Updated Friday January 20, 2006

“Cross-over day,” the last day for each house to act on its own bills, is February 17. House and Senate versions of the two-year budget for fiscal years 2005 and 2006 will be released on February 22.  

The House Education Committee is scheduled to meet on Mondays at 9:00 a.m. in House Room C and Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. in the Appropriations Room.  The Senate Education and Health Committee meets on Thursdays at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Room B.  Sub-committees will meet periodically throughout the session. Click here for a schedule of weekly meetings (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?021+oth+MTG

The Budget

Entering the last two weeks before crossover day, the House and Senate committees dealing with state revenues are voting on various tax bills. Their actions likely will set the stage for a showdown between the two chambers over the shape of the 2004-2006 state budget. On Wednesday, the House Finance Committee defeated a couple of dozen measures that sought to raise revenue through increased income, sales, cigarette and gas taxes. One of the defeated measures was HB 1270, which would have increased the sales tax to support school construction and the At-Risk Student Achievement initiative endorsed by VACo , VML, VASS and the First Cities Coalition. Other defeated bills that would have increased the sales tax, with revenue generated to be put toward public education, include HB 1052 and HB 1286. The House Appropriations Committee is expected to prepare its version of the budget relying only on projected revenue growth and not any tax policy changes, a move that also will necessitate state spending reductions that could total $1 billion. Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee will hear most of its revenue measures next week. The Senate is expected to endorse a package that enhances tax collections even more than proposed by Governor Mark Warner in December. The House and Senate versions of the budget, which will differ greatly, will be released February 22.

On Monday morning at 11 a.m., the Virginia Education Association and the Foundation of Virginia will lead an education rally to call attention to the need for meaningful dollars for public education. Scheduled speakers include Governor Warner and Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Chichester. Meanwhile, the governor has released information detailing the impact of his proposed budget and tax reform plan on each of the state’s counties, cities and towns. That information can be found at http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Initiatives/TaxReform 

Legislation      

The House Finance Committee has reported and sent to House Appropriations a bill, HB 1036, that would establish a Children At-Risk in Education Tax Credit, to be awarded to businesses for eligible contributions to scholarship funding organizations that may award grants for students’ tuition in public and nonpublic schools. House Education also sent to House Appropriations HB 1013, which creates the At-Risk Student Academic Achievement Program and Fund, to provide noncompetitive grants to public school divisions to implement programs designed to (i) improve the academic achievement of at-risk public school students on the Standards of Learning assessments, (ii) decrease the rate of dropout among at-risk public school students, and (iii) increase the number of such students obtaining the advanced studies diploma. However, passage of this bill is unlikely given the Finance Committee’s rejection of HB 1270 as explained above.

HB 1014 and SB 479, the Board of Education’s (BOE) proposed revisions to the Standards of Quality (SOQ), are on track in their respective chambers. The House Appropriations Committee has approved a substitute version of HB 1014, which contains a provision that standards requiring funding shall not take effect unless the state's share of funding that standard is included in the budget. SB 479 is in the Senate Finance Committee.

Here’s an update on other action this past week:

HB 519 required schools to be closed on the Martin Luther King holiday. House Education approved an amendment to allow schools to be open if the day was being used to make up a lost teaching day.

HB 1015 was approved on a split vote by the House Education Committee to require the BOE to include certain information about sexual assault and the use of emergency contraception in response to sexual assault, as items in the curriculum guidelines for family life education.

HB 1254, reported by House Education, requires reporting of SOL test scores for each year, with scores to be disaggregated for each school by gender and by race or ethnicity, and to be reported to the public within three months of their receipt.

HB 1331 requires the BOE to include hazing in its guidelines and model policies for codes of student conduct and school boards to prohibit hazing in their codes of student conduct. It was approved by House Education.

SB 27, approved by the Senate Education and Health Committee, requires employers to permit employees who are parents of a school-aged child to take up to four hours of leave annually in order to attend or otherwise be involved in the child's school. Such leave need not be compensated.

SB 138, the perennial legislation to repeal the post-Labor Day school opening law, was defeated in Senate Education and Health.

SB 416 requires the BOE to consult with the superintendent study groups to review test scores by school divisions for coding and other errors, and prompt reporting to local school divisions of test scores to be used to determine each school's status pursuant to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It was approved by Senate Education and Health.

SB 452 clarifies the circumstances in which state basic aid funding will be reduced because of school closings due to severe weather conditions or other emergency situations and provides that when schools are closed under such conditions, that schools make up the first five days plus one day for each two days missed after the first five. It was approved by Senate Education and Health.

            Several bills of note that are still pending. HB 845 is the administration’s charter school bill that gives priority to applications targeting student populations served by unaccredited schools, increases the maximum charter term approval or renewal from three to five years and creates a Charter Schools Assistance Program and Fund to assist with school construction or leasing. A competing measure is HB 380, which proposes numerous revisions to the six-year old charter schools law, including increasing the term of charter from three to seven years, deleting school board authority to revoke the charter if it finds the charter is not in the public interest or for the welfare of the students, and allowing school boards to hire and place in a charter school, personnel otherwise qualified but who may be unlicensed as teachers and administrators. These bills were to be heard in a House Education subcommittee on Friday.

            In addition, yet to be considered are SB 487, which requires DMV to suspend a student’s driver’s license for one year if such student has been expelled, suspended or required to attend an alternative programs for more than 10 days for violating school policies related to alcohol, drugs or assault on a teacher; and HB 696, which could affect the provision of nursing services in schools, It proposes to make it a state law violation to "facilitate" the violation of any statute or regulation governing the practice of any regulated profession or occupation and to cover any statutory or regulatory requirement for direction and supervision of the practice of any regulated profession or occupation.

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