With the second day of the session closing out....38 to go....Gov. Perdue laid out some plans for transportation and education.

Gov. Sonny Perdue this morning laid out the basics of what he wants out of his final legislative session.

His biggest priority, in a speech to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, is a major change in the way teachers are compensated. In a session with reporters afterwards, Perdue said the details would take two to three years to work out - far beyond his term of office.
The governor said the change would have no immediate budget impact. Here's the text of his prepared speech on the topic:

In our current system, teachers only receive salary increases for years spent in the classroom and advanced degrees earned. Every year, we spend a tremendous amount of money increasing pay for new degrees - and that may have been the right input-oriented approach before we got serious about measuring the outcomes of student achievement. But why would we continue to base pay on a proxy, when we now have the ability to pay for the real thing - student growth?

By failing to do so, we are losing some of our best teachers - bright and ambitious young people who are passionate about helping kids succeed in school. Many would rather put extra time into helping students achieve than going back to school just to get an increase in pay. But our current system only incentivizes the academic degree, not the degree to which students learn.

The bill that we will put forth this year preserves the current salary structure, but will also allow current teachers to opt-in to a new, performance-based pay structure. Those already enrolled in advanced degree programs can choose to complete their studies and remain in the present salary schedule.
New hires and current teachers who opt-in will now be able to make the kind of salaries that are now reserved for those coaches and administrators. Why should we continue to tell our best classroom teachers they must leave what they love and do best in order to compete economically with their peers?

We have made student performance the driving factor behind our state's education reforms. Now, the nation is heading in the same direction. This should be a catalyst to make progressive, common-sense steps in education.

Perdue also proposed a Georgia alternative to the health care reform debate in Washington:

Unfortunately, stewardship of our nation's financial resources doesn't appear to be a top priority in Washington these days. The health care bills currently under consideration will create a financial burden on the states that is simply unmanageable. Governors of both parties from across the country have continued to raise concerns, and Congress obviously understands the problem. They have addressed it by cutting special deals for a few states in order to win votes, instead of fixing the bill for the whole country.

We have focused on making health insurance more affordable and available for more Georgians. We made low-cost, high-deductible insurance plans more available by removing burdensome regulations and providing tax credits and deductions. But we can do more, particularly in the individual market, to encourage those that are uninsured to find a plan that works for them. And we need to act now, as Washington rushes to require Americans to buy health insurance or face fines and penalties.

To that end, I will introduce legislation this year that will allow individuals to buy health plans that have been approved for sale in other states. This restriction on interstate commerce has never made sense. With sweeping insurance mandates on the horizon the time has come to open up the individual insurance market and allow consumers to find the plan that fits their needs best.

The governor also hinted - but only hinted - that he would get behind some sort of effort to tackle the state's transportation problems:

As this Chamber well knows, I have not been prepared to recommend additional funding until the planning process changed to recognize return on investment and accountability. I believe we are now getting there. And with apologies to Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that ... today. (www.ajc.com)

We'll keep talking to the news makers.  I will have a new entry on the new blog site www.dailycaller.com and later this week a column on humanevents.com.  Watch here and log onto www.marthazoller.com for everything Martha.

Sen. Mitch Seabaugh dropped new legislation to clarify the gun laws in Georgia. If you are an advocate of the 2nd Amendment, you need to be up on this. (http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2010/01/gun-bill-unveiled.html)