It’s been quite a week in Richmond. Tuesday was crossover day at the General Assembly and legislators were swirling around the Capitol as all of the House bills were officially transferred to the Senate and all of the Senate bills were sent on to the House.

Tuesday also marked the day of a very special legislative accomplishment for me personally. One of the things that I am most passionate about is retooling our community college system to create opportunity and prosperity in every corner of our Commonwealth. We won an important victory in that fight on Tuesday when my legislation to make college more accessible to all Virginians passed with strong support in the State Senate.

My bill (SB 1214) will help Virginians who attend community college or earn an associate’s degrees to continue their pursuit of higher education at a four-year college or university by expanding the community college transfer grant program. This legislation improves our transfer credit program by extending it to students who have earned 60 college credits, but are yet to obtain an associate’s degree. I am also a strong supporter of Senator Walter Stosch’s legislation (SB 1240) to increase funding for these grants by 50 percent so that even more Virginians will have the resources they need to continue the pursuit of higher education.

Right now we are faced with the largest budget shortfall that our state has ever seen and we have a lot of tough choices ahead of us at the General Assembly. I promise to never forget that my work here is about you. Working families are facing some tough choices of their own right now and that’s why I’m standing up and fighting for you in Richmond.

Very Truly Yours,

(February 12, 2009)