Senate OKs charter schools, two other education bills

RICHMOND — Much of the debate was about money Tuesday when the Senate approved Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposals for charter schools and two other education measures that Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, guided to passage.

“Before considering charter schools, we should first fund public schools,” said Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, referring to heavy cuts that loom for K-12 education in the General Assembly’s final week.

McDonnell said the approval would help school children “gain more educational opportunities. In the modern economy, education is the coin of the realm,” enabling people to compete in a global marketplace, McDonnell said.

Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Tazewell, said there has been little discussion about how charter schools would be funded under McDonnell’s plan, which seeks to make their approval by local school boards more likely to occur.

“This is not free,” Puckett said. The charter schools bill, SB 737, does not go into detail on funding sources except to say that state dollars intended for each student’s education would follow the student if he or she enrolls in a charter school.

“It is going to cost us as we move down the road, and it is going to come from public education funds. I cannot, in good conscience, vote for it,” Puckett said.

Six senators spoke against the charter schools bill, but it passed 27-12. Four of them were from urban districts and were members of the Legislative Black Caucus.

Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, said the bill “would create a schism between the haves and have-nots.”

“What we have here is a philosophical difference,” Locke said.

Newman said, as he brought the bills up for debate, that “I’d like to acknowledge the past,” in a reference to segregation in Virginia public schools until about 1970.

“Virginia has a past we cannot be proud of in public education, and we should never, never go back,” Newman said.

Locke, Miller and other senators, including Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, “have stood as sentinels making sure we never do go back. What they have stood for is important,” Newman said.

The other two education measures that Newman sponsored would create laboratory schools and virtual schools.

Laboratory schools are operated by colleges as classrooms for innovative teaching methods. They already have been tried in Virginia, although funding for them has been sketchy.

Miller said SB 736 “is going to do nothing new except open the vault” for colleges to seek more money from the state’s general fund. Despite her warning and another from Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, the measure passed 25-15.

Virtual schools would allow students to be taught at home through online classes, with attendance verified and a curriculum supervised by a teacher. Newman said they could help autistic students, and, in some cases, gifted students who hope to graduate early.

Newman said the state superintendent of schools supported the bill because virtual schools already are operating and Virginia has not provided a means for them to be regulated by state education officials. The virtual schools bill, SB 738, passed 35-5.

The House of Delegates passed a charter schools bill, HB 1390, on Thursday. It passed the laboratory schools bill Tuesday, and the virtual schools bill on Monday.

Newman said the Senate approvals Tuesday, coming after more than 40 hours of meetings by a working group that included legislators, education officials and lobbyists for school boards and teachers, culminated a strong legislative effort.

Sen. Harry Blevins, R-Chesapeake, called it one of the best legislative collaborations he has seen.

Newman said the package of bills would “reform our public education system and give all Virginia’s young people the tools they need to learn, and succeed is the result of real bipartisan cooperation in Richmond.

“This is a great day for Virginia’s public schools, our public school teachers and students and parents in every community,” Newman said.