Sen. Ross Turner (R-Greenville), who serves on the Senate Education Committee, and the Subcommittee on S.419 (the education reform bill), told the Greenville News yesterday that he expects education reform to be passed in next year’s session (early 2020), instead of by the end of this year’s session.
The “Crossover Date”, the day after which no bills can go from one body to the other – they have to deal with the ones already on the docket – is April 10. The Senate Subcommittee has taken a slower process, on purpose, with this education reform bill – breaking it into sections and also hosting hearings across the state. They still have not finished their work in going through the bill, and with April 10 looming, it’s likely that they will hold the bill in Committee and work on it over the next 9 months or so.
Our Take: This is not necessarily a bad thing. Many in education thought that the House process went by too quick and without enough public input. While the House did take a shorter amount of time on this bill, by getting it quickly to the Senate, they negated the likelihood of reform being lost in the wind between 2019’s session and 2020’s. Additionally, many in the education community began, this week, calling for the Senate to slow down and work on the bill through next year’s session. Teacher pay raises are decided in the budget bill ultimately and the House budget includes teacher raises. The Senate begins their budget process next week and will most likely include teacher raises as well.
What does this mean for the arts? We will continue to push for the inclusion of arts-friendly language throughout the process, no matter how long it takes. We also will be looking at additional ways the arts can be better supported in education and working on highlighting the impact of the arts on our schools.
