Richmond businesses are one step closer to getting tax credits for employing Richmond Public Schools students.
The Virginia Senate on Monday unanimously approved Senate Bill 937 from Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Richmond, to provide tax credits to city businesses that employ city public school juniors and seniors. The bill would give up to $250,000 in tax credits to local businesses that hire RPS upperclassmen for apprenticeships.
Through the pilot program, RPS juniors and seniors would be matched with local businesses for paid apprenticeships. Up to 25 students would be chosen, with each local business getting a $2,500 tax credit per student per semester. If all 25 slots are filled each semester, a total of $125,000 in tax credits would be given to local businesses for each year of the two-year pilot.
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The House version from Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, advanced unanimously out of subcommittee last week. Bourne and Sturtevant are former Richmond School Board members.
If the bills pass, the tax credits would start next school year.
Here are other education-related bills taken up Monday:
Student loan office
The House version of a part of Gov. Ralph Northam’s higher education agenda has made it out of subcommittee.
House Bill 1138 from Del. Marcia Price, D-Newport News, would create the Office of the Qualified Education Loan Ombudsman in an effort to help student loan borrowers. A House education subcommittee voted 8-0 on Monday to report and refer the bill to the chamber’s Appropriations Committee.
The Senate version of the bill was approved by the chamber’s Education and Health Committee last week.
The office would be housed within the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The office’s job, according to the bill, includes helping student loan borrowers “understand their rights and responsibilities” and helping with complaints from those borrowers.
Tuition freeze
A bill to require public colleges to establish a fixed in-state tuition rate was tabled Monday.
House Bill 249 from Del. Jason Miyares, R-Virginia Beach, would have required the governing boards of Virginia’s public colleges to establish the rate for first-year and transfer students. A House education subcommittee unanimously voted to table the bill.
A separate bill also aimed at providing tuition relief to Virginia students advanced out of the same subcommittee.
House Bill 351, from Del. David Reid, D-Ashburn, would cap tuition rates at Virginia’s public colleges for the next four years at the 2017-18 rate charged to students. The bill advanced out of subcommittee with the intent of it going to the Appropriations Committee.
“I think this is the only way we’re going to see some kind of change made,” said Del. Roxann Robinson, R-Chesterfield.
Some Virginia colleges, such as the College of William & Mary, already have versions of this in place.
The William & Mary Promise says the tuition rate paid by first-year students is the same rate they will pay all four years. Incoming students next year, for example, will pay 6.5 percent more — $17,434 — than the freshman class this year. The class will pay $17,434 each year.
The House bill would allow for increases in room and board charges and would cap the number of out-of-state students at this year’s number.
Campus housing
Students at some of Virginia’s public colleges will still be required to live on-campus for a portion of their college career.
A House education subcommittee unanimously voted to table House Bill 658 from Del. Nicholas Freitas, R-Culpeper, which said that other than cadets at the Virginia Military Institute, no student at a state college would be required to live in a campus housing facility.
At Virginia Tech, for example, all first-year students are required to live in on-campus housing for their initial year. The cost of living on campus at Tech ranges from $2,606 to $5,144, according to the room rates on the school’s website.
Not all state schools require living on campus.
Virginia Commonwealth University encourages first-year students to live on campus but does not require it. Most freshmen, though, opt for campus housing.
Class sizes
Two bills to limit class sizes advanced through committee Monday.
House Bill 168 from Del. Kathleen Murphy, D-McLean, would cap the number of students in science laboratory classes in grades 6-12 at 24 students. The House Education Committee voted 11-8 to report the bill and refer it to Appropriations.
House Bill 1380 from Robinson would reduce the maximum class size in grades four through six from 35 students to 29. Like the Murphy bill, it was approved and referred to Appropriations.
Abstinence education
The liveliest debate in education Monday came over an abstinence education bill.
House Bill 159 from Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, would have eliminated the requirement for Virginia public schools to teach abstinence education, the value of postponing sexual activity and the benefits of adoption.
Representatives from both anti-abortion and abortion-rights groups voiced their opposition and support for the bill.
The committee chairman, Del. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, questioned whether a representative from Virginia Young Democrats, Graham Weinschenk, knew what was in the bill as Weinschenk said he supports it.
“Young man, do you realize what the bill actually does?” Landes asked.
Weinschenk said he did and added that “the research does show that abstinence is not an effective way to prevent students from having sexual intercourse.”
“Young man, if someone abstains from sexual activity, that doesn’t prevent them from pregnancy?” Landes quipped back.
Rasoul intervened, saying Weinschenk, a student at William & Mary, meant abstinence education and not just abstinence.
The GOP-led committee heard from a handful of other witnesses before ultimately killing the bill in an 11-9 vote.