The Latest from VEA

Richmond, VA – Late on Friday evening, after many workers and media had started their weekends, Governor Youngkin vetoed a pair of identical bills that would have set Virginia on a pathway to begin paying teachers at the national average by the 2027-2028 school year. The bills, SB104 and HB187, passed with strong bipartisan support out of the General Assembly. The Governor also vetoed bills to finally remove preferential tax treatment by the state of organizations that celebrate the Confederacy and white supremacy.

In response to the Governor’s vetoes on Friday night, Dr. James Fedderman, President of the Virginia Education Association said:

“The Governor has once again shown us his true colors, standing up for the Lost Cause and organizations celebrating the Confederacy and sitting down for teachers. Not only does he refuse to even let Virginia strive to get to average teacher pay over the next four years, he indefensibly lies to the public, suggesting we are already at the national teacher pay average. He knows full well that Virginia is further from this goal than when he entered office.” Dr. James Fedderman added, “It’s clear as day that Governor Youngkin stands against teachers and school staff, and he rather cling to old Confederate causes and fight for more tax giveaways to big corporations and wealthy friends like himself than pay a living wage to working families.”

We understand why the Governor waited until late Friday evening when he thought no one was paying attention to veto these bills – it’s shameful. Refusing to allow Virginia to set its sights on getting teacher pay to average levels over four years is deeply embarrassing for a rich state like Virginia. This is the same ultra-wealthy Governor who vetoed bills to ensure all jobs in the state paid at least the minimum wage – a poverty wage for workers here. In every version of the state budget this governor has ever released, he’s suggested changes to teacher pay that haven’t even kept pace with inflation.

With his veto on Friday evening, he justified it with a lie he has been corrected on many times over now and continues to tell, claiming the state already pays above the national average. If he truly believes that, why veto this bill? The fact is, he knows he’s willfully lying to the public about this issue because he rather give big tax breaks to wealthy individuals like himself and big corporations, rather than paying our hard-working teachers and school staff a living wage.

Below, we detail the facts about where Virginia in relation to the national teacher pay average. (This information was shared with the Governor’s office before his bill veto).

The governor has been asserting over the past couple of months that Virginia is already at the national teacher pay average and will move ahead of it in the coming years (see examples here WSET and WSLS). Based on all the data before us, and the source and methodology for this assertion that we first identified in his fact sheet on his budget amendments, the governor is lying to the public.

One bullet from the governor’s fact sheet from April reads: “Includes a 3% teacher pay raise in each year, on top of 12% teacher pay raises adopted in the last two budget cycles. These 18% teacher pay raises is projected to raise average teacher pay in Virginia above the national average by nearly $3,500 a year.” Based on this claim, it seems the administration is mistakenly making comparisons between the estimated national teacher pay average in the National Education Association (NEA) Rankings and Estimates report and the Virginia estimate in the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Annual Salary Survey Report. The estimates provided within these two reports are calculated using different data and methodologies and are not comparable.

Within the NEA report, there are teacher pay averages for every state in the country, including Virginia. Like most states, our state education department gives NEA the data for the state average in their report annually, stripping out non-instructional positions and allowing for an apples-to-apples comparison across all the states – see source section on Page 72 of the NEA report.

VDOE’s “Annual Salary Survey Report” includes all salary expenditures (including supplemental pay) for classroom teachers, homebound teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, and instructional technology positions. NEA includes only classroom teachers, substitutes, and homebound teachers (the same method for each state) and DOES NOT include supplemental pay. The average teacher salaries given in the NEA and VDOE reports are not comparable, as recognized within VDOE’s own report, because NEA includes different job titles and different compensation from VDOE. See subheader of the table on page 4 which reads:

NOTE: There is a difference between the average salary used in the NEA report and the average salary as published in the Annual Salary Survey Report. The NEA Rankings and Estimates average teacher salary includes instructional classroom teachers, substitutes, and homebound instructional teachers. The average teacher salary that is calculated and published in the Annual Salary Survey Report includes those positions included in the NEA average salary except substitutes, but also includes guidance counselors, librarians, instructional technology positions, and supplemental salary expenditures. The average salary shown below for Virginia is based on the NEA calculation.

Virginia’s estimated average teacher pay in the most recent NEA Rankings and Estimates Report released two weeks ago is $65,058 this year (page 41), $6,641 below the estimated national average which is $71,699. If we assume all divisions meet the full state match for 3% growth over the next two years, average teacher pay in Virginia would be estimated to grow to $67,010 in FY25 and $69,020 in FY26.

If the national teacher pay average grew by average CPI-U over this time – a methodology preferred by the money committee staff in the General Assembly – it would be at $73,466 in FY25 and $75,156 in FY26. It would be fair for the governor to assert that between the current school year and FY26, Virginia is likely to shrink the gap between the Virginia and national teacher pay average from $6,641 to $6,136. This being said, it is not accurate to state that Virginia is already at the national average or on track to exceed the national average with the two 3% increases included in the new budget.

We don’t have to guess why the Governor is knowingly lying to the public about where Virginia’s teacher pay is – he doesn’t want to spend any more money on providing competitive pay. In the next budget cycle, Virginia will need to increase teacher pay by about 14% over the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school year to get to the national average. If the state used a cost-savings approach and did 3% in the first year and 11% in the second year, it would cost around $1 billion for the state. The Governor has pushed for significant tax breaks for wealthy individuals like himself and big corporations in his past budget proposals, leaving no room for this type of critical investment in school staff. He’s shown us he rather put corporations over kids over and over again, and given those values, it’s easy to understand why he’s trying to deceive the public now about what Virginia is actually paying its teachers.