By Ellen R. Davenport, Ph.D., Assistant Vice Chancellor for Governmental Relations
Editor’s note: Dr. Davenport is tracking legislation important to Virginia’s Community Colleges and offers regular reports from the State Capitol during the General Assembly. This report is adapted from her roundup last Friday.
Bill Status
This week will be the last full week for bills to be dealt with in their house of origin and be communicated to the opposite house; “Crossover” is Tuesday, Feb. 15. The current list of bills, updated this morning, is attached.
The budget bills, HB 30/SB 30 are on a later schedule. The House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee report out their versions of the budget on Sunday, Feb. 20, with floor votes scheduled in each house on the budget bills on Thursday, Feb. 24. In addition to action on a myriad of tax bills in the General Assembly which will affect the revenue bottom line, and consideration of the hundreds of budget amendments which have been filed, a new revenue forecast will become available between now and February 20 and will be incorporated into each committee’s recommendations. The VCCS’s legislative priorities of increasing nursing capacity and adding advisors will be determined in the final budget bill, which is usually not approved until the last day of the session (scheduled for March 12).
College Laboratory Schools
Legislation is advancing in the General Assembly that would expand the role and scope of college partnership laboratory schools, which had been previously established by the General Assembly in 2010, and only offered at colleges or universities with teacher education programs. Currently, Virginia does not have any college partnership laboratory schools. The two college laboratory school bills, HB 346 (Davis) and SB 598 (Pillion), have not yet been heard in the full committees to which they have been assigned. HB 346 was originally scheduled for hearing in the House Education Committee on Feb. 2, but has been rescheduled until Feb. 7. SB 598 will likely be heard in Senate Education and Health on Feb. 10.
Name, Image, and Likeness for College Athletes
HB 507 (Austin) and SB 223 (McPike) are identical bills which codify language for college athletes approved on August 10, 2021 in the 2021 Special Session II budget bill. SB 223 passed the Senate on Tuesday, and HB 507 passed out of House General Laws Subcommittee #1 last Thursday and will go to the full General Laws Committee on Feb. 8.
Community college student athletes are included in the bills. Some of Virginia’s four-year universities with strong athletic programs are responsible for doing the heavy lifting on the drafting of the bills, and had the bills introduced so that Virginia’s college and university athletes have the right to benefit from their name, image, and likeness and have the same competitive advantage as student athletes in the 24 other states which have adopted laws.
Wrongly Incarcerated Individuals and Compensation
A number of bills have been introduced, and are included on our bill list, which would compensate specific individuals who were wrongfully incarcerated. The House bills (HB 383, HB 385, HB 394, HB 397, HB 1254, HB 1255, HB 1263, and HB 1358) include career and technical training from the VCCS, free of tuition charges up to a maximum that ranges between $10,000 and $15,000.
Free VCCS tuition for wrongly incarcerated individuals has been part of similar legislation in previous years.
SB 755 (Lucas) changes the current compensation structure to allow for payment based on a formula which includes time wrongly incarcerated and the Commonwealth’s median family income during that time, and additional adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index. The wrongfully incarcerated person would also be entitled to receive additional compensation to include unreimbursed court costs, counseling, housing, and employment assistance.
Should any of the House bills receive final approval, the VCCS will send out guidance to all 23 colleges about the application of the legislation.
