House education subcommittees advance literacy pilot, release‑time religious instruction and urge expanded vision and hearing screening

Members of two Georgia House education subcommittees on separate agenda items advanced multiple measures on literacy, student health and school policy, sending each to full committee.

Representative Bazemore’s House Bill 200, a proposal to create a three‑year pilot immersive writing program for public elementary schools, drew the most sustained discussion. The subcommittee approved the bill on a voice vote and sent it to the full committee.

The bill would direct the State Board of Education to establish a pilot that provides grants for immersive writing programs serving students in grades 2 through 5, with an explicit alignment to state writing standards and an evaluation component. Representative Bazemore said the bill aims to give “all of our young people the opportunity to experience this program,” citing an example in which students write and publish books through a classroom program. Connie Crowley, identified as a retired Georgia teacher, literacy advocate and developer of the Share Your Story program, told the committee that immersive writing makes writing “fun and accessible” and reported that Share Your Story has published more than 200 student books in Georgia classrooms.

On funding, Bazemore told the committee the pilot would be subject to legislative appropriation. He initially referenced a larger figure when speaking off the bill text but read the bill language to the committee: “subject to appropriations by the General Assembly, the pilot program shall…