The 2022 General Assembly is half completed, and ‘Crossover’ happened last week. Crossover is when the bills that were passed in the House of Delegates and the Senate have crossed over to the other chamber where they will be considered again before being approved by the General Assembly. Both chambers must pass a bill before it can be considered and signed by the Governor.
Here are the bills related to K-12 public education. This is the last chance to ask our legislators to support or oppose these bills in the interest of good governance of our public schools and support of our children. You can help support or oppose the bills as recommended using the easy one-click action in each link to contact the legislators considering them. The link is on the right. Just sign your name and address.
HB 127 Academic year Governor's Schools; certain practices prohibited, permitted, and required.
Ask our Senators to protect Governor School admissions reforms by voting NO on HB127
This bill has been referred to the Senate Education and Health committee. HB127 directly challenges reforms made to a Governor’s school admissions policy and has implications for all schools in Virginia. If this bill passes, selection criteria for admissions that improved opportunity at one school would revert back to “traditional academic success factors,” known to be biased against low-income families, and all Governor’s schools would be impacted. It is fiction that increasing access for underprivileged groups is discrimination against more advantaged students. Standardized tests are not “objective” measures of merit, and students’ talents and abilities are not fixed. This bill would serve to reinforce inequities, rather than provide unbiased access. . https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+HB127
Click here to take action: https://www.virginiagrassroots.org/action-legislation-2022.php?prefix=HB&no=127&year=2022
SB490 Standards of Quality; work-based learning; teacher leaders and mentors; principal mentors.
Ask our Delegates to Fully Fund our Public Schools by voting YES on SB490
This bill is based on the 2021 estimate of the condition and needs for Public Schools in Virginia. It will help to establish principal and teacher mentor programs. SB490 will also improve conditions in schools with high concentrations of poverty by improving student to teacher ratios, providing flexibility in compensation adjustment to teachers, prioritizing distribution of experienced and effective personnel, supporting at-risk students, and by hiring of specialist teachers, counselors, and support staff. This is how we need to spend any budget “surplus”.
https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+SB490
Click here to take action: https://www.virginiagrassroots.org/action-legislation-2022.php?prefix=SB&no=490&year=2022
