Legislative Alerts
 

Troilen Seward Reports from Richmond
General Assembly 2008

• The focus of the General Assembly has now turned to the budget. I will share a bit about the education part of the budget since that is what impacts you. The House and Senate each amend the Governor's budget that is presented in December. This year because of the economic downturn, revenues have not been what was projected for the Governor back in the fall when he prepared his budget. Consequently, he has had to revise his own budget. Thus, we have three different versions of the budget out there. The budget conferees (6 from the House and 6 from the Senate) will make the final decisions as they try to reach agreement. Everyone was saying that no one's budget was that different from the others so a compromise would not be difficiult to reach. As of Wednesday, I have changed my opinion.
  
  On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee had JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee) present to them about the funding of the Standards of Quality. The big question was about the "rebenchmarking" process which has been used to keep educational costs updated. This impacts the dollars the state sends to the localities. The House budget has language in it which would no longer reimburse the localities for any salary raises that exceed what the state funds. For example, let's say your locality gives a 4% raise for next year, but the state budget gives 2%. Two years from now when the next rebenchmarking occurs, the locality will get funding back for only the 2%. You can see that the state will be shifting costs to the locality. The locality is than faced with raising taxes to fund more and more of its educational costs. This is a dangerous precedent, and I am afraid, could delay getting a budget in place. After the Senate heard the presentation and questions were asked, two of the budget conferees. Senator Janet Howell and Senator Dick Saslaw, both from Northern VA, drew a line in the sand. Saslaw commented, "See you in December" and Senator Howell pushed up her sleeves and said "I'm ready to fight." This rebenchmarking process is extremely important. The superintendents called a press conference today. The Board of Education adopted a resolution asking that the process not be changed. School board members are calling their delegates.
  It will be extremely interesting to watch this play out. There are other proposed changes in the process such as backing out all the federal dollars before rebenchmarking. This is going to hurt localities that get a lot of these dollars. Norfolk stands to lose $4 million in that process, for example. If you are so inclinced, it is very important that you contact your own individual senators and delegates and ask that the language regarding rebenchmarking in the House budget be removed. I know this is not the realm in which teachers are usually involved and this may not be your comfort zone. It has such an impact on the future funding for public education, however, that it is critical that teachers voices be heard. VEA has a huge lobbying staff working on this. In my opinion, this is one of the most critical issues education has faced.
  
  Regarding bills...many were left in committee (meaning they were never even brought to committee), many carried over, and many defeated. Nothing that had any financial impact was passed. Out of approximately 200 bills, about 50 made it through, and none of them really does anything much for education from your perspective. Many of them were technical in nature, meaning there was no change in the intent of what was already in place.
  
  Senator Miller's resolution #61 was finally on the docket Tuesday during an hour when there were so many resolutions (26) to be heard that only 5 were voted out, and his was not one of them. It was as if they already knew what they would pass. This one had an $8000 price tag.
  
  
   

ALERT, February 19, 2008

•  SJR No.61 is going to a sub-committee in Rules.
  
  I met with Delegate Chris Jones (Suffolk/Chesapeake) yesterday. He chairs this sub-committee and I will share that this sub has turned down a number of proposed studies that were introduced in the House. Because the House and the Senate don't see eye to eye, I have concerns about this study. I stressed the importance of doing everything possible to help kids with reading. I also spoke with Senator Miller who introduced the resolution and he is very appreciative that we are helping.
  
  More help needed!!!!!! We must make ourselves heard by Friday. The sub-committee is made up of the following members: Chris Jones, Chair, Morgan Griffith, Landes, Hogan, Hall, Joannou. I am going to list the e-mail addresses and phone numbers and ask that a council send a message and that individuals who are represented by any of these folks send a message.
  
  Delegate Chris Jones          scj@schrisjones.com             804-698-1076
  Delegate Morgan Griffith      hmg1993@aol.com                804-698-1008
  Delegate Steve Landes       steve@stevelandes.com          804-698-1025
  Delegate Clarke Hogan       info@clarkehogan,com           804-698-1060
  Delegate Frank Hall            delegatehall@aol.com            804-698-1069
  Delegate Johnny Joannou    no e-mail                              804-698-1079
  
  The Roanoke Council had Morgan Griffith at an event as I recall so you may use that to your advantage when you write to him.
  
  Please be sure, councils, that you make yourself heard and for folks who live in these districts, your input is essential. Things do not always pass on merit. I will visit all of these folks on the sub-committee but I don't have a vote to give any of them!!!!

• As I indicated previously, I wanted to share with you information regarding SJR #61. I did not get that to you last week as my Mother died. I do so appreciate the cards and e-mails that I received from many of you who knew about her death.

