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2004 SESSION

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SB 220 Equal Education Opportunity Plan; development by Secretary of Education, report.

Introduced by: Henry L. Marsh III | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Equal Education Opportunity Plan. Requires the Secretary of Education to develop and implement a statewide plan to provide for equal education opportunity for all students in the Commonwealth. The Plan must include, but not be limited to, (i) an annual report of the number and percentage of minority students enrolled in the public schools by grade, and in undergraduate, graduate, professional, and postdoctoral degree programs by discipline; (ii) strategies to increase college admissions, retention, and graduation rates of minority students at the undergraduate and graduate degree levels; (iii) an analysis of the preparation of minority students for college-level work; (iv) an evaluation of the impact of financial assistance and tuition rates as inducements and obstacles to college education; (v) a summary of existing programs in Virginia and nationally that have proven effective in providing equal education opportunity; and (vi) an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Plan. The Secretary shall modify the Plan as necessary and recommend appropriate and feasible strategies and alternatives, including the projected costs of implementing the Plan, to address issues and policies identified by the Secretary as essential to the furtherance of the objectives of the Plan.

Effective on December 1, 2005, and biennially thereafter, the Secretary must submit to the Governor and the General Assembly an executive summary of the Equal Education Opportunity Plan no later than the first day of each regular session of the General Assembly. The Equal Education Opportunity Plan, although never implemented, was required initially as a result of Adams v. Richardson, 480 F2d 1159 (DC Cir. 1973) and Adams v. Califano, 430 F. Supp. 118 (DC 1977), concerning the desegregation of Virginia colleges and universities, and, in 1973, the Plan was incorporated in the Virginia Plan for Equal Opportunity in State-Supported Institutions of Higher Education, Item 131.10 of the 2001 Budget communicated by the Governor. However, the Virginia plan for Equal Opportunity in State-Supported Institutions of Higher Education was removed from the budget during the 2003 Session. Nevertheless, the agreement entered into by Governor Gilmore on behalf of the Commonwealth with the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights on November 7, 2001, requires evidence of Virginia's good faith effort to comply with the Accord. The Plan would demonstrate the Commonwealth's good faith effort during the five-year monitoring and reporting phase of the United States. Office for Civil Rights federal compliance review precipitated by the United States Supreme Court's decision in Ayers v. Fordice (505 US 717, 112 S.Ct. 2727, 1992).


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