As we sit here on the last day of the GA, otherwise known as Sine Die, we are awaiting word on several bills in conference. We take comfort in the fact that the GA adjourns today, at least this regular session. A special session will be called to deal with the budget, in addition to the normal veto session. We will not be so bold as to predict which month, much less which which week or day, the GA will adopt a budget. The "pretend" budget conferees are meeting this morning in hopes that their work will be expenditure when the Senate finally adopts its version of the budget. Stay tuned.
One of the bills in conference is SD 598, which deals with the funding of virtual school program funding. The VSBA was successful in having the bill amended to give school boards control over virtual school programs. The private vendors want what they term as "choice." Under their proposal, students could elect to attend any virtual school program in the state regardless whether the local school board had its own program and the state and local funds would follow the student. There is no middle ground on which VSBA and the vendors can agree so we anticipate the bill to die this morning. This issue will not go away and legislators have told us to expect to work on it during the off season.
We will have more to report over the next couple of days.