  Senator Miller, the new senator from Newport News, introduced a resolution in the Senate calling for a study to promote and ensure early reading proficiency and comprehension among third graders. This resolution passed the Senate. The study is to do the following: 1. determine the number of third graders who read at grade level; 2. rank the school divisions according to the number of third graders who passed the most recent third grade reading test, 3. identify best practices utilized by school divisions with the highest percentage of third graders who read at grade level; 4. examine the findings and recommendations of state and national studies pertaining to the efficacy of early reading proficiency and comprehension and its relationship to academic success and recommend those recommendations appropriate for implementation in VA; and 5. determine strategies to increase the number of third graders who pass the third grade reading test and ways to improve and sustain the early reading proficiency of third grade students. This is quite comprehensive...I do have a question about sustaining the proficiency since that would have to be a longitudinal study. In any case, I am very excited to have VSRA involved.

  Three members of the Senate and five members of the House plus Dr. Cannaday, the State Superintendent, form the committee. The resolution further states that in the deliberations, contributions and participation of representatives of Smart Beginnings of the Virginia Peninsula and the Virginia State Reading Association, librarians whose specialty is summer reading programs, elementary school reading administrators and elementary school reading teachers or specialists will be involved. These persons shall contribute and participate in the manner deemed appropriate by the joint subcommittee in its work. It is very exciting to see VSRA in print in the resolution!!! Leadership needs to be thinking about this. I assume someone from DOE will contact me about the selection of persons to be involved. Will let you know more as I know more. I had to change my appointment with Senator Miller but will re-schedule it.

  Crossover has occurred (Tuesday) and it is amazing how little legislation made it to the other house. I have never seen as much just left in committee (which means it never even came to committee for discussion), tabled or carried over. As you have read in the newspaper, the money situation is worse than originally forecast so there is no stomach for anything that has a cost attached. The House and the Senate each have their budgets coming out Sunday, and the Governor has made significant cuts in the budget he proposed in December. It is not good!!!

  Next week will start the process over again....sub-committees, committees and the floor. Will update you as things happen. Nothing of significance happened this past week. Have a great weekend.

   

• This was an interesting week at the General Assembly...not because of any proposed legislation but because of comments made in some of the sub-committee meetings. One legislator, who is new, said he has been amazed at how many bills placed some mandate on local school boards, which really means how much trickles down to the staff...one wonders what else anybody can think of for us to do! The one good thing is that I haven't seen much that will really impact teachers in a negative way.  The other thing I have observed is that every bill that passes gets referred to the money committees in both the House and the Senate if there is any associated cost, regardless of how expensive or inexpensive. What this amounts to is that a few people will determine the outcome of everything. They will get to prioritize what gets funded.
  
  There had been bills about school nurses. These bills passed the House and were then referred to Appropriations. They were all killed this week because of associated costs.
  
  Another bill of interest had to do with the placement of twins in the classroom. This came out of subcommittee, went to committee, was re-referred to sub-committee and
  then was killed in sub-committee the second time around. This would have given parents the final say over the placement of the children. The thing that finally killed it was over where the appeal should go...to the superintendent or the school board. The argument from the patron was that people saw more of the school board members in the communiity than they did the superintendent. Don't you love how folks want to allow the school board to manage !!!!  That's what the Board hires the supt. to do.
  
  There was a bill to have a pilot program for math specialists. Delegate Hamilton, who by the way has accepted our invitation to be at our conference in March, asked the patron of that bill if he realized the Board of Education and VSRA had asked for reading specialists years ago and they had not yet been able to fund them. That bill was killed with almost no discussion.
  
  The one thing that has to do with reading that has passed is SJ 61, a resolution for a study regarding several issues surrounding 3rd grade reading...SOL scores, what works, etc. I will write more extensively about this next week as I plan to meet with Sen. Miller who is the patron of this resolution.
  
  This will be a busy week as crossover, the time when all billls have to be handled in the house of origination, is Feb. 12. There are still many bills that have not even been   in committee yet. More to come !!!
  
   

Report #2, January 25, 2008

• VSRA had its Legislative Day on Monday, and we distributed a packet of information to every senator and delegate and were able, in most cases, to speak with a legislator or an aide. In a small percentage of cases, we did have to leave the packet with a secretary. This was accomplished by Linda Bland, Marycarolyn France, Nancy King, Kim Lancaster, Sharon Condrey and myself. Unfortunately, a number of folks who had signed up had things to happen and could not join us. In any case, we will not select a holiday again as the building was so full of people that you could hardly move. We had requests from a couple of delegates for me to meet with them. It does sound shocking to say, particularly in a state that has been recognized nationally for its educational accomplishments, that we fund art, music, P.E., and technology teachers but don't fund reading specialists. In spite of the crowd and the few members able to be present, we did have a productive day.
  
