The “caboose” budget bill for the current biennium (HB 29/SB 29) and the budget bill for the upcoming 2010-2012 biennium (HB 30/SB 30) were adopted on Sunday, March 14 after the General Assembly adopted a procedural resolution, HJR 494, allowing them to extend their session by one day. The extended time was caused by differences between [...]

It’s Friday, March 12 and the budget conferees have missed their self-imposed deadline of being done with the budget by midnight on March 9.
Posted by Ellen Davenport

HB 1066 (Athey) calls for SCHEV, the Virginia Community College System, and four-year institutions to work together to establish a uniform general studies transfer certificate. The bill passed Senate Education and Health unanimously yesterday, and is on first reading on the Senate floor today.
On March 1, SB 166 (Edwards) and SB 182 (Stosch) were tabled in the [...]

House and Senate Approve Own Budgets
On February 21, the House and Senate reported their amendments to former Governor Kaine’s budget introduced in December for both the current fiscal year and the next biennium. The House and Senate budget amendments were adopted by each house yesterday.  The most contentious item in former Governor Kaine’s budget of [...]

Citing the enormous success of the Virginia Community College System and his extraordinary efforts to launch the 23 community colleges in Virginia, Dr. Dana B. Hamel was recognized Monday by the House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia.  Appearing with his family and current Chancellor Glenn DuBois and Executive Vice Chancellor Karen Petersen in the [...]

On February 17, Governor Bob McDonnell announced how he plans to balance the current year’s budget and the upcoming 2010-12 biennial budget from the budget prepared by the previous governor.  The announcement was predicated on a communication from Secretary of Finance Ric Brown to the Governor announcing the revised revenue forecast and effect on the budget.  The [...]

SB 166 (Edwards) received a unanimous 14-0 vote last night in the Senate Finance Committee. SB 166 will establish a community scholarship match program for community college students in the high-demand fields of science, teaching, technology, engineering, math, and nursing. A $5 million budget Senate budget amendment accompanies the legislation, and the law does not [...]

On a  14-7 vote on February 10, the House Education Committee voted to advance legislation that would enable the Virginia Community College System, the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia, and four-year colleges and universities to develop a uniform transferable general studies certificate from one of Virginia’s 23 community colleges to a public or [...]

The Progress-Index of Petersburg published a good story about students from John Tyler Community College visiting with their lawmakers to talk about their community college experience and to ask for support for their college.
During each meeting, the students shared their personal stories and spoke about the important role John Tyler Community College is playing in [...]

HB 1011 (Athey) would allow community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in the high-demand fields of nursing, education, applied technology and other high need areas. The bill was heard on February 2 in the Higher Education Subcommittee of House Education.   Athey offered amendments to the subcommittee to narrow the bill to two pilot programs, one [...]