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Ga. Lawmakers Focus on Budget Flexibility for Schools

Atlanta

As the legislative session winds to a close, Georgia lawmakers have stalled more controversial pieces of education legislation in favor of giving some financial flexibility to cash-strapped schools.

A bill that would have expanded the state's school voucher program for special needs students to include children from military families and in foster care never made it past the Senate. Gov. Sonny Perdue's bill that would have created a merit pay system for teachers based on student achievement died in committee. And legislation to crack down on school bullies has only cleared the House.

Instead, lawmakers chose to focus on a package of bills that grant waivers to school districts through 2013 for many state spending controls and other policies,...