January 21, 2020
In good news, there were no acts of violence reported by the
Unified Police Command that worked the Gun Rights Lobby Day yesterday. The city
was shut down and the streets were filled with heavily armed (shot guns,
assault weapons, handguns), masked, body armor wearing, Nazi symbolled, gun
rights folks. Reporters say that about 8 in 10 were not from Virginia. I
appreciate that they didn’t shoot anyone or run anyone over with a car, but to
deem the gathering “peaceful” is an assessment loaded with white privilege. If
you think I am overstating that, ask what would have happened if 20 people of
color were walking the streets with masks, body armor and assault weapons. How
would law enforcement have responded? Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while
going out, unarmed, to buy Skittles. He had on a hoodie. No mask, no body
armor, no Nazi symbols. We must stand up together. I appreciate the comments of
Delegate Chris Hurst from the floor today. #NoRightToRemainSilent
This afternoon the VEA will stand in support of HB1383 in
the House General Laws Subcommittee on Gaming. If you think that seems like an
odd place for the VEA to be fighting for a bill, you haven’t been following the
uptick in gaming in Virginia. Since legislation passed in the last two sessions
opening Virginia to new “games of skill” and casinos, we have seen a significant
decrease in VA Lottery ticket sales. This is important because all proceeds
from the sales of lottery tickets are directed to K-12. The increase of gaming
in VA has driven folks away from playing the lottery, lowering the proceeds.
The biennial budget introduced by the Governor included almost $30 million to
back fill programs that are usually paid for with Lottery revenues.
HB1383 will allow Lottery tickets to be purchased on-line.
Evidence shows that this action will increase lottery sales and proceeds. The
VEA believes we need to fight to protect and increase Lottery revenues. We will
say exactly that this afternoon in committee. I understand that lottery
proceeds allow for the supplanting of General Fund dollars and that many
lottery programs should be funded through the SOQs, but when we see decreases
in revenues for K-12 we must look for solutions. HB1383 is one of many gaming
solutions the VEA will be pursuing this session. The VEA will also support
legislation to regulate and tax all those new “games of skill” and legislation
to bring all gaming under the umbrella of the VA Lottery. That will make sure
that all gaming proceeds go towards K-12. We know we need to increase revenues
for K-12, and this is one way we can do that.
Some estimates are as much as
$125 million of new revenues if we can get all gaming proceeds directed to
K-12. These are important bills that the VEA is working. Obviously, we are also
fighting hard for over $1 billion of new state investments in K-12 through
adoption of the revised SOQs as well as funding for state support for a 5%
salary increase for SOQ positions, but we need to look at new investments as
well.
In other news, three bills that restore due process
protections for school employees passed the small Senate Education and Health
Subcommittee on a 3-2 party-line vote last week. Those bills will all be heard
on Thursday at 8am in the full committee. There are 9 Democrats and 6
Republicans on the full committee, so I expect the bills to pass, but I want to
make sure all the members on the committee know how important these bills are.
If your member of the VA Senate is on the full committee, please contact them
ASAP and let them know to vote YES on SB98 (restore probation to 3 years for
teachers), SB167 (remove the definition of incompetency that includes one
unsatisfactory evaluation as the standard), and SB377 (restores the option of a
three person panel in teacher dismissal cases). All three of these bills were
an effort of the Republican-controlled Government (House, Senate, Governor) to
make it easy to fire teachers. These bills are top VEA legislative priorities.
Here are the members of the full committee, you can click on their names to get
their phone numbers and email addresses:
Lucas(Chair), Saslaw, Howell, Newman, Locke, Barker, Petersen, Cosgrove, Lewis, Dunnavant, Suetterlein, Peake, Edwards, Chafin, Hashmi
Wednesday is another long day in the House Education
Committee. There is a 7am subcommittee on PK-12, and the full committee at 9am.
More on that action tomorrow.
VEA Lobby Day
Have you made your plans to attend? Click here to see the schedule.
Click here to RSVP that you are coming.
