January 22, 2020
This morning the House Subcommittee on PK-12 added a meeting
to the schedule, as they have so many bills they need to hear before cross
over. Most subcommittees only meet once a week, so getting through 70 bills in
only three meetings wasn’t going to work. The Chair of the Sub, Delegate Lamont
Bagby, is apparently a morning person, as he convened his subcommittee at 7am
today. The most interesting action in the sub was around lock down drills in
schools. The first bill will decrease the number of lock down drills required
at all schools (HB402/Keam) and the second will require parental notification
of lock down drills 24 hours before the drill (HB270/VanValkenburg). As
educators, we know that these lock down drills are traumatic for many students
and staff. By reducing the number and letting parents know they are happening, we
hope that some of this trauma can be reduced. The VEA supported both bills.
Also, early today all the budget amendments offered by
members of the House and Senate were made available for review. While Governor
Northam introduced his 2020-2022 Biennial Budget in December, the General
Assembly uses that as a starting point and propose amendments to the House and
Senate money committees. We have lots of good friends, on both sides of the aisle,
who have budget amendments to address the VEA’s request to the Governor that
were not included in his introduced budget.
Senators McDougal, Vogel, and McClellan all have submitted
amendments to fund a 5% salary increase in year one of the budget. Getting
money in year one is so important, as there will be additional amendments next
year and likely additional revenues. You can’t go back and change a zero once
you are in year two of the budget. We must see money for salary in the first
year. We are grateful to the members of the Senate who offered these
amendments.
In the House, Delegate Mugler proposes a 4.5% increase in
year one and year two. This amendment is a companion to her HB233 that requires
that teacher salaries in Virginia be at or above the national average by July
1, 2025. It is her intention that the state fund its share of a 4.5% salary
increase every year until we meet the national average standard. Delegate
Kilgore’s amendment raises the second year salary increase to 5% but leaves 0%
in year one. We appreciate his efforts, but we need to see money funding in
year one.
I have only finished going through the House budget
amendments that aren’t specifically salary, and there is lots of good news.
Delegates Aird (D) and Leftwich (R) each have budget amendments to reverse the
support staff cap and restore the funding as recommended by the VA Board of
Education. Quite a few members of the House have “language only” amendments to
require the development of a plan to lift the support staff cap and provide the
state funding. That is not what we are looking for, but it is good to see this
much action on the support staff cap; it is really good news. Maybe this thing
won’t be permanent after all.
Delegate Aird also has an amendment that is co-patroned by Delegates
Bagby, Bourne, Plum, Price and Rasoul to fully fund the revisions to the
Standards of Quality as issued by the Board of Education. Delegate Aird’s two
amendments total $2 billion in new money for K-12 as recommended by the Board.
The assembling of co-patrons on this amendment lets us know that this is
clearly a priority of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC), and I am
certain the VLBC members in the Senate have the same amendment. I just need to
dig through them.
Another important amendment is from Delegate Krizek. He has
an amendment to fund the Employee Labor Relations Board as we implement public
sector collective bargaining in Virginia. It is expected to cost $1.5 million
each year to operate and staff the new Board, but without this framework and
structure, we would have to count on local governments and school boards to
bargain in good faith and to handle grievances and arbitration internally. That
is better than what we have now since we are currently prohibited from
collectively bargaining, but we need the money allocated in the final budget so
that we can have an Employee Labor Relations Board.
Later today the House Appropriations Committee will hold a
hearing where every member who has a budget amendment will come and present
that amendment. It is a very, very long afternoon as there are a couple of
hundred House amendments. No action will be taken during the hearings. Frankly we won’t know outcomes
until we see a final budget in March, but these amendments let us know that our
legislators have heard us.
Thursday at 8am the three important VEA bills are up in the
full Senate Education and Health Committee. You can read about the bills in
yesterday’s blog, but if your Senator is on the committee, call them and urge
them to vote YES on SB98, SB167, and SB377.
Here are the names of the Committee members. You can click
on their name to get their office phone number:
Lucas (Chair), Saslaw, Howell, Newman, Locke, Barker, Petersen, Cosgrove, Lewis, Dunnavant, Suetterlein, Peake, Edwards, Chafin, Hashmi
