CEPI - Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute

Updated January 22, 2001

The Schedule

The deadline for introduction of bills is 5 p.m., Friday, January 19. Amendments to the budget, submitted this past week, will be available January 23. House and Senate versions of the budget will be presented Sunday, February 4. “Cross-over day,” the last day for each house to act on its own bills, is February 6.

The House Education Committee meets Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. in House Room C and Fridays at 9:00 a.m. in the Appropriations Room. The Senate Education and Health Committee will meet on Thursdays at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Room B. Sub-committees will meet periodically throughout the session. Please click for a schedule of weekly meetings.

The Issues

The budget continues to be the dominant issue at the General Assembly, as legislators submitted hundreds of budget amendments requesting millions of dollars of changes to the items proposed in the budget introduced by the Governor in December. Education budget amendments expected to be introduced include those to provide the state share of a 6% teacher salary increase and to restore full state funding of the health care credit for retired teachers. Lawmakers have received an updated state revenue projection that shows revenue growth was just .2% in the first half of the fiscal year. The FY01 budget is built on a projected 3.8% growth in revenue, and in order to meet that figure, revenue growth the remainder of this fiscal year must be 6.8%. S

Only a handful of education-related bills had been approved through the end of the first full week of the session. Full committees will act upon more bills next week. Please click for a listing of all bills assigned to the House Education and Senate Education and Health Committee. Below is a list of the most significant education-related bills submitted so far:

HB 1589	Retired teachers returning to work without losing retiring benefits (also HB 252, HB 2510, SB 954 and SB 1248).
HB 1691	Requires Internet filtering software in public schools.
HB 1841	Directs development of instructional program for Internet (Special subcommittee to study this year).
HB 1961	Tax credits for educational expenses (also HB 2498 is a local option voucher system).
HB 1977	Prevailing teacher salary for SOQ funding to be based on actual salaries (also HB 2151).
HB 1996	Employee background checks for all felonies and misdemeanor offenses (currently, search is done for all felonies and certain misdemeanors).
HB 2024	Requires development of a formula for full funding of remedial summer school programs.
HB 2111	Establishes the Early Intervention Reading Initiative Program and Fund to assist school divisions with diagnosing and addressing student reading difficulties (also SB 1313).
HB 2122	Multiple criteria for awarding diplomas (also HB 2394 and SB 1265).
HB 2163	Multiple criteria for school accreditation (also HB 2391 and SB 1265).
HB 2439	School boards may alter previously-made decision to accept or reject charter schools.
HB 2512	Reorganizes the student discipline statutes.
SB 1331	Students required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Date Last Updated: 06/21/2002