GOVERNOR'S VETO

Pursuant to Article V, Section 6, of the Constitution of Virginia, I veto House Bill 518, which would require the Board of Education to select 12 schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement and require those schools to provide all enrolled students with the option to transfer to another public school within the school division.

At its core, this legislation undercuts local school boards' constitutional authority to assign students to schools. The local school board has the preeminent role over local public education, and HB 518 would unconstitutionally infringe on that role.

Additionally, Virginia's previous experience with implementing school choice policies to students in failing divisions proved costly and difficult to implement, and yielded no evidence to suggest that it had a positive impact on student achievement.

Accordingly, I veto this bill.