House committee advances plan to centralize property insurance for schools, higher education

The House Insurance & Commerce Committee passed a bill Thursday to create a captive insurance program intended to provide property coverage for K–12 public and charter schools, institutions of higher education and state-owned properties.

Representative Jeff Wardlaw (House District 94), who presented the bill, said the measure would create a single administrating entity to buy property insurance and manage claims instead of the three separate programs that now cover state education property. “The purpose of creating a new program is to create a stable, affordable and self sustaining program for provision of property insurance,” Wardlaw told the committee.

Wardlaw said the bill is intended to lower overall premium costs by combining purchasing power and permitting the state to invest premiums rather than pay them to outside carriers. He said an anticipated funding package would move about…