very educational. SMH

Contact info here.

dak

Ecstatic supporters of SB 601 pose with Sen Miller after his “school choice!” bill passes out of committee March 8, 2022.

Update: noon, March 16, 2022 – SB 601 failed to see final passage on the senate floor yesterday by a vote of 20-29. It’s dead. Also of note: Sen Jason Anavitarte voted “YES do pass” in committee but then voted “NO” on the floor after we sent this column to the entire GOP Senate caucus. More here.

___________

 Update:  A phone conversation with the Senate President Pro Tem’s Chief of Staff, Steve Tippins

12:05 PM MARCH 9, 2022. I just got the promised call from Steve Tippins, Sen Butch Miller’s Chief of Staff who said he is pretty comfy with the unworkable and poorly researched language (his, apparently) they concocted on almost excluding illegal alien students from SB 601. He did not want to talk about the illegal alien parents who would be involved in handling state money and could easily have oversight on the spending rules. Tippens told me he was getting calls from members who don’t want to deal with the illegal immigration issue at all. For clarity, I asked him “you mean you are hearing from senate members who do not want to answer questions about excluding illegal aliens from Sen Miller’s “school choice” bill?” – “yes,” was his answer. It was very enlightening. But not surprising.

Tippins allowed that he would check with “lawyers here” to ask if they agreed with my recommended fix – which he judged far too involved even though he would not let me finish my short explanation of what needed to be done. I did not ask if he would be checking with the same lawyers who helped him create the unworkable “exclusion” wording in the bill now. I was assured that SB 601 is meant to become law and not a campaign ploy.

He told me he wanted any change on the illegal immigration topic in “school choice!” to be “as surgical as possible” – meaning he didn’t want to draw attention to that matter in SB 6o1. There is more.

While I have only been involved in drafting numerous pieces of legislation (many of those bills are now law) and immigration politics under the Gold Dome since 2005, this was the most incredibly arrogant conversation I have ever had with any staffer – or legislator. It was very educational. SMH

Contact info here.

dak

Text of SB 601 here.

_____

Update: My favorite exchange is when Sen Miller tells Sen. Jackson that the legislature may not a budget any money to the “school choice!” project that so many people think is going to allow all K-12 students in GA to access state funds for private schools.

“Senator Jackson: (04:47)
What’s the estimated cost? this how much do you think this will…

Sen. Butch Miller, “Mr. Pro Tem”: (04:50)
Well, it’s just within appropriation. So it might be, I mean, they might not appropriate anything.”

____

Our view is that providing taxpayer funded benefits not already mandated by federal law to illegal aliens does not represent conservative values.

____

SB 601 passed out of its senate committee about 10:00 AM this morning. I will post a transcript of the hearing and access to video soon.

Update: Video here then March 8, 2022 then 27:26 on the counter.

Transcript here.

Update: Transcript cost to me: $57.50. Total time for all this: 15 hours.

Audio: at player below.

• Related: American Federation for Children & Corey A. DeAngelis include illegal alien children and “parents” in model legislation for “school choice!” 

It is important to share the fact that many well-funded “conservative” groups in Georgia are pushing hard for “school choice!” and leaving out many of the realities of the actual legislation. Some do not care about illegal immigration. Others, many others, say about the inclusion of illegal aliens in private school benefits that “if we have to educate them, we may as well give them the best education we can…”

The sound you may hear is the stampede from the southern border into the increasingly welcoming Republican state of Georgia.

Unless the Georgia state senate leadership makes some easy changes to SB 601 (the ‘Georgia Educational Freedom Act‘) the Republican-ruled upper chamber may be about to pass a bill that will include illegal alien students and “parents” in state-funded access to a private K-12 school education.

In his SB 601, Senator Butch Miller has adopted most of the model legislation language being pushed nationwide by the American Federation for Children that was contained in the now failed HB 999 and HB 60 from Rep Wes Cantrell. As we wrote yesterday, Miller’s bill was dropped in the senate on Thursday, March 3, assigned to the senate Education and Youth Committee on Friday, March 4 and scheduled for an 8:00 AM hearing on Monday, March 7. Apparently time ran out on the Monday hearing and the bill was heard and quickly passed out 6-4 this morning in a 9:00 AM committee meeting. Although there were at least two pages of names on the sign-up sheet to speak on the bill, no public comment was allowed.

