Legislators
worked this morning to move bills through committees before they returned home
for the weekend. For education advocates
the focus was on the Senate Education and Health Committee Subcommittee on
Public Education.
All three
surviving school calendar bills were reported to full committee. Del. Greason’s HB 333 is the broadest. It returns control of the school calendar to
local school boards. Delegate Robinson’s
HB 610 is a creative attempt to appease the hospitality and tourism industry by
eliminating the Labor Day school opening requirement while requiring that the
Labor Day weekend be a four day holiday.
Finally, Delegate Stolle’s HB 577 frees divisions containing
underperforming schools from the Labor Day calendar constraints to facilitate
additional instructional time. VEA
supports these bills.
Two virtual
school bills were taken up. Delegate
Greason’s HB 1115 facilitates sharing of online courses developed by the
various school divisions. It establishes
a mechanism allowing a small school system to gain access to online courses
developed by larger school systems through Virtual Virginia and the Department
of Education. This bill was reported.
The second
was Delegate Bell’s HB 324 which would have created a stand-alone virtual
school students could access as an alternative to going to the local
school. VEA opposed this bill for a
number of reasons which was commonly referred to as the K-12 bill, as it
advantaged online instruction offered by K-12, Inc. You may remember that Carroll County ended
their relationship with K-12, Inc., when the test scores of the online students
were pulling down the division average.
The bill would have provided an illogical and overly generous funding
level for virtual schools, actually providing more per-pupil than the state
provides per pupil for traditional schools.
This bill was carried over to the next session.
Delegate
Minchew’s HB 515, which would have required communication with parents in the
case of student violation of any school board policy that could lead to
suspension. This bill, which VEA
opposed, was passed by indefinitely (PBI) on a 4-0-1 vote.
Tag Greason’s
HB 930, the SOL reform bill, was reported on a 4-1 vote. Please see earlier postings regarding this
bill which reduces the number of SOL tests.
