New laws take effect in Virginia July 1

On Monday, July 1, successful bills from Governor Bob McDonnell’s fourth and final legislative agenda as Virginia’s chief executive will take effect, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The measures range from education reforms to public safety items to the enactment of “Virginia’s Road to the Future,” the Commonwealth’s first major transportation funding program since 1986.

When these new laws take effect on Monday, Virginia will:

• Be on track, after the Governor’s transportation bill is fully implemented, to potentially have the fourth-cheapest gasoline in the nation, according to AAA. AAA predicts retail gas prices should drop, over time, by about 6 cents per gallon in many areas of the state, due to the legislation, possible saving the average Virginia motorist nearly a dollar per fill up.

• Have in place the first long term transportation funding plan in the Commonwealth in 27 years. During that time Virginia’s static gas tax had fallen to just 55% of its original value, and Northern Virginia had become the most congested region in America, with Hampton Roads ranked #20. The Texas Transportation Institute found that Virginia’s prior failure to approve new transportation funding for nearly three decades, and the resulting congestion, was costing every motorist in Northern Virginia $1,400 a year; every driver in Virginia Beach $877 a year; and every commuter in Richmond $581 a year.

CNBC dropped Virginia from 1st to 3rd in last year’s “Best State for Business” rankings primarily due to the then ongoing failure to properly fund transportation, with the Commonwealth falling from 10th to 33rd in the specific category of “Infrastructure and Transportation.”

Now, Virginia will have a long-awaited, long-term transportation funding plan in place that will reduce gas prices and spur private-sector job creation.

• Provide a competitive strategic compensation program for localities to develop programs to reward teachers who take on additional responsibilities or who move to serve in the Commonwealth’s most hard-to-staff school districts thus ensuring that all students have a greater opportunity to learn from Virginia’s best teachers.

Students will also benefit from “Teach For America” which works in partnership with communities and recruits, trains and develops diverse, talented individuals who commit to teach for a minimum of two years in high-need urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity.

• Ensure that Virginia’s students are learning from the very best, both by celebrating and rewarding Virginia’s excellent teachers, and also establishing new procedures to guarantee that failing teachers are not tolerated in our K-12 system.

The historic reforms to the Commonwealth’s teacher evaluation and grievance process will create a pathway to remove ineffective teachers from the profession and ensure that every child in Virginia has a great teacher in his or her classroom.

• See more transparency and clarity in school rankings with the implementation of the Governor’s new “A-F” school grading system which will make school performance easier for parents to evaluate and understand.

• Give school systems more tools to allow for an increased focus on reading proficiency by third-grade by allowing schools that fail in reading to be exempt from science and history SOLs to focus more time on reading instruction.

• Make it easier for school boards to open a public charter school with elimination of requirement that the State Board of Education must first approve any local application.

• Take action to ensure that no child attends a failing a school by establishing the Opportunity Educational Institution which will focus on turning around chronically failing schools.

• Establish more “High School to Work” partnerships between Virginia’s public high schools and industry in the state, providing real work job experience before high school graduation.

• Put in place tougher penalties for identity theft.

• Strengthen the Sex Offender Registry and continue cracking down on violent street gangs.

• Gain numerous new policies to improve school and campus safety including establishing the Public School Security Equipment Grant program.

The Governor was quoted in the news release as saying, “Over the last three and a half years we have demonstrated that here in Richmond leaders from both parties can come together to get results for the people of Virginia.

Today, our unemployment rate is at its lowest point in over four years. We’ve posted three straight budget surpluses. We’ve reduced the future unfunded liability in our pension system by $9 billion. Crime rates are down.

Agricultural exports have reached a record high. More Virginians are working. More Virginia students are finding it easier to access our world-class colleges and universities.

And the United States Chamber of Commerce has said that Virginia is perhaps America’s “Most Livable State.” In short, Virginia is stronger than before. This session of the General Assembly, we added to those bipartisan successes.”