The most anticipated event of the day was receiving the amendments to SB 167, the common core bill. It took the whole day for the negotiating and writing to be done as legislators did have a few other things to tend to, but here is the substitute. At a first reading, the data section seems to have more extensive changes. It now clarifies at what points we are talking about personally identifiable student data and added some much needed definitions. In the first section, the advisory council remains but with some changes to the membership makeup. It looks like we would no longer be fencing our students in from the rest of the world; a good thing since we are also supposed to be teaching them to be globally competitive. Those are just a few of the changes and we will continue to review them. The House Education Committee asks that feedback on specific issues with the bill be emailed to Chairman Brooks Coleman or Vice-Chair Mike Dudgeon by midnight tomorrow night. They listened to three hours of testimony and have received comments from over 50 organizations, but they are willing to listen some more. The House Education Committee will meet at 3 PM Wednesday to further discuss the bill. No other details about that meeting have been announced. Click here for the email addresses. In Other News Neither chamber had any education bills up for a vote. Committee action was also light today but will speed up tomorrow. SB 343, requiring certain operational changes at GHSA, was heard in the House Budget & Fiscal Affairs Committee but no vote was taken. After making some amendments, it may be voted out of Committee tomorrow. School Nurse Funding One of the differences in the House and Senate versions of the 2015 budget was funding for school nurses. The Governor recommended adding $1.3 million for nurses, and the House agreed with his figure. This was a continuation of the phase-in of changes recommended by the Education Funding Commission. The Senate budget, however, calls for a reduction of $728,059 rather than adding $1.3 million. The Senate noted it is increasing the base salary for registered nurses from $42,000 t0 $49,000 and going from $32,000 to $34,000 for LPNs and reflecting "non-certificated health insurance payment practices for school system employees." It turns out the last part of that translated means the Senate removed the portion of the funding for health insurance that was tied to a percent of salary as if they were certificated employees since they are not certified and therefore the state does not provide any funding for insurance . They increased the salary to help offset the change. Maybe some change can be made there while the bill is in conference committee. UPCOMING SCHEDULE Tuesday, March 11th The General Assembly will convene at 10 AM 9 AM Academic Innovations Subcommittee of House Education will meet in 415 CAP to hear SB 372, relating to the calculation of grade point averages 9 AM Conference Committee for 2015 Budget will meet in 403 CAP 1 PM Senate Non-Civil Judiciary Committee will meet in 307 CLOB to hear HB 875, the Safe Carry Protection Act also known as the gun bill 2 PM Academic Achievement Subcommittee of House Education will meet in 515 CAP to hear SB 384, America's Founding Philosophy and Principle Act 2 PM Senate Education & Youth Committee will meet in 310 CLOB to hear HB 886, requiring public hearings on the budget and posting of the budget |