LEGISLATIVE
SESSION WRAP-UPS
New school rules: minute
of silence,
teacher pay hike, background checks
Students will start each
day with a minute of silence, teachers will receive a small salary
increase and schools will have to do criminal background checks on
new employees.
Those were the major actions
this year’s General Assembly took on public education.
Departing from recent years,
the Legislature did not make a move regarding the new Standards of
Learning – the tests that will determine if schools stay accredited
and if students graduate. [Story
by Tracey Wainwright]
General Assembly rejects
'Bill of Rights'
for members of managed care plans
Many Virginians believe
patients should get to choose their doctors instead of being assigned
a physician by an insurer or health care plan. But they will not get
that opportunity this year.
The General Assembly defeated
proposals intended to give consumers
more leverage in dealing with health maintenance organizations, including
a so-called "Patients' Bill of Rights." [Story
by Artis Gordon]
Instead of tapping tobacco
settlement,
Virginia will borrow money to build roads
Tobacco farmers can breathe a sigh of relief:
Virginia’s share of the national tobacco settlement money won’t be
diverted to road projects in the north and southeast regions of the
state.
Legislators who originally sought the money for
the state’s transportation improvements have decided to tap a different
fund, reserving the settlement primarily to aid tobacco farmers and
their communities. [Story
by Elana Simms]
Panel found itself in
the crossfire
on bills to promote and restrict guns
"We were told by the pro-gun
lobby that we bottled up too many bills and those who advocate gun
control told us we bottled up too many bills," said Delegate Morgan
Griffith, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Militia and Police.
"I guess we must have done
something right." [Story By Sylvia Moore]
Virginia honors Martin
Luther King Jr.
while battles rage over Confederate icons
Although a recent Saturday Night Live skit parodied
the controversial splitting of the state’s Lee-Jackson-King holiday,
Virginia residents don’t think it’s a laughing matter.
The General Assembly passed and the governor signed
a bill that creates a four-day weekend by splitting the holiday that
now honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate Gens. Robert
E. Lee and Thomas H. "Stonewall" Jackson.
But controversy continues over bridges, monuments
and other icons of the Confederacy. [Story
By April Duran]
