House Releases Its Omnibus Education Policy Bill.  The House Education Policy Committee did a walk-through of its version of the omnibus education policy bill today.  As is the case with the Senate version, the backbone of the bill is the HF 3782, the Governor’s omnibus education policy bill.  Again, like the Senate, the House committee adds a number of other bills to the mix.  Included in the bill are: HF 3959 (Virnig) Allows registered nurses to

The Brakes Have Been Pumped. Supplemental budgets in the second year of a biennium can always be a bit of a mystery.  Last session, the Governor and Legislature made huge investments in education and a lot of other purposes along with a number of significant policy changes.  There was hope on a lot of fronts this year that there would be a healthy supplemental budget to augment some of the investments made last year, especially concerning

And Off We Go!  The Senate Education Policy Committee has posted their version of the education policy omnibus bill and will do a walk-through of the legislation tomorrow at the Senate Education Policy Committee that begins at 12:30 PM (we aren’t doing 12:30 AM meetings . . . yet).  I have not combed through the bill to identify all it contains, but the core of the bill is the Governor’s education policy bill–SF 3567 (as introduced)–with

Centennial Superintendent Jeff Holmberg testifying in favor of Representative Matt Norris’ HF 4117 on behalf of SEE and AMSD. HF 4117 Heard in House Education Finance Committee.  The House Education Finance Committee heard Representative Matt Norris’ HF 4117 this morning and the bill has broad support in the education commuity.  The bill does three things: Increases the Local Option Revenue from the current $724/PU to $920/PU. Allows school districts to levy for the costs of Unemployment

SRO Bill Likely Back on House Floor Tomorrow (Thursday).  It took a detour, but HF 3489–the compromise bill aimed to get school resource officers back in school–will probably hit the House floor tomorrow.  The bill was up in the Senate on Monday and passed on a vote of 57-9.  There was an amendment attached that would have allowed school resource officers to intervene in instances where property was under threat of being stolen or destroyed.  The

On to Conference Committee.  HF 3489 passed the Senate this afternoon on a vote of 57-9 with an amendment that would allow school resource offiers to intervene in an incident that threatened theft or destruction of school property.  The bill as it came over from the House limited intervention to threat of bodily harm to one’s self or another.  The House did not accept this amendment, meaning that the bill will now head to conference committee

School Resource Officer Compromise Bill Passes.  It looked dicey at junctures, but HF 3489 (Frazier) passed the full House of Representatives yesterday on an overwhelming vote of 124-8.  Discussion in both the House Education Policy Committee and the House Public Safety and Finance Committee was spirited and it passed both of those committees on party-line votes.  Add to that, there were two motions made by the Republicans on the floor to recall the bill and send it