SB 1207, the Governor's grade the school
bill sponsored by Senator Stanley, reported straight party-line vote. Under this bill, all schools will be assigned
a letter grade. There are many reasons to be against the
bill, but a big one is the failure of the bill to exempt specialty schools
like Richmond Alternative. This school
addresses the educational needs of students who cannot succeed in a traditional
school, and it does a great job. It is
of little surprise that its students do not test well. This school gets a D under the Governor's
plan. Another Richmond example is Amelia
Street. This is a special education
school serving the needs of severely handicapped students. Most of the students have physical
disabilities, some have intellectual disabilities, and some have both. Some of these students are learning such
things as how to feed themselves. Guess
what, the test scores aren't great.
Despite the fact that miracles are performed by the staff at this school
on a daily basis, Amelia gets a C. One
wonders what good purpose is gained by grading any school, but in some cases it
is a terrible idea.
YEAS--Martin, Newman,
Blevins, Smith, McWaters, Black, Carrico, Garrett--8.
NAYS--Saslaw, Lucas, Howell, Locke, Barker, Northam, Miller--7.
SB1207 is headed to the full Senate.
Ralph Smith's SB 1099, a bill to abolish the
Labor Day school opening requirement, failed to report on a 4-11 vote.
YEAS--Howell, Locke, Smith,
Garrett--4.
NAYS--Martin, Saslaw, Lucas, Newman, Blevins, Barker, Northam, Miller, McWaters, Black, Carrico--11.
Good news from the House floor - Jim
Lemunyon's HB 1889, a VEA initiated measure, passed the House 99-0 on the third
and final reading. This is the bill to
screen teacher professional growth indicators from Freedom of Information Act
requests. Let's hope this bill will fare
as well in the Senate.
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