Updated February 2, 2001

The Schedule

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. Click for a schedule of weekly meetings.

The Issues

It appears likely that education will figure prominently into the House and Senate versions of the budget to be released on Sunday. Some state funding for a teacher salary increase in FY02, likely in the 3%-3.5% range, is probable. The two spending plans are expected to focus on restoring funding reductions proposed by the introduced budget amendments, rather than on providing dollars for new initiatives. Look for details on the proposed House and Senate budgets in the next update.

Education bills are winding their way through the legislative process. However, at this writing, both the House and Senate Education Committees had additional meetings scheduled to clear their dockets of bills prior to the Tuesday, February 6 “crossover day.” This week featured a long debate on the House floor over HB 1961, a bill to provide tax credits for contributions to organizations providing scholarships for educational expenses at public or private schools. Several amendments were added to the bill, prompting the patron to strike it from the calendar later in the week.

The House approved HB 2394 which allows the classwork grade of a student who has narrowly failed the relevant Standards of Learning (SOL) test twice to be considered in order to receive a verified unit of credit (needed to meet graduation requirements). The House Education Committee, on a 16-5 vote, has approved HB 2163 which allows the use of various criteria (other than solely student performance on SOL tests) in determining school accreditation.

Also in the approval pipeline are two bills HB 2512 and SB 1359 that reorganize and clarify the numerous student discipline sections of the Code. These bills are recommendations of the Commission on Youth. HB 2512 has passed the House, while SB 1359 cleared the Senate Education and Health Committee.

The House also has approved HB 1961, which requires filtering or blocking software on school computers with Internet capabilities. This comes on the heels of a similar federal requirement contained in the Congressional budget accord reached in December.

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