  There have been a number of bills introduced but not as many as usual. I feel sure that much of this is the result of legislators knowing  there is no money. The Senate really has only about 40 bills. Many have been killed or are duplicates of what is also in the House, and so after crossover, there will be little activity in the Education Committee of the House. A further note...many of the bills have to do with education in real estate, museums, composite index, higher education and career and technical education and are of no interest to you. As a legislator told me once, it is good when there aren't bills....you don't have to worry about something being done to you.
  
  I will mention a bill that came as a request from a couple school divisions. Students who attend the pre-school program are required to get a physical and then a year later must get another one to attend kindergarten. In order to save these parents some money, the law would have been changed so that the children would not have to get a second physical for kindergarten, only the required immunizations. This legislation was introduced in the House by Delegate Lohr from the Harrisonburg area and in the Senate by Senator Obenshain. It passed the House but failed in the Senate. The Senate Education and Health Committee has a doctor on its committee and the doctor pointed out the rapid development at this time and the necessity of keeping check on what is going on with kids at this age. The bill failed in the Senate.
  The House bill will come over to the Senate and will, of course, be killed there...and for good reason. I like it when folks really look after kids!!!!
  
  HB1216 is the planning time for teachers bill. The orginal bill came out of sub-committee last night, somewhat modified but stilll in good form. It is now for elementary teachers only (as you know, middle and high school teachers must have planning time as required by the Standards of Accreditation), and the bill no longer says self-directed and unencumbered planning time. There was concern about the many schools that use a learning communities model and so they need collaborative time for planning. In any case, elementary teachers would get 3 hours of planning time which for many would be a great improvement. The down side of this is that even though it got out of sub-committee, it had to be re-referred to Appropriations because there is a fiscal impact. It will cost many divisions money to provide that time. VEA had done a survey and only 68 divisions of the 134 provide the time now. In any case, Phil Hamilton of Newport News is on this sub-committee and is also a ranking member of Appropriations, and he was very supportive of the bill. Maybe some magic will occur as they do the budget. When all of these bills get re-referred to Appropriations, it is those committee members who make the decisions about what gets in and out of the budget.Of course, they must fund things required by law so whether or not any new items get funded will be unknown until  the sausage grinder finishes grinding.
  
  Nothing that impacts you has come out of committee yet...the sub-committee must send the bills they heard to full committee so it will be Monday before the planning bill is in full committee. I predict it will pass.
  
  Will send more news next week. Have a great weekend...it is Friday and I am as happy as you are about that!!!
   

• At the end of the first week of the General Assembly, one of the bills I mentioned on Saturday is dead...a requirement to use wooden bats. Actually when we heard that bill, there were safety implications. Since requiring all schools to use wooden bats, however, has a significant price tag, the bill did not pass out of sub-committee. They won't pass it if they can't fund it.
  
  As of this writing, the 3 hours per week unencumbered, self-directed planning time for all teachers is being discussed in legislators' offices. It hasn't come before committee yet, but when it does I expect to see changes. I am very hopeful that we will get the 3 hours but the unencumbered, self-directed part may not go forward. Many school divisions use the PLC model and so collaborative time is needed. Will keep you posted.
  
  As of this writing, nothing of importance to you has come before committees yet but that will change tomorrow.
  
  I want to now provide the details for those participating in the Legislative Day. I have gone through the list and not every council is represented. We do have several college reading educators signed up so folks you will fill a big gap! Thanks! If you were not present Saturday and want to participate, please e-mail me. More organization is needed this time because of the personal letters addressed to the legislators. We will organize the folders Sunday night so if you signed up last Saturday and will not be there, please let me know by Friday, January 18. If you were not there Saturday and want to participate, we will be thrilled to have you join the team!  It appears that those who signed on have been to the General Assembly building so our plan will be the same. We will meet at the General Assembly Building by 8:30. You may want to arrive a little earlier in case there is a line to get into the building. You have to go through security, and if it is busy, that can take a while.
  Once you are inside the building, proceed to House Room C. I will hold a row for us and we will give you your folders there. I will have all the info you need once you are there. After the committee meeting is over, we will distribute the materials. The committee chair has told me he will recognize you at the beginning of the meeting.
  
  If you have questions, please let me know. If you didn't sign up and want to, please let me know that, too. Let's hope for good weather !!