I was signed up (on page 2) to speak against passage of the bill in its current form and was ready to offer a real “fix”-  and alternate language. Again: SB 601 was passed out of Dalton Sen. Chuck Payne’s Education and Youth committee without any public comment. This is an increasingly common occurrence in Republican committees under the Gold Dome.

Fact: Many, if not most, supporters of the “school choice!” bill – including many legislators, do not know what is in it.

Below I list some of the points I intended to share with the committee and the public if I had been allowed to speak.

• According to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona. And the leftist GBPI says we host more illegal aliens than green card holders.
•  “The news” tells us that lots more are on their way here.
•  Illegal immigration, like elections,  has consequences.
•  This bill does not allow an unlimited number of K-12 students to access the $6000 scholarship to attend private school. The term “subject to appropriations…” is written in various places in the bill. This means the number of students who will receive the promised state funding to pay towards a private school education is limited to how much money is allocated from the budget by the legislature. Put another way, a lot of students are going to be left out of the promised taxpayer-funded private school benefits.
•  The above fact is easily illustrated by the prescribed method of deciding who is chosen for benefits when funding runs out: See lines 220-224 for that method; It’s a lottery.
• Why would legislators vote to pass a bill that will surely put illegal aliens in front of Americans in the line for the touted “school choice” process?
• Lines 71- 75 in the bill do not spell out a real exclusion in state scholarship benefits for illegal aliens. The language is poorly researched and written, incomplete and unworkable.
• The 1982 Plyler v Doe SCOTUS decision says states must provide a K-12 education to all children regardless of immigration status in public schools. It does not in any way require that taxpayers fund a private school education for illegal aliens.
• K-12 students are not the only concern in SB 601. According to the language of the bill, it is the “parents” (“biological parent, legal guardian, custodian,” or other person with legal authority to act on behalf of a student”) who have the power to handle and distribute the state funds deposited in an account for the student. “Parents” also make up the committee that would be authorized to have oversight power on the funding approval process for expense items.
• There are 307 lines of text in the bill detailing every conceivable action and responsibility involved in the “school choice!” process. There are only 4 lines that allegedly deal with keeping illegal aliens out of the system. That is because the model legislation from Corey DeAnglelis and the American Federation for Children intentionally contains no section or text on excluding illegal aliens. Somebody in Georgia who doesn’t know the immigration issue tried to create a “fix.”
• Because there its no real language that would exclude illegal aliens in the current version of the bill (LC 49 0911) it can and would likely happen that Georgia taxpayers watch as their money goes to put illegal alien students in private schools while Americans are left behind in public schools and while illegal alien “parents” distribute state funds and have official power over state money and the scholarship program.

UPDATE, 8:10 PM: I forgot to include all of this: “To repeat: A landmark SCOTUS decision in 1982 (Plyler v Doe) requires states to offer K-12 education in public schools (not private schools) regardless of the student’s immigration status. It also prevents legally asking a K-12 student about immigration status – same for the student’s parents. You can read a summary or the syllabus.

I tried repeatedly to get a minute with the Lt. Governor’s Chief of Staff Macy McFall to explain all this but never received the hoped for phone call after two visits to the LG’s office today. I was successful in getting about a minute with Sen Miller and a staffer at an elevator to make it clear that his bill does not exclude illegal aliens. I have not yet received the promised follow-up phone call. Update, 8:43 AM March 9: I just called the Lt. Gov’s office and tried to give a heads up on all this to CoS Macy McFall – I got the brush-off. I sent her and other staffers this page via email. Update, 10:40 AM, March 9: Ms. McFall has emailed me to say she is reviewing my write-up.

Thank you Senator Mike Dugan

I am grateful to Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan for interrupting his lunch to speak to me in the hall so that I could give him and his CoS a heads up. My announced goal was to insure that there are no pleas of ignorance if the Republican senate passes SB 601 without major changes involving illegal immigration.

We have a real “fix”

While I am happy to send line-specific language, the general idea is that the scholarship should be made available to U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents only. The term “lawful presence” should be struck and there must be wording that requires the “parent (s)” of the eligible student to provide proof of the same status as the student.

