Day 12 Today was a busy day under the gold dome. The activity will pick up every day until the
end of the session, which is scheduled to be April 2nd. Cross over day would be March 13th. Only those bills that receive a passing vote
by the entire Senate or House will move on to the other house. In today’s action, four committees of interest met to
consider bills to move on. The House Education Academic Achievement Sub Committee met
to consider HB
100 and HB
164. Both bills will move on to the
Full House Education Committee. HB 100
will change the eligibility dates for entry into kindergarten. The qualifying dates for kindergarten in 2017
will be August 1st and in 2018 will change to July 1st. HB 164 will suspend the requirement for PLU’s for
certificate renewal for three years. The House Transportation Sub Committee heard discussion and
public comment on HB
170. The bill will affect taxation
on fuel. The committee has expressed
their intent to leave school district funding unchanged. Discussions will continue. The bill will move on to the full House
Transportation Committee. In the Senate The Senate Education and Youth Committee met and discussed SB
81 and SR
138. These two pieces of legislation
would require local superintendents to be elected. After discussion by the committee, there was
no vote taken. The bill was not assigned
to a sub committee. GSSA opposes the
election of local district superintendents. The Senate Appropriations Committee met and passed the
amended FY15 budget, HB
75. The Senate and House agreed on
most educational budget items. The one
difference is funding of the FY16 equalization. That issue will need to be resolved during the FY16 budget discussions. The House and Senate passed a calendar resolution today, SR
167. The legislators will meet today for the 13th day
of the session. |