Updated January 18, 2002

The Schedule

The deadline for introduction of bills is 5 p.m., Friday, January 18. Governor Warner faces a Tuesday deadline for submitting his amendments to the budget, while legislators have until Thursday to submit budget amendments.

The House Education Committee meets Mondays at 8:30 a.m. in House Room C and Wednesdays at 8 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. It seems that legislators receive gloomier reports about the budget situation every day. In his state of the Commonwealth address Monday, January 14, Governor Mark Warner called for deeper across-the-board cuts for state agencies of 3% in the current fiscal year, 7% in FY 03 and 8% in FY04. He indicated that he will use the rainy day fund and a controversial intergovernmental transfer involving Medicaid to help close a $1.2 billion dollar budget gap in FY02. He said he also will reluctantly use about $57 million from the Literary Fund as an additional revenue source. All these proposals were contained in the budget introduced by then-Governor Gilmore. Legislators are expected to submit budget amendments that restore funding for the school construction grants program, the lottery hold harmless program and for the retired teachers health care credit. State funding for these items were eliminated or shifted to localities in the introduced budget.

Dozens of education-related bills have been introduced already, yet only a handful 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 access to all bills assigned to the House Education and Senate Education and Health Committees. Below is a list of some of the most significant education-related bills submitted so far:

 

HB 47	Guidelines for additional criteria for verified credit (also HB 493)
HB 48	Multiple criteria for school accreditation
HB 108	Required posting of the statement “In God We Trust” in schools
HB 161	Guidelines for posting of the Ten Commandments in schools
HB 333	Codifies the Early Intervention Reading Program
HB 357	Requires school board policies that require parental approval for student to participate in certain school surveys
HB 461	Requires reading assessments in grades 1-3
HB 512	Relaxes student suspension and expulsion requirements for certain acts
HB 734	Amendments to the state charter school law
HB 971	Requires guidelines for special circumstances under the Gun Free Schools Act
HB 1011	Establishes a Professional Standards Board for Teachers
HB 1110	Directs validity and reliability assessment of the SOL tests
HB 1119	Tuition tax credit for certain educational contributions
HB 1135	Directs development of a formula for awarding verified credit that reflects SOL test scores and end of course grades
HJ 30	Study of school vouchers and tuition tax credits
SB 52	Required weekly planning time for elementary teachers
SB 276	Joint title (school board/local government) to school property

A handful of bills that would implement recommendations proposed by the recent study of education funding by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) have been submitted. HB 1047 and SB 216 propose amending the Standards of Quality (SOQ) to provide state funding for a 21:1 student/teacher ratio at the secondary level, for elementary school resource teachers and for providing funds to all localities for preschool programs for at-risk children. Both bills also call on the state to pay 55% of total actual costs of public education, as does HB 758. HB 1049. SB 217 and SB 509 contain the at-risk four year old component, while HB 1038 addresses SOQ funding for elementary resource teachers.

CEPI legislation to establish a legislative study committee to review, study and reform educational leadership has been submitted by Delegate Hamilton (HJR 20) and Senator Hanger (SJR 58). These bills have been assigned to their respective Rules Committee.

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