House members will start floor consideration of six of eight education reform bills filed earlier this year in response to the pending final ruling in the Abbeville education equity lawsuit.
The six bills cleared the House Education Committee last week after being initially vetted by a special education task force called by House Speaker Jay Lucas. The bills are focused on assisting rural and poor school districts do as good of a job delivering education as in richer, urban districts. The six bills include calls to redefine expectations for high school graduates and to cut “unnecessary expenses” to investigating pay incentives for teachers in lower income districts and allowing the state to take over financially failing school districts. Two measures that didn’t make it out of committee dealt with reforms to allow poor districts to petition the state for infrastructure needs and a call for uniform school accreditation.
Also next week in the House, the Ways and Means Committee is expected to finish work on the 2016-17 budget. In the Senate, legislators will continue to talk about state roads, with Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, continuing to hold the floor in a filibuster.
On Wednesday, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Costa Pleicones will deliver his first — and last — State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the House and Senate.
To take a look at what’s ahead in legislative committees, click the following links:
- See the Senate calendar for next week.
- See the House calendar for next week.
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