The House Education Committee walked through the Senate Version of H.461 on Friday in preparation to receive it early next week.

This version of the bill would:

• Repeal the Shared School District Financial Data Management System.
• Would allow the Vermont National Guard Tuition Benefit Program to have portability to other states if a specific program is not offered by a Vermont institution.
• Make changes to the home study program, allowing for streamlined reporting and less onerous curriculum requirements.
• Extend the expiration of the Vermont Ethnic and Social Equity Standards Advisory group to the end of 2023 and create a smaller ongoing Technical Advisory Group to offer context on the final report and recommendations from the group.
• Create a pilot program to train driver education instructors as a joint program between the Agency of Education and the Department of Motor Vehicles.
• Clarify the process for electing the initial slate of members on a union school district board.

The Committee did not have possession of the bill yet and as such could not take any action, however it was noted that some items, like National Guard tuition, did have some time sensitivity.

Chairman Conlon noted that if they could not resolve all the components with the Senate, they could discuss time-sensitive pieces.