Pre-Labor Day school start advances in House – The Virginian
By admin. Filed in News |
RICHMOND
Ultimately it may be a moot point, but a perennial proposal to let all Virginia public schools open before Labor Day achieved a minor milestone Wednesday: a favorable vote in the House of Delegates.
Del. Bob Tata’s bill, HB 1063, which for the first time this year has the blessing of Gov. Bob McDonnell, won preliminary House approval on a voice vote. After repeated attempts over recent years, it was the first time the measure has advanced to the House floor.
In the end it may not matter, because an identical measure, SB 457, was defeated in a Senate committee last week. Unless some minds are changed on that panel, Tata’s bill is likely to suffer the same fate.
The effort – backed by educators, including those in all five South Hampton Roads school divisions, but opposed by tourism and business groups – would end a 25-year-old prohibition on starting school before Labor Day without a waiver from the state Board of Education.
Tata, R-Virginia Beach, said after the vote he is optimistic about final House passage today, but conceded that the Senate will be an uphill battle.
What’s needed is for the governor to do some arm-twisting on the Senate committee that rejected the proposal last week, Tata said, but he’s unsure how much political capital McDonnell is willing to spend on the issue.
“It’s not one of his high priorities, I don’t think,” he said.
He noted that the tourism industry, which sees the measure as a threat to its summer business, is a major source of campaign contributions in Richmond.
Lodging and tourism interests doled out $357,000 in donations to Virginia politicians last year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit tracker of money in politics.
The fight over repealing the so-called “Kings Dominion law” – named for the theme park in Doswell – is one that transcends party lines. The debate in the House seemed to reflect more of a geographical divide, with lawmakers from densely populated Northern Virginia arguing for repeal and delegates from downstate favoring the status quo.
Bill Sizemore, 804-697-1560,bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Article source: http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/prelabor-day-school-start-advances-house