Assembly Access

Revisions to the Standard of Quality methodology proposed by House Republicans would drastically reduce per-pupil spending in schools across the Commonwealth. You can see the reductions by school district on our interactive map here.

In the video below, Del. Kris Amundson explains her concerns with the new funding formula:

No thanks to the Republican majority, who have repeatedly refused to broadcast floor sessions for a variety of dubious reasons, Richmond Sunlight now offers a full archive of video to accompany this year’s House Minutes.

Michael Powell - former member of the Bush administration, son of Colin Powell, and certainly no stranger to battles over taste and decency - currently serves as the Rector of the College of William and Mary, and as such is heavily involved in the ongoing brouhaha over former College president Gene Nichol.

Last month, Republicans called four nominees to the College’s Board of Visitors to come before the House Privileges and Elections Committee, where they answered questions for about an hour and a half.

Powell’s diagnosis?

“There are aspects of the General Assembly’s behavior that are reprehensible.” (AP, 2/22/08)

Perhaps Powell felt that time could have been better spent on redistricting reform, closing the gun show loophole, or immediate property tax relief, all of which received cursory (if any) deliberation in the GOP-controlled House of Delegates.

Waldo Jaquith reviews our new GOP counterpart:

The House Republicans’ blog is far more strident than the House Democrats’ blog. While the Democrats simply provide a few words of context and let the video speak for itself, nearly every blog entry on the the Republicans’ site levels a personal attack at a specific legislator, with accusations made in all caps with double exclamation points, the unnamed blog author describing his own claimed outrage in the first person.

The Shad Plank mentioned Assembly Access last Friday, focusing on our penchant for popping in on those infamous 7:00 AM subcommittee meetings.

House Republicans’ opening-week antics did not play well across Virginia:

• “Secrecy facilitates skulduggery. Sunshine is a simple and obvious test of good governance. Republicans just flunked.” (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/14/08)
• “Legislators are hard pressed to come up with a legitimate reason to maintain the shroud of secrecy. Nevertheless, again this year, they will do a significant part of the public’s business without the transparency and accountability it deserves.” (Daily Press, 1/14/08)
• “The subcommittee system remains an unaccountable black hole, where House lawmakers send unpopular measures to die.” (Andrea Hopkins, Bristol Herald Courier, 1/13/08)
• “Call it the gulag of lawmaking. Proposed bills go into the darkness and there they are killed, no spotlight, no fingerprints.” (The Daily Progress, 1/13/08)
• “Regardless of who controls the House, this proposal promoted openness in government. It should have been approved.” (The Daily News Record, 1/12/08)