The Virginia General Assembly is in session and the school halls are all abuzz with chatter regarding proposed bills that may significantly impact Virginia school calendars and teacher contracts. You could read tidbits regarding these bills in the newspapers or hear secondhand information from colleagues (which may or may not completely factual) or you could visit the Legislative Information System (LIS) and track the bills!
There is a wonderful free service (for tracking up to five bills) called “Lobbyist In A Box” which allows you to track legislative bills throughout the entire session – very interesting process to watch! Don’t just read about it in the papers – track those bills!
Create an account for “Lobbyist in a Box” by visiting:
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp608.exe?121+uu1+000000
Thanks for this resource! And, yes, it’s super important for educational leaders to keep aware of legislative activities. Don’t just sit back and accept the mandates of the legislative branch.
I’ll also point you all to a new resource that I’m building with a colleague (who is an administrator in Albemarle County). The Virginia Education Report is designed to become a site with independent reports of education policy news across the Commonwealth. You might like to subscribe to that site as well.
http://virginiaedreport.org/
JB