This week, a conference committee was appointed to hash out the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill that would appoint a board of managers to oversee MSCS. You may recall that the intervention legislation did not pass last year during the initial attempt due to differences in the House and Senate versions that were not resolved before the General Assembly adjourned for the year.
Senator Brent Taylor, who sponsored the Senate version, was appointed this week to chair the conference committee. Representative Mark White, the chairman of the House Education Committee and sponsor of the House version of the bill, will also serve on the committee, along with Senators Adam Lowe, Bill Powers, and Raumesh Akbari. More members of the conference committee are expected to be appointed by the House shortly.
The conference committee will meet on Monday, April 20, to begin working out the final details of the bill. Both the House and Senate will then be required to vote on the agreed-upon final version of the bill before it reaches the governor’s desk.
The conference committee news comes in the wake of the publishing an interim forensic audit report into MSCS’ finances, as well as the MSCS board’s proposed “Accountability Plan” as an alternative to state intervention.
