The 2008 General Assembly is now in session
Week 8 Update—February 29, 2008
The last day for committee action on bills is Monday, March 3. Developing a compromise budget will be one of the legislature’s final acts as the session heads toward a scheduled March 8 adjournment.
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 8:30 a.m. in Senate Room B. Sub-committees will meet periodically throughout the session. Click here for a schedule of weekly meetings.
The Budget
The House and Senate budget conferees have until midnight next Tuesday to reach an agreement on a compromise budget, both for the remainder of FY08 and the next biennium, though that deadline frequently is extended if necessary. Both chambers rejected the budget of the other chamber this past Wednesday, which proved to be a very contentious day in the Senate, which has been split along party lines over the past two weeks in advancing its version of the state’s spending plan.
Disagreement in the Senate largely is centered around the size of withdrawal in the current fiscal year from the state’s rainy day fund, a big capital projects bond package and the use of anticipated lottery profits that normally would go to localities to help pay the state share of education. Some members say the diversion is a violation of the state Constitutional provisions concerning use of lottery proceeds.
The House, in developing its budget, proposes to alter some of the methodologies used to recalculate the costs of public education, thus reducing the state’s rebenchmarking commitment in the next biennium and escalating in future years. House and Senate Democrats have railed against that proposal which would recognize only state-awarded salary increases granted in the state budget in this and future rebenchmarking (or updating) of education costs.
The conference committee of senior legislators which will meet to hammer out a budget compromise are as follows: Senators Colgan (Prince William), Houck (Spotsylvania), Howell (Fairfax), Saslaw (Fairfax), Wampler (Bristol) and Stosch (Henrico) and Delegates Putney (Bedford), Hamilton (Newport News), Cox (Chesterfield), Joannou (Portsmouth), Sherwood (Frederick) and Hogan (South Boston).
Click here for additional information about the House and Senate approved versions for the remainder of FY08 and for the 2008-2010 budget (Budget Info).
Legislation
Here’s another update on education-related bills being considered in the opposite chamber:
The Senate Education and Health Committee unanimously reported HB 242, which would require local school boards to make a program of physical fitness available to all students with a goal of at least 150 minutes per week on average during the regular school year. Such program may include physical education classes, extracurricular athletics, or other programs and physical activities deemed appropriate by the local school board.
Differing versions of bills (HB 1425 and SB 490) concerning Virginia’s withdrawal from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act are headed to a committee of conference. The Senate position is to have the Board of Education (BOE) make a recommendation to the General Assembly on Virginia's continued implementation of NCLB, while the House would direct the BOE to develop a plan to withdraw from participation in NCLB by June 30, 2009. Both bills condition the BOE action on the failure of federal waivers being granted to allow Virginia's existing educational accountability system to meet NCLB requirements.
HB 137, HB 354 and SB 356 are similar bills that permit local school boards to enter into contracts with publishers for purchasing textbooks. The bills expand the definition of a textbook to include print, electronic, online, and other manipulative-based programs, reorganize the textbook purchasing process and repeal several sections of outdated code. HB 137 has passed both chambers, while the remaining two bills await final approval in the originating body.
The legislature has approved a pair of bills addressing home instruction. HB 767 eliminates (i) the requirement that correspondence courses be approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction to qualify as a suitable program for home instruction, and (ii) the provision allowing parents to provide programs judged by the division superintendent to include the language arts and mathematics standards of learning objectives. In addition, the bill allows home instruction if the parent provides a program through distance learning. Meanwhile, HB 1183 provides two additional options for parents to show evidence of progress by a homeschooled child, to include (i) an evaluation letter from a person licensed to teach in any state, or a person with at least a master's degree in education stating the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress, or (ii) a report card from a community college, or college, college distance learning program, or home education correspondence school.
Finally, two bills have been approved that address complaints of sexual abuse by school employees. HB 1242 prohibits employment of someone who would have direct contact with students if such applicant is the subject of a founded case of physical or sexual abuse of a child, and requires dismissal of a teacher who, while employed by a local school board, becomes the subject of a founded case of physical or sexual abuse of a child and has exhausted all available appeals. SB 241 requires, among other things, that local school boards develop policies and procedures to address complaints of sexual abuse of a student by a teacher or other school board employee, and that they notify the Board of Education when one of their licensed employees is dismissed or resigns because of certain criminal convictions or a founded child abuse or neglect case.
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