The first of the bills initiated by VEA to be taken up by a
committee was reported today by the Senate Finance Committee. Senator Janet Howell's SB905 advanced on 9-6
bipartisan vote.
YEAS--Stosch, Colgan, Howell, Saslaw, Norment, Hanger, Watkins, Lucas, Alexander--9.
NAYS--Newman, Ruff, Wagner, McDougle, Vogel, Carrico--6.
ThIs bill addresses the fact that the
tuition tax credit provisions in the Code of Virginia prescribe insufficient
accountability requirements for the “eligible schools,” and don’t provide
adequate information to facilitate an accurate comparison of these schools for
interested parents. Requiring these schools to compile the results of
“any national norm referenced test” seems wholly inadequate if parents are to
make informed choices of schools. This
bill provides that the Board of Education approve the tests employed to
evaluate the private schools benefiting from tax dollars.
This bill now advances to the Senate floor. Please urge your Senator to support SB905.
In
the House Education Committee, the bills taken up by the Education Reform
Subcommittee yesterday (see yesterday's post) were considered. HB1615, HB1674, HB1490, and HB1585 were
reported and will now go to the full House.
When you check out yesterday’s post, please note the revised fiscal
impact numbers for HB1490.
In
an alarming development, yesterday afternoon, the Senate Privileges and
Elections Committee reported Senator Obenshain's SJ255, a Constitutional
amendment to "lockbox" transportation funding. The problem with such an approach is that if
you "lockbox" funds for one portion of the budget, it leaves the
other portions of the budget vulnerable to more severe cuts when there is a
recession or an emergency. It would make
it much harder for a future Governor to
hold public education harmless as Governor McAullife did with his budget
amendments for FY 2016.
