The 2009 General Assembly is now in session
Week 5 Update—February 13, 2009
The 2009 General Assembly session began Wednesday, January 14. The session runs 46 days and is scheduled to end on February 28. “Cross-over day,” the last day for each house to act on its own bills, was February 10. House and Senate amendments to the current two-year budget will be released on February 8.
The House Education Committee meets 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 meet periodically throughout the session. Click here for a schedule of weekly meetings (Meetings).
Budget Issues
The House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees proposed their amendments to the current two-year budget in meetings last Sunday. Typically, the full chambers then endorse their respective budgets several days later. However, the Senate opted to postpone consideration of its plan until next week, in order to be able to take into consideration a revised revenue report due out the first of the week. State officials reported late Friday that revenues for the month of January declined 15% from a year ago, pushing the revenue collection drop for the first seven months of the fiscal year to 5.5%. Both chambers also are anxiously awaiting a definitive word from Washington as to dollars available for Virginia from a federal stimulus package that now has been approved by the House and Senate; President Obama is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday. The bill reportedly includes nearly $40 billion to be disbursed to states to put toward education through existing funding formulas, another $13 billion for Title I programs and $12 billion for special education. Over the remaining two weeks of the legislative session, a committee of conference, composed of senior legislators, will meet to hammer out a compromise spending plan, which hopefully would be voted on in the session’s final hours.
Concerning public education, the House and Senate budgets approach cuts in different ways:
thrusts. One is to provide additional flexibility to local schools divisions in the form of eliminating local match and staffing requirements in programs contained in the Lottery Proceeds Fund area in the second year (most all localities many already far exceed required local effort for these programs), as well as for textbooks and technology grants. The second is to establish an Early Retirement Program for school division personnel in both 2009 and 2010. The optional program would be available to employees (other than the division superintendent) who has reached age 50 and has 25 years of service. School divisions can determine which groups of employees would be eligible for the program and would be responsible for paying Virginia Retirement System (VRS) for the cost of its participation at the rate of 20% of the eligible employee’s current salary for each year of service purchased.
The Senate plan includes a one-time reduction in FY10 of $368 million, which is the amount contained in the introduced budget in four policy areas (cap of state funding of school support positions, lottery funding, school constructions grants and hold harmless funding). It specifies that these cuts are to be temporary, one-time actions and not to be considered in the next “rebenchmarking” of education costs to determine state and local shares of education funding. The Senate also proposes to reduce textbook funding by one-half in FY10. Senate language directs the Department of Human Resource Management to create a statewide health insurance program for school division employees; school divisions would be required to enroll in the program unless invoking a one-time opt-out decision.
The House plan also includes language to encourage localities to allow school divisions to carryover unspent local funds to the next school year and to appropriate state and local funds in a lump sum.
Click here for additional information about the House and Senate versions of the budget (State Budget).
Education Legislation
Here’s an update on education-related bills that are being considered in committees of the opposite chamber, unless otherwise noted:
HB 1624 Directs the Board of Education to include, in its model policy, standards for school board policies about the use of electronic means for purposes of bulling, harassment, and intimidation
HB 1794 Provides that the sufficient cause necessary to suspend a student cannot rest solely on instances of truancy (on Senate floor)
HB 2063 Changes, effective July 1, 2001, the manner in which state sales tax revenue dedicated to public education to distribution by average daily membership instead of by school-age population (no action was taken on a similar Senate bill)
HB 2070 Requires local school board policies that allow a parent of siblings in the same grade level to request their children be placed in the same classroom or in separate classrooms if they are at the same elementary school
HB 2104 Creates the Students with Disabilities Tuition Assistance Grant Program, to provide tuition assistance for attendance at an eligible private school for any student diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder
HB 2112 Requires school boards to establish K-12 educational objectives that emphasize economic education and financial literacy
HB 2166 Delays for one year, the implementation of new requirements related to the accreditation of schools, passing rates and graduation
HB 2304 Provides that any party aggrieved by a decision made in a due process hearing may appeal to a circuit court for a period of one year. A current proposal before the Board of Education would allow for a 90-day appeal window, in line with federal regulations.
HB 2474 Requires school boards to ensure that all elementary school teachers are provided an average of 30 minutes/day of planning time, upon certification from the Superintendent of Public Instruction that existing SOQ staffing allocations of resource teachers and librarians or other appropriate instructional positions are sufficient to provide this
HB 2632 Directs the Department of Human Resource Management to develop a statewide, optional health insurance plan for all school board and local government officers and employees, and an alternative plan covering all retirees
SB 827 Adds the benefits, challenges, responsibilities and valueof marriage to the list of topics to be covered in family life education in the public schools (HB 1746 is the House companion being considered in Senate Education)
SB 919 Extends for another five years, provisions allowing retirees to be hired as teachers or administrative personnel without interruption of their retirement benefits (no action was taken on a House version of this bill)
SB 1285 Requires local governing bodies and school divisions to publish the estimated required local match in the school budget
SB 1367 Requires school boards to ensure that personnel having direct contact with students receive training in the causes and prevention of food allergies, related symptoms and responses
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