The House Education subcommittee on
education innovation met this morning to consider a series of bills including
the school calendar legislation. While there were several bills before the
committee a few were taken by for the day to work on bill language. Below is a
report on the bills and actions of the subcommittee. Those bills that passed
the subcommittee will be considered in the full committee on Wednesday.
HB265
(Davis) provides that if the amount appropriated to the local school board by
the local governing body for public schools relates to its total only, the per
pupil funding provided to a public charter school by the local school board
shall also relate to its total only, unless otherwise negotiated in the charter
agreement. Some legislators expressed concern about the real need for this
legislation thus the bill was laid on the table and will not be moving forward.
HB365
(Davis) establishes the Adaptive Learning Tools Grant Fund where the Department
of Education awards grants on a competitive basis to local school divisions
that demonstrate the effective use of adaptive learning tools. The bill was
reported and referred to the Appropriations committee.
HB571
(Robinson) makes local school boards responsible
for setting the school calendar and determining the opening date of the school
year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement and "good
cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant waivers of
this requirement. However, the bill requires local school boards that set the
school calendar with a pre-Labor Day opening date, except those schools that
were granted a "good cause" waiver for the 2015-2016 school year, to
close all schools in the division (i) from the Thursday immediately preceding
Labor Day through Labor Day or (ii) from the Friday immediately preceding Labor
Day through the Tuesday immediately succeeding Labor Day. The bill was
reported from the subcommittee on a 7-2 vote.
HB753
(Greason) is another school calendar bill similar to HB571 but does not require
an extended break over the Labor Day weekend. This bill makes local school
boards responsible for setting the school calendar and determining the opening
date of the school year and eliminates the post-Labor Day opening requirement
and "good cause" scenarios for which the Board of Education may grant
waivers of this requirement. Delegates Kory and Adams had identical bills which
were rolled into HB753. The bill was reported from the subcommittee on a 7-2
vote.
HB894
(Greason) makes tweaks to the membership of the SOL Innovation Committee to include
at least one representative from a four-year public institution of higher
education, one representative from a two-year public institution of higher
education, and specifies that the business representative(s) on the Committee
shall represent the business community. The bill also staggers the terms of the
legislative and nonlegislative citizen members. The bill was unanimously
reported from the subcommittee.
HB1165
(Dudenhefer) requires the Department of Education to establish a system and
procedure, consistent with secure mandatory testing requirements, by which
teachers may electronically submit evidence and student evidence identification
tags for each completed Virginia Grade Level Alternative assessment. After
discussion by the members and some concerns about the cost to implement the
legislation, the bill was laid on the table by the subcommittee and will not be
moving forward.
In addition to the subcommittee meeting the
House Republicans outlined their “Opportunities in Education” agenda. Much of
their agenda focuses on school choice including the charter schools
constitutional amendment, the Parental Choice Education Savings Account
legislation, expanding tax-credits, and the establishment of the Virginia
Virtual School, a full-time virtual school. Also included in their agenda are
bill relating to early childhood education and the home school sports
legislation. You can read the full press release from this morning’s
announcement here.
Finally, Dr. Steve Staples, State
Superintendent of Public Instruction presented to the House Appropriations
Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee. He gave a great presentation
on the many successes and challenges facing our schools. You can access his
presentation here.