I wrote it up here more than month ago.

 

 

 

 

Update: August 31, 2022: The below draft language is evolving and incomplete.

The reference (crossed out below) we had posted here previously to most of the text of OCGA 20-3-519.1 will not work – posting the entire text was an editing error. – dak -Aug 30, 2022.

______

DRAFT (partial)

Eligibility:

A student is ineligible for any “NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP” scholarship or grant described in this section if the student is not a United States citizen or lawfully admitted for permanent residence and a Lawful Permanent Resident under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

For purposes of this section, “lawfully admitted for permanent residence” means the status of having been lawfully accorded the privilege of residing permanently in the United States as an immigrant in accordance with U.S. immigration laws, such status not having changed. Such status terminates upon entry of a final administrative order of exclusion, deportation, or removal as defined by the permanent resident alien.

Application for NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP:

The Department shall create a dedicated application for NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP.

The NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP application shall state that it shall only be accepted for processing if accompanied by a certified copy of the U.S. issued birth certificate or valid, unexpired U.S. passport or a current copy of the USCIS Form I-551 (green card). or

Form N-550, Certificate of Naturalization; or Form N-560, Certificate of Citizenship;or

Form FS-240, or Report of Birth Abroad of United States Citizen.

Applicants or parents/ guardians for NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP shall complete the NAME OF SCHOLARSHIP application

__________

A required, universal and dedicated application can and should be drawn up that requires parents/guardians/custodians of applicants for the state scholarship to enter a valid Social Security Number for both the student scholarship recipient and the parent/guardian/custodian who will be authorized to deal with any disbursement of the state money.

It is important that the state does not ask any questions regarding immigration status of students or parents/guardians. Excluding anyone not a U.S. citizen or LPR eliminates the need to ask status. There must be a state penalty for adults filing an application with false information and

Update, June 5, 2022: Exclusion language already partially exists:

“Eligible student’ has the same meaning as provided in Code Section 20-3-519.1.” But bill language must carefully list what ID shall be presented  to prove status and all foreigners must present ID every year. See here.

Update: HB 999 & HB 60 died in committee. March 16, 2022: SB 601 failed to see final passage on the senate floor yesterday by a vote of 20-29. More here.

______

“School choice!” HB 60 and HB 999 (updated 8 March: and now SB 601) should be amended to contain clear language that defines and limits eligibility and requires submission of the below forms with the application for scholarship consideration.

We urge the adults in the Capitol to limit the Wes Cantrell rushed-up, K-12 “Promise Scholarship” funding to U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders). We aren’t sure there is any There is no other way to insure the public funding doesn’t end up financing private schools for illegal aliens sooner or later.

Update, Feb 26, 2022: Note: I was asked by a senior Rep to send in draft language more than two weeks ago on this. I did. Then the House Republicans went silent on the illegal immigration topic. I did not receive a reply.

A required, universal and dedicated application can and should be drawn up that requires parents/guardians/custodians of applicants for the state scholarship to enter a valid Social Security Number for both the student scholarship recipient and the parent/guardian/custodian who will be authorized to deal with any disbursement of the state money.

Related: More on Rep Cantrell’s HB 60 & HB 999 – his verification system will not work

The application should state that it shall only be accepted for processing if accompanied by a certified copy of the U.S. issued birth certificate or valid, unexpired U.S. passport or a current copy of the USCIS Form I-551 (green card).

Or:

• Form N-550, Certificate of Naturalization;
• Form N-560, Certificate of Citizenship;
• Form FS-240, Report of Birth Abroad of United States Citizen.

We also urge all concerned to take their time, watch Cantrell & Co. carefully and to become acquainted with basic immigration facts. His current “fix” ..isn’t.

We say again: Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and more arrive every week.

• Related: It took awhile to follow our noses on on this one but to nobody’s surprise it is coming in large part from the open borders Cato folks.

 

 

The column below originally ran on the subscription news and opinion website Insider Advantage Georgia and is posted here with permission.

