It has been a busy first week and a half at the General Assembly.  In addition to the budget bill, there are currently 60 other bills that have been identified that are of interest to Virginia’s Community Colleges and its workforce partners. 

Including the appearance of Chancellor Glenn DuBois before the House Appropriations Committee (see post of January 22) other positive activity has included advancement of several priority bills for Virginia’s Community Colleges.  

There are currently three pieces of legislation which increase the award for students eligible for community college transfer grants:

•   Senator Walter Stosch’s SB 1240, increasing Transfer Grants by $500, passed unanimously in Senate Education and Health on January 22.  The bill has been re-referred to the Senate Finance Committee.  Stosch’s bill increases the amount of the award to $1,500 for every eligible student; students who study math, science, teaching, engineering, or nursing would receive $1,500 per year.  The Governor has included $1.3 million in his introduced budget to fund these increases.
• A companion bill in the House of Delegate, HB 2295 (Caputo) is slated to be heard on January 26 in the Higher Education Subcommittee of House Appropriation.  
• A similar bill is SB 1214 (Deeds) which broadens the bill to not only include associate degree holders, but any eligible student who has 60 hours of credits at a community college.  SB 1214 was on the docket for the Higher Education Subcommittee of Senate Education and Health on January 22 but has not yet been heard.

Whipple’s SB 1049 to broaden community college foster care tuition grants passed the Higher Ed Subcommittee of Senate Education and Health unanimously on January 22. This legislation allows the tuition grants to be available not only to full-time, but also part-time students who were in foster care or received a GED, or foster care students who turned 18 and then subsequently received a high school diploma or GED. House bills 1599 (Hamilton) and 1606 (Poisson) are bills introduced in the House which accomplish the same goals.   

Senator Colgan’s and Senator Edwards’ Community College Scholarship Match bills (SB 1118 and SB 866) were rolled into each other in the Higher Education Subcommittee of Senate Education and Health on January 22.   This legislation will enable donors to contribute to community colleges’ foundations and to the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education with the state matching the funds dollar for dollar, up to a maximum of $5 million per year from the state.  The bill would not take effect until July 1, 2010, so there is no fiscal impact for this biennium.  The bills now advance to the Senate Education and Health Committee.  Companion bills in the House are HB 1612 (Dance) and HB 2327 (Athey).

The Studies subcommittee of House Rules unanimously passed HJR  678 (Tata) which requests that the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia study the shortage of classroom teachers in the Commonwealth.  The study will specifically explore methods to attract students  who are interested in becoming teachers to Virginia’s Community Colleges for their first two years.  

Stay tuned for more updates as these and other bills progress during the 2009 General Assembly!

Posted by Ellen Davenport