A pretty eventful day today at the Virginia General Assembly, beginning with the House GOP Caucus that proposed their K-12 education agenda.
Majority Leader Kirk Cox, himself a public educator, helped unveil the proposals.
“We will continue our efforts to improve Virginia’s education system, with particular emphasis paid to our public K-12 institutions. Improving access, increasing accountability and encouraging innovative alternatives are key to improving our public schools.”
Featured at today’s morning press conference were bills by Del. Jimmie Massie to permit corporations to provide scholarships for lower income kids (particularly in under-served areas of the commonwealth), Del. Richard Bell to advance performance-based teacher pay, and Del. Chris Peace to allow colleges and universities to operate “college partnership laboratory schools” with K-12 school districts.
Over on the Senate side, Senator Mark Obenshain kept himself busy today nurturing two bills through the narrowly-divided senate committees.
First, by a vote of 8-7 in the General Laws & Technology Committee, Obenshain’s bill on Project Labor Agreements has made it to the Senate floor.
“Project Labor Agreements are an end-round of our Right to Work laws that leave most Virginian workers out in the cold and run up costs on taxpayer-funded projects,” said Obenshain. “A level playing field for all qualified Virginia contractors and their workforces is the only way to ensure that Virginia jobs are protected, and that taxpayers get the most out of their hard earned money.”
Obenshain went on to say that his SB242 “will keep jobs in Virginia and give taxpayers more bang for their buck.”
Companion legislation (HB 33) patroned by Delegates Tim Hugo and Barbara Comstock is pending in the House.
No word on whether Democratic legislators are contemplating fleeing the state to Maryland (perhaps our greatest advantage of maintaining a quorum).
Obenshain also is hoping to make committing sexual assault against minors a more severe penalty.
“Public safety is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of government, and it is important to ensure that those who commit the most heinous of crimes never have the opportunity to endanger others again,” said Obenshain. “Everyone believes in second chances, but there are some crimes that society simply cannot tolerate, and those who would violate a young child deserve nothing less than life imprisonment for their crime.”
Obenshain’s SB436 constitutes any sexual intercourse with a minor under the age of 13 as rape and increases the mandatory minimum sentence for persons convicted of such a crime to life imprisonment, except in cases where the offender is himself a minor.
The bill has been reported out of the Committee for Courts of Justice and rereferred to the Senate Finance Committee.
Both Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli support this bill.
