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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 31, 2013 10:30 AM |
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| From: | Representative Seth M. Grove |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Mandate Relief for School Districts (Former HB 1595) |
| I am preparing to reintroduce House Bill 1595 that Representative Curt Schroder introduced during the 2011-2012 legislative session that will provide wholesale mandate relief reform for public school districts to ensure they can invest as many resources as possible in student learning and operate as efficiently as possible. For years, school districts have continued to grapple with mandates that no longer make sense. The current fiscal crisis demands a new set of rules going forward; one that provides school entities with the freedom to optimize their resources to more efficiently serve taxpayers and foster new practices to improve teaching and student excellence. This bill will grant authority to school districts to suspend certain costly mandates after adopting a resolution at a public meeting. The resolution must include a memorandum detailing the rationale for the suspension of the mandate(s), along with a justification of how the change would improve instructional programs or allow the school entity to operate in a more effective, efficient, or economical manner. Any school entity adopting a mandate suspension resolution must notify the Pennsylvania Department of Education and any other agency having oversight of the mandate. Any oversight agency may object to the mandate suspension to the Department of Education, and the Department will have the ability to disapprove any resolutions. Additionally, any school entity that approves a mandate suspension resolution will be required to assess the economic and/or educational benefits of suspending the mandate every three years. This past session, we were successful in eliminating many mandates from our school districts. However, I believe this bill will allow the districts, themselves, to become proactive and save both time and resources by addressing the problems as they arise at the local level. That being said, there are several laws that will not be eligible for suspension. Examples include: the Right-to-Know and Sunshine laws, health and safety laws, election acts, due process laws, ethics acts, the state construction code, and federal or state court orders. Previous Cosponsors: Schroder, Aument, Bloom, Boyd, Causer, Cox, Creighton, Everett, Gingrich, Goodman, Grove, Harris, Hickernell, Kauffman, Knowles, Krieger, Lawrence, Marsico, Miller, Milne, Mustio, Pickett, Reichley, Roae, Ross, Saccone, Saylor, Scavello, Simmons, Swanger, Vulakovich, Hennessey, Stern, Harper, Rock, Denlinger, Maher and Kampf |
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Introduced as HB780