The 2017 session of the General Assembly opened last Wednesday. Your VSBA lobbying team has been hard at work identifying legislation that impacts school boards and meeting with legislators. We have identified over 200 bills that we are actively tracking. We will use this blog throughout the session to keep you informed about the key legislation that may impact local school boards.
Today the Constitutional Subcommittee of the House Privileges and Elections Committee met and considered two bills that are of interest to school boards. The subcommittee considered HJ629 (Del. Rob Bell), which would amend the Constitution to allow the Board of Education to establish charter schools. Currently, only local school boards can approve charter schools. VSBA opposes this constitutional amendment. The subcommittee also considered HJ634 (Del. Cole), which would permit the General Assembly to authorize elected school boards to impose a real property tax. VSBA supports this constitutional amendment. The subcommittee did not take any action of the proposed constitutional amendments today. The subcommittee is expected to vote on all the constitutional amendments before it on January 30.
