The 2008 General Assembly is now in session
Week 1 Update—January 11, 2008
The 2008 General Assembly session began Wednesday, January 9, 2008. The session runs 60 days and is scheduled to end on March 8, 2008. “Cross-over day,” the last day for each house to act on its own bills, is February 12. House and Senate versions of the two-year budget for fiscal years 2009 and 2010 will be released on February 17.
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 will meet on Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. in Senate Room B. Sub-committees will meet periodically throughout the session.
Click here for a schedule of weekly meetings.
New budget to be shaped
Governor Kaine submitted his proposed 2008-2010 state budget to the General Assembly money committees in mid-December. It carries forward into the next biennium nearly all the reductions made in October to address the FY08 budget gap. His plan projects growth in state revenues to be about 3.3 percent for the remainder of FY08 and for FY09, and about 6.7 percent in FY10. About 90 percent of the new expenditures are targeted for existing services. During his State of the Commonwealth address on Wednesday night, he reiterated his support for education funding:
“We must also ensure that the gains made in early education are maintained by fully funding the rebenchmarking of the Standards of Quality for K-12 and maintaining the “At Risk” monies that the General Assembly has traditionally approved. My budget makes that major investment in our public schools.
We have also made strides in raising teachers’ salaries toward the national average. Despite our challenging fiscal situation, I have proposed continuing that progress, by funding the state share of a 3.5% pay increase for teachers and other instructional staff effective July 1, 2009.”
Here is a run-down of major education-budget provisions contained in Governor Kaine’s proposed spending plan:
Under the governor’s plan, public education funding is increased by over $1 billion, the overwhelming majority ($890 million) of which is targeted for updating state education costs through the biennial rebenchmarking process. State funding for categorical and incentive programs also are increased due to cost calculation updating.
These increases do not reflect changes in policy but adjust the cost of continuing current programs with the required data revisions. The budget proposes the state share of a three percent pay raise for public school employees, with an additional one-half percent targeted for teachers and other instructional personnel, effective in the second year (July 1, 2009). This effective date would alter a long-standing practice of having state dollars for school employee pay raises made available during the middle of the fiscal (and school) year.
It includes $80 million each year as the state’s share of the cost of textbooks, based on a per pupil amount of $119.39 in both FY09 and FY10. Recalculation of local composite indexes results in additional state funding of $4.9 million in the first year and $5.0 million in the second year. The budget also anticipates an additional $34 million in lottery proceeds over the biennium and $45 million more in sales tax, part of which are shared with school divisions. Recall that at least half of lottery proceeds returned to local school divisions must be used on non-recurring expenses.
The spending plan proposes to expand the Virginia Preschool Initiative to serve an additional 7,000 children; the proposal increases the maximum per pupil amount, caps the local match at 50% and requires more cooperation with private providers in creating preschool slots.
The budget decreases state funding for teacher fringe benefits by $29.3 million in FY 09 and $29.5 million in FY10 due to changes in rates. State funding is based on a contribution rate of 9.35 percent for retirement, a retiree health care credit rate of 1.12 percent, and an employer rate for group life of .36 percent, rates which all are lower than the current ones. The budget continues to grab Literary Fund dollars ($30 million over the two years) to help pay state costs for teacher retirement. Funding for the school construction grants program is maintained at $27.5 million each year.
Other amendments propose the following:
- $2 million for the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) to provide grants for communities to develop school readiness councils to address the comprehensive needs of children from birth to school entry.
- $4.6 million to implement a voluntary quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) to assess, rate, and support improvement in the quality of early childhood programs.
- $2.1 million (second year) to fund data coordinators in the 54 high schools currently not fully accredited by the state. Language encourages school divisions to use any new at-risk add-on funding that exceeds the amounts received in FY08 to place data coordinators in at-risk schools throughout the school division.
We can expect education funding to be a critical part of discussions in the money committees in the coming weeks, as legislators review rebenchmarking dollars, mull compensation increases for school employees and debate the proposed preschool expansion. Click here for additional information about Governor Kaine's proposed education budget for 2008-2010.
Education Legislation
Many education-related bills already have been introduced and printed. Here are some of the highlights. Additional legislation will be listed in next week's report.
HB 60 Directs school divisions to allocate 65% of their operating budget to instructional spending. Expenditures for the likes of food services, building maintenance and operation and transportation are not included.
HB 92 Requires the state average teacher salary to be no less than the annual national average teacher salary (also SB 267).
HB 140 Requires local governing bodies and local school boards to annually publish their approved budgets online (also SB 376).
HB 150 Directs local school boards to establish a division safety hotline for the anonymous reporting of threats of imminent violence or other suspicious or criminal conduct.
HB 209 Requires local school boards to establish a collaborative agreement with a local law-enforcement agency to employ one full-time school resource officer for each school.
HB 214 Adds public entities, including schools, to the list of public places in which persons with disabilities are entitled to the same full and free rights as other persons.
HB 242 Requires local school boards, by the 2013-2014 school year, to implement a minimum of 150 minutes of physical education per week for all K-12 students.
HB 255 Allows local school boards to determine the school calendar.
HB 273 Directs VHSL to require the exclusive use of wood or wood composite baseball bats in interscholastic baseball or softball activities.
HB 375 Provides for participation in interscholastic sports by non-public school students.
HB 449 Provides that any funds appropriated by the locality to the school board that are not expended in any fiscal year shall be reappropriated to the school board.
HB 566 Increases the maximum amount of any Literary Fund loan from $7.5 million to $14 million (also SB 408).
HB 613 Provides that only classroom teachers must be licensed to teach in the public schools and removes the licensure requirements for division superintendents, principals and assistant principals.
HB 671 Requires that parents be notified by school officials if they have reason to believe that a student is suicidal or is at risk of harming others.
HB 759 Requires school division expenditures to be made available to the public in sufficient detail for citizens to readily identify how appropriated funds have been spent.
HB 792 Requires employers to permit parents to use up to four hours of leave annually to attend parent-teacher conferences or to volunteer at school.
HB 808 Requires parental consent prior to schools conducting any reevaluation of a child with a disability to determine continued eligibility for special education and related services.
HB 923 Creates the Virginia School Construction Revolving Fund for financing elementary, secondary or vocational education school projects.
HB 984 Directs establishment of a pilot mathematics specialist program in six school divisions.
SB 48 Requires school boards to ensure that all school teachers are provided at least three hours a week of unencumbered, self-directed planning time.
SB 136 Prohibits use of wireless telecommunications devices by persons operating school buses, except in emergencies.
SB 490 Requires the Board of Education to develop a plan for the withdrawal from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, unless waivers that allow Virginia's existing accountability system to substantially meet the requirements of the Act are granted by the U.S. Department of Education.
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