The effort to amend the Constitution of Virginia by transferring
the charter granting authority from local school boards to the Board of
Education, a nine-member board appointed by the Governor, is most
misguided. VEA has been clear in its
opposition to this bill (see January 18th posting on this blog).
Now some members of the General Assembly are telling us that
they are going to vote for the amendment so that they will have a seat at the
table when the implementing legislation is crafted. They claim to be helping us by making sure
the applications to open a charter school come to the local school first.
This is not the help we need, and you have to question the
wisdom of one who would change the Constitution to gain a seat at the table to
craft a temporal and less significant piece of legislation.
As a friend quipped to me, when you change the Constitution,
“You can’t unring that bell.”
In the House Committee on Education, two bills to repeal the
Labor Day school closing law, HB571 & HB753 advanced, both on 16-Y 6-N
votes.
The Senate Finance Committee delayed action on Statewide
Health Insurance (Vogel SB384/Chafin at SB675) went by for the day as the two
senators need to work on perfecting and conforming this bills.
As was the case last year, the Tebow bill (HB131) passed the
House on a 58-Y 41-N vote. Last year this
bill was vetoed by the Governor.
The Lobby Day weather report says 64F and sunny. The Sunday night briefing is at 5:30 at the
Holiday Inn Express at 2nd and Cary.
The Monday morning briefing is at 8 at the Hilton at 5th and
Broad.