 

“Lacking language that excluded illegal immigrants from this “driver’s seat” position, had the bills passed, Georgia Republicans would have created a system in which illegal alien parents/guardians had authority to distribute and directly manage taxpayer funds for a private school education for their illegal alien children.”

By Inger Eberhart

Inger Eberhart is Communications Director and a member of the advisory board of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society

One of the first things I learned in my years as an occasional citizen lobbyist under the Gold Dome was that one should not accept the hype or the “trust us” narrative on any legislation unless and until you actually read the bill. As the old adage goes, “the devil is in the details.”

That advice should be taken to heart by voters who are understandably clamoring for legislative financial help in moving their children from the public K-12 school system and the legislators and conservative groups pushing for “school choice” in Georgia.

Another hard-earned lesson in judging the worth of legislation is to keep a firm grasp on reality while all about you are howling for quick passage of what seems to be a “popular” bill.

Some too-often ignored reality in Georgia is that Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers encountered roughly 2.5 million illegal aliens in the fiscal year that just ended September 30 — smashing the previous record of 1.7 million set last year.

More reality: For a large share of these illegal border crossers, Georgia is a very popular destination. We are already home to more illegal aliens than live in Arizona.

School choice is a solid idea. Encouraging and rewarding illegal immigration into Georgia with offers of a taxpayer-financed private K-12 school education isn’t. The former does not have to include the latter.

In the fiscal year ended September 30, at least 266,000 unaccompanied migrant children/minors have been encountered at the southern border, per U.S. Customs & Border Protection agency data. That’s almost enough to fill up UGA’s Sanford Stadium three times. Jessica Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington tells us that about 80% of the minors are placed with family members who are already living here illegally – including in Georgia.

A 2013 study of the motivation of illegal immigrants in choosing U.S. locations as migration destinations (“Why we stay…”) from University of Wisconsin researchers reported that illegal immigrants consistently cite superior American schools as a key reason for remaining in the United States.

In the 2021-2022 General Assembly, three separate “school choice” bills were introduced by Republican sponsors. HB 60 and HB 999 were stopped in the House committee process and SB 601 was defeated on the floor when the vote came for final passage. None of them had genuine, effective, or workable language to exclude illegal alien students or families from accessing the taxpayer funded “Promise Scholarship” accounts set up for students.

The bills, products of model legislation from the open borders Cato Institute-linked American Federation for Children, set up accounts that could be used for private school tuition, private tutoring and homeschool co-ops. Advocates say the bills would have “put the parents in the driver’s seat…” Indeed.

The process of administering the tax dollars sent to “Promise Scholarship” accounts for the students would have been done by the parents or guardians. Further, the legislation set up an oversight committee process made up of parents who would have had the legal ability to decide on eligible scholarship expenses.

Lacking language that excluded illegal immigrants from this “driver’s seat” position, had the bills passed, Georgia Republicans would have created a system in which illegal alien parents/guardians had authority to distribute and directly manage taxpayer funds for a private school education for their illegal alien children. Not many thinking Georgians of any description can believe this “school choice” benefit would serve to deter illegal immigration into the Peach State.

A poll on the subject from the school choice advocacy group ‘GeorgiaCAN’ shows high favorable numbers on the “Promise Scholarship” concept described here, but the element of sending illegal immigrant children to private schools courtesy of Georgia taxpayers was not part of the survey.

We submit that the results of a voter poll with a simple question “do you favor the use of tax dollars to send illegal immigrant students to private school in Georgia?” would not be useful in selling most voters on any poorly written school choice legislation in the 2023-2024 General Assembly.

An August letter to the editor published in my hometown Cherokee Tribune from an independent conservative voter summed up the sentiment of a large swath of informed voters with “as a black, conservative American who votes Republican, it is impossible to express my own outrage that any politician would suggest that we increase the benefits already offered to illegals and thereby make Georgia even more attractive to the endless stream of illegals the GOP claims to want to stop.”

A 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v Doe, requires states to offer K-12 public education to students regardless of immigration status. There is no law or ruling that creates a requirement for Georgia taxpayers to send illegal aliens to private school. Legislators with serious intent to pass “school choice” legislation should include common sense language that limits eligibility to U.S. citizens and green card holders.

#

Please read the entire column from Inger at Insider Advantage.