Long day at the General Assembly as both chambers frequently
recessed to allow time for conference committees to meet and to facilitate
communication between the chambers.
The Senate and house have adopted the conference reports on
Senator Stuart's SB 532 and Delegate Cole's HB 134, the diabetes bills. The outcome was good for VEA, and if you want
to see the impact of lobbying and perfecting in committee, contrast the
introduced bill and the adopted conference report. VEA, VASS, VSBA and the lobbyists from the
various school divisions (the ducks) all worked on these two. They went from being bills we opposed to ones
we can applaud.
Both chambers go back into session on Saturday at 10, when the
conference reports on SOL reform and A-F school grading should be heard.
The Governor is calling for the special session on the budget on
March 24th. This should make
for a most interesting VEA Convention for your GR staff.
2 comments:
It shouldn't amaze me that you are proud of the outcome of your "champion" lobbyists. I am glad the watered down version of the bill is something you can applaud. I pray that we don't have to have a student die at school to make real effective change. It is sad, but that is the only thing that will get your attention. Then you will finally be willing to take care of the diabetic kids that are left, but it will be too late. I used to be a proud member of the VEA, and now I am disgusted. All you care about is saving money. I look forward to fighting for more and improved legislation every year against your "wonderful" lobbyists. It's amazing that they can sleep at night.
I sure hope that VEA provides good mental health coverage for the first teacher who says, "If only I had gotten that training to recognize a child in distress, he/she might be still alive ...."
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