The 2012 Virginia General Assembly session convened Wednesday, January 12 and is expected to adjourn Saturday, March 10. Additional information will be posted here throughout the legislative session.
2012 General Assembly Resources
Legislative Information System. LIS will allow you to view budget information and legislation before the General Assembly, provides an up-to-date meeting calendar, and other General Assembly resources.
Virginia General Assembly. The General Assembly page will allow you to discover additional information about the General Assembly, including committee information and member profiles.
2012 General Assembly Agenda
Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG)
• The Governor’s introduced budget provides additional funding of $5.8 million for the TAG award program, with a goal of providing a $2,750 undergraduate award to students. There are currently 23,000 Virginia students receiving TAG – the current TAG award is $2,650 for undergraduate students and $1,150 for graduate students in health professions degree programs.
• TAG helps make a private college education affordable for thousands of Virginians, including low and middle income families. While public institutions become increasingly selective, private colleges continue to serve a wide variety of Virginia students in terms of academic ability and socio-economic profile.
• Virginia’s private colleges would like to retain the additional TAG funding included in the Governor’s budget.
Incentive Funding Language
• The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Higher Education Advisory Committee (HEAC) approved a proposal for incentive funding at Virginia’s private colleges that would be comparable to the one for the public colleges.
• The Governor’s introduced budget included the following language: Pursuant to TJ21 and its provisions promoting partnership between public and private institutions in the achievement of stated policy goals, the Commonwealth’s higher education investment strategy and funding policy may include the provision of financial incentives to private non-profit institutions of higher education where such incentives will support the goals of economic growth, reform-based investment and affordable access specified in TJ21. The Secretary of Education shall consult with the Attorney General and Secretary of Finance to identify appropriate methods for the provision of such incentives and shall make recommendations to the Higher Education Advisory Committee related thereto on or before October 1, 2012.
• Virginia’s private colleges would like for the incentive funding language to remain unchanged in the budget.