These short sessions of the General Assembly really put one to the test...so many bills and not enough time.
 
The bills we are most interested in have both passed their own houses...HB 1792 and SB 1270 (identical bills). Now they will go to the opposite house for the same process all over again. I hope they don't go to sub-committee where all the discussion takes place. I really don't want any more discussion...just want them to move on through.
 
There is another big issue before the House right now, and that is a bill requiring 150 minutes per week of daily physical education. We have raised many questions and objections because the bill is not really clear. Who provides the PE. when, how does it cut into instructional time, education vs fitness? Many questions were raised and hopefully at a meeting today, the delegate and a group of folks will work out the details before it goes to the floor next week. The General Assembly is extremely concerned about childhood obesity and both the House and the Senate have bills regarding the PE mandate. Over many objections from school folks about how the details would work, the bill was sailing. The Joint Commission on Health put in a similar bill. The bottom line is that a bill will come out of this session regarding additional physical education. Will keep you posted on that.
 
Another issue that is receiving attention this year is the length of school day and year. Because they can't be funded, related bills have not passed out of committee. There is going to be a big study that is going to look at these issues...at least that is the way it looked yesterday when I left Rules Committee to go to a 5 PM Education Sub-committee. Couldn't stay in Rules because we had six bills on opening of school before Labor Day. We are the only state out of 20 southern and surrounding states not allowed to go before Labor Day. The room was packed with opposition to the bill...every tourism group that exists must have been there along with a former Lieutenant Governor. Needless to say...money talks and schools were not heard. One school division had a request for a study on the issue, which they may roll into the study on length of school day and year. Will let you know more next week.
 
Another bill of interest is HB 2009. This is a bill that would allow open enrollment within certain parameters in a school division. This bill, too, has caused a big stir and at this point more work is going to be done before it goes to full committee.
 
It has been an interesting year...just as we are seeing a tug regarding rights of the state vs rights of the feds, we are also seeing some reaction regarding how prescriptive the state is becoming vs the power of the local school board to make decisions. As you know, in Virginia, the Constitution vests the power of running the schools in the hands of local school boards. We are living in some interesting political times. All I can say is thank goodness for dedicated teachers who continue on a daily basis to teach our children !!!!!!
 
 

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This week marked the end of the Education Committee meetings as Tuesday is crossover. This means that every bill that came out of committee has to have passed 3 sessions in the body in which it originated. For example, the Senate Education Committee met yesterday so they now have 3 days for their bills to go through the Senate. Next week there probably will not be a report since bills will not appear in the other body until Wednesday.

Last week I mentioned the PE bills...one in the House and one in the Senate. There was some change made in the bill, but not much. The bill still says 150 minutes per week of PE but the word daily was removed. This will allow middle schools on a block schedule to meet the reqirements. We also learned that elementary teachers will be permitted to provide PE. We expressed grave concern about this but no one seemed to think it is a problem. Some elementary schools have PE teachers and may be able to work this out, but many schools share PE teachers and without additional PE folks will not be able to provide every child with the 150 minutes. I also fear that art and music will suffer if schools decide to hire more PE teachers, which incidentally is listed as a critical shortage area on the state list. Since you are required to have 150 minutes per week of planning time, there will have to be those 30 minute specials for that to happen. This is definitely an unfunded mandate, but it had full support of the House and the Senate. In my opinion, the real downside is how it cuts into instructional time. I foresee a definite lengthening of the school day on the horizon. The best thing about the bill is that an enactment clause does not require this to happen until the 2014-2015 school year. Maybe the economy will get better and more money will be available to hire additional PE teachers.

All of the Labor Day bills have been acted upon and none passed. We are the only state where we cannot open school before Labor Day unless the school division qualifies for a waiver from the Board of Education. Right now, about 70 school divisions can open because of waivers. This is more than half the school divisions!!

During the first full week of the GA, I mentioned the autism training bill. It was reported out of sub-committee, full committee and went on to the Appropriations Committee because of fiscal impact. On Tuesday, the Appropriations Committee failed to report it so it is dead.

Family Life Education, which has been optional for a good while, will now be a requirement. Another mandate!! For those of you in middle schools and high school, this could have quite an impact on your division if you are one of those who had elected not to offer it.

Financial Literacy and Economics is now a requirement for this coming fall's ninth graders to complete for graduation. This has been another item of controversy. It is needed, but there is no funding and it will again cut into electives students want to take. This has been a session of mandates...quite unexpected since there is no funding to go witih any of them.

Last but not least, once again bills have passed in both houses to delay implementation of certain regulations and state statutes related to the accreditation of schools. There are two exceptions, however; schools must meet the thresholds on the graduation and completion rate index prescribed by the Board of Education and they must meet the financial literacy requirement just pass this session of the General Assembly .Passing rates for full accreditation for 12-13 based on assessments given during the 11-12 school year shall be the same as those required for full accreditation during the 08-09 school year, except for the aforementioined two exceptions.

I know that VRS is one of your major concerns. As of this writing, the issue is not settled. We will see significant changes, however.

Will be back in touch after Valentine's Day. Hope you get lots of chocolate!!!!