65% Solution Bill Killed by Senate Education and Health Committee

Del. Loupassi’s HB 1416 was before the Senate Education and Health Committee yesterday. At the Delegate’s request, the bill was amended to remove the requirement that school boards allocate at least 65% of their funds to "instructional spending." As amended, the bill would have required that school boards annually report their "instructional spending" to VDOE and that VDOE, in turn, report to the money committees. The bill would have allowed the Board of Education to define what is meant by "instructional spending." We opposed the bill even in its amended form because school boards already report all expenditures annually to the Board of Education and we were concerned that the 65% requirement would be reinserted at a later date. The bill failed to report out of the Committee.