Passage of

Gov. Roy Barnes' education bill is a sure thing,

according to Sen. Rick Price.

"I

will not lie to you, the bill will pass, but how will we

make it work?" Price said Wednesday night during a

town hall meeting attended by about 45 Fayette County

parents and teachers at Starr's Mill High School.

The

controversial 149-page bill was expected to be voted upon

in the Senate Thursday and be kicked back to the House

again next week, Price predicted. While Price and Sen.

Greg Hecht said they were not sure how they would vote,

they agreed that their decision would be in the

"best interest" of Georgia, particularly

Fayette County. "I may vote for the bill... I have

concerns about it, but I want to be on the inside when it

comes to distributing money in Fayette County,"

Hecht said.

Rep. Kathy

Cox voted against the bill when it was in the House and

said she will vote against it again. "I've fought...

I feel like I've been through battle, but I cannot in my

heart vote for it," Cox said. "It will be

political suicide for me in the Capitol, but I cannot

cast a yes vote." Cox admitted that she had learned

a lot about "politics and power" in the last

few weeks.

"A

large number [of elected officials] don't want to give

the power to Linda Schrenko [state school

superintendent]," she said, adding, "We have

70,000 children in failing schools. Why not give the

hammer to the department of education?"

Cox said

one of the major points among Republicans in the House

was that reform should begin now and not be phased in

over four years, which is a point in the education plan.

While the

assembly of parents, teachers and paraprofessionals

expressed their displeasure with the bill and asked

questions concerning various facets of it, it appeared

that its passage is a done deal.

Janet

Smola, local education and fund-raising activist, pointed

out that the delegation is in a difficult position.

"Georgia education needs reform now... if [the bill]

doesn't pass, there will be a whole year of nothing going

on."

She

advocated that the legislators support the good parts of

the bill and try to make the undesirable portions

"more palatable."

Key items

of concern voiced by those assembled included the

mandatory age for children to begin school, which has

reportedly been lowered to six; the funding formulas

which could affect Fayette County positively or

negatively at this point; the growing teacher shortage;

appointment of school advisory boards, and how school

districts could expand facilities if the teacher-student

ratio is lowered.

"It's

a bad bill," Mike Nelson Palmer, a Peachtree City

resident and parent of two school-age children, told the

delegation. "I can't keep up with page 233, line 15

of the 12th version. "It's ugly... the governor is

going to pass it... you stay in there fighting."