The 2006 General Assembly is now in session
Week 4 Update—February 3, 2006
“Cross-over day,” the last day for each house to act on its own bills, is February 14. House and Senate versions of the two-year budget for fiscal years 2005 and 2006 will be released on February 19.
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 (Meetings).
The Budget
Teacher salaries received a lot of attention at the General Assembly this past week. On Wednesday, the House Education Committee considered HB 1084, which would require that the average state teacher salary reach the national average. The bill was narrowly defeated in the committee on a 12-10 vote. A similar measure, SB 324, which establishes a state goal that the average teacher salary equal or surpass the national average, is pending in the Senate Finance Committee.
The next day, Governor Kaine and Lt. Governor Bolling held a news conference at which they revealed their common legislative goals. One of those agenda items was their support for a “budget amendment to begin the process of moving teacher pay to the national average and provide for regular professional evaluations of teachers.” Recall that one of the budget amendments submitted by the governor last week would increase teacher salaries by an additional 1% on top of the 3% payraise included in the introduced budget, at an additional two-year state cost of $39.5 million.
Budget amendments submitted by legislators were being heard in subcommittees this past week. The House and Senate money committees have about two weeks to prepare their respective versions of the next two-year state spending plan. The budget proposal submitted by Mark Warner in his final days as governor contains $1.5 billion more for public education over the two-year period. Most of this funding ($942 million) is to update state costs of the Standards of Quality (SOQ). Click here for additional information about Warner's proposed education budget for 2006-2008 (Budget Bill)
Legislation
The Senate Education and Health Committee has narrowly turned back a bill that would have provided scholarships to a private school of choice for students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP) whose parents were dissatisfied with their child’s progress in the public schools. The bill, SB 545, was modeled after Florida’s McKay Scholarships, which have run into legal trouble in that state. Most of the state’s major education groups opposed the measure. After the bill failed to be approved by an 8-7 vote, it unanimously was carried over until next year.
The Senate committee also carried over for the year SB 241, which would have placed the burden of persuasion on the school division in an administrative hearing concerning a student’s IEP.
The Senate Finance Committee considered a bill this past week that would increase the retired teacher health care credit from the current $2.50/month per year of service to $4, the amount now provided to state workers. However, the bill was rolled into another measure to be voted on next week. The committee also defeated a tuition tax credit bill, SB 189. A House version, HB 1294, dubbed the Public/Private Education Investment Tax Credit, was scheduled to be heard this morning in a House Finance subcommittee.
Here’s an update on some other action this past week:
HB 58 Requires school resource officers, where present in schools, to provide Internet safety instruction to students (passed House).
HB 377 Requires the BOE to replace any school board where all schools in the school division fail to meet SOA requirements for four consecutive years (carried over until 2007).
HB 1242 Places restrictions on the administration of certain surveys or questionnaires to students (reported by House Education).
HB 1593 Directs the BOE, in cooperation with the State Health Department, to develop regulations to facilitate the prevention and reduction of childhood obesity in the schools (carried over until 2007).
The House Education Committee has more than 30 bills to debate next week, while only a handful of education-related bills remain before the Senate Education and Health Committee. Several bills are pending in the House committee that would modify the current education funding formula and calculation of the composite index. Other bills in House Education would 1) require local school divisions to allocate 65% of their operating budget to instructional spending, 2) strengthen the requirements on parents providing home instruction, 3) require school boards to pay higher salaries to teachers in high-demand subject areas and prohibits any cap on maximum teacher salaries; and 4) direct the BOE to not require licensure for school superintendents, principals, assistant principals and supervisors.
Also still pending in House Education is HB 392, which provides that all costs incurred by localities resulting from student testing required by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act must be paid by the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, two sets of companion bills still pending in both committees direct the BOE to develop an NCLB Act initiative elimination plan, and direct the state to withdraw from NCLB participation
Please contact CEPI if you have any questions or need additional information about the 2006 General Assembly.
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