Improving Education

 

Senator Moody believes that education excellence is the best way to ensure prosperity for our state.  After serving as a freshman senator, he was entrusted with the chairmanship of the Education and Youth Committee.  Moody was quickly recognized as a leader in education policy, and in early 2004, he was appointed by Governor Perdue to serve on the Southern Regional Education Board Legislative Advisory Council which is comprised of legislators representing 16 southern states.  The Senator currently serves as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations’ Education Subcommittee. With Senator Moody’s guidance and support, numerous innovative legislative initiatives have been implemented to improve education including:

 

·         Reducing class sizes and removing unruly children from the classroom, allowing teachers to provide more individual attention to the students that truly want to learn

·         Rewarding “Master Teachers” for improving outcomes with a 10% pay increase if they agree to mentor less experience teachers or work in under-achieving schools

·         Restoring the education funding shortfalls created by the last recession and requiring schools to spend more tax dollars on instruction in the classroom, not bureaucracy

·         Allowing school systems more flexibility from regulations in exchange for performance measures and loss of governance if they fail to meet their goals in 5 years

·         Establishing Charter School Systems to give parents more control in their children’s educational development and creating scholarships for children with special needs

·         Creating the Georgia Virtual High School which grants students online access to college prep courses and funded an online SAT prep course for every student

·         Saving Georgia’s popular HOPE Scholarship program from financial disaster by implementing better management of Lottery funds

 

 

Economy Opportunity

 

Senator Moody is passionate about improving education because he understands that an educated workforce is essential to continued job creation and economic opportunity in Georgia. And his experience as a former successful small business owner instilled his confidence in the power of free markets and the necessity of limited government.  Since taking office, Moody has worked to streamline government bureaucracy and increase efficiency in order to return more money to the taxpayers and the companies that create jobs.  This year alone the Senator Moody voted for over $600 Million in tax relief including:

 

  • $428 Million for property owners via the Homeowners Tax Relief Grant
  • $22 Million for exemptions of equipment used in manufacturing and to cap taxes on energy used in manufacturing
  • $12.5 Million for the sales tax holidays for school products, clothing, computer items, and energy efficient products
  • $17 Million for additional tax credits for creating new jobs
  • $40 Million to expand Conservation Use Tax Credits, Job Tax Credits for solar energy manufacturing, Motor Fuel Exemptions for mass transit, Sales Tax Exemptions for clean energy products
  • $50 Million to establish Tuition Tax Credits for individuals and companies to invest in education scholarships

 

 

Other Critical Issues

 

Senator Moody has worked hard to reduce burdensome government mandates, eliminate wasteful spending, and focus state government on fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities.  This renewed commitment to the necessary and proper roles of state government has allowed the Republican majority to prioritize education and job creation as well as develop innovative solutions to the emerging problems of the growing and ever changing state.  In the past six years, Senator Moody and his colleagues have effectively addressed a wide range of issues including:

       

·         Water - In the midst of a historic drought, designed a comprehensive Statewide Water Management Plan and funded  the expansion of reservoirs to increase storage capacity

·         Illegal immigration - Strengthened verification requirements to ensure that non-citizens are not receiving taxpayer funded state service

·         Sexual Predators - Passed the strongest law in the nation to protect children from the sexual predators, improved monitoring through GPS technology, and began tracking and arresting online predators

·         Health Care - Improved competition in the health care delivery market and provided tax incentives for the self-employed and small businesses to purchase health insurance

·         Environment - Encouraged land conservation by offering tax credits to owners that agree not to develop large tracts of land

·         Traffic - Invested $15.5 Billion in Governor Perdue’s Fast Forward transportation improvement plan and developed programs to encourage car pooling, telecommuting, and utilization of mass transit

·         Eminent Domain - Stopped non-elected agencies from using eminent domain and restricted elected governments from taking property for the benefit of developers

·         Identity Theft - Gave Georgians the ability to freeze their credit reports to protect themselves and their family from identity theft predators

·         Government Ethics - Passed comprehensive ethics reform that increased transparency, reduced conflicts-of-interest, strengthened financial disclosures, and raised fines for violators

·         Election Integrity - Required photo identification for voting to ensure fair elections and reduce fraud

 

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