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We all want our public schools to be places where kids are reliably transported to school in the morning, educated by a full-time certified teacher, served a nutritious meal, and provided supplemental services when needed, such as counseling or special needs. Yet, for too many Virginia students this year, staffing shortages challenged everyday school operations and learning. Worse, according to recently released data by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), these staffing shortages were significantly more severe in schools with a high share of Black students, students of color, and students experiencing poverty. As state lawmakers currently deliberate what resources to include in the final budget, they have an opportunity to meaningfully address Virginia’s staffing crisis this year and provide more adequate funding to ensure it doesn’t get worse next year. 

Before looking at solutions, it’s important to understand what the data is telling us. This is the first year VDOE released vacancy data with a high level of detail – providing a snapshot of staffing levels October 1, 2021.* Most school divisions had the greatest challenges filling bus driver positions, while others struggled more with administrators and teachers. Several divisions had more than 1 in 10 positions unfilled. Divisions with the highest share of Black students** had nearly three times the staff vacancy rates of divisions with the lowest share (8.2% v.s. 2.5%). The story was similar for schools with the highest share of students of color compared to the lowest share (7.6% v.s. 2.7%). The differences were less pronounced for divisions with the highest share of students experiencing poverty, but still higher than divisions with the lowest share (7.8% v.s. 5.0%). 

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With 90% of teachers reporting burnout according to a recent national survey, and a dwindling supply of people entering teacher preparation programs, without coordinated state-level intervention, we should expect our school staffing crisis to get worse in the coming years. Fortunately, Virginia is a relatively high income state*** and lawmakers have ample options over the long term to stem the staffing crisis. This includes getting serious about investing in ‘grow-your-own’ teacher pipeline programs and making it more affordable to enter the teaching profession, as many other states have done. Virginia has only dabbled in funding a couple small scale teacher residency programs to date. Virginia should also significantly increase its state per pupil spending – currently, Virginia ranks 41st out of all states, hovering between states with far fewer resources like Mississippi and Missouri.

In the near term, state lawmakers who are negotiating the final state budget right now could make several critical investments. Below are the top 5 budget investments that have already been proposed this year and lawmakers could easily include in the final budget to address Virginia’s school staffing crisis:

1. Fully fund the state share of 5% raises over the next two years ($751 million) for state-funded teacher and staff positions to address turnover and recruitment. Virginia currently has the least competitive teacher pay in the entire country. 
2. Fund the At-risk add-on ($269 million). This would increase support for schools serving many students from families with low incomes, and would particularly help school divisions facing some of the most severe staffing shortages.
3. Make progress on lifting the support cap ($272 million). This would partially lift the “support cap,” which for more than a decade has limited state funding for all types of essential support staff positions in schools. Many schools continue to use local money to fully fund these essential positions, and adding state support would free up funding to offer more competitive salaries.
4. Provide bonuses this school year ($137 million in federal relief funds) to help with educator retention.
5. Offer teacher recruitment incentives ($15 million in federal relief funds). This would provide teacher recruitment incentive payments and attract workers to hard-to-fill instructional positions in the next school year. 

These solutions are all on the table and state lawmakers have ample funding to fully fund each one. State lawmakers ultimately bear significant responsibility for the trajectory of our school staffing crisis and could be education champions if they meaningfully intervene this year to change Virginia’s course for the better. 

*Richmond City Public Schools is the only division excluded from the data analysis since they are currently reviewing their data.

**Divisions defined as having top or lowest shares of types of students are broken up by quintile (i.e. divisions with the highest share of Black students means the top 20% of divisions with the highest share)

***Virginia is a top ten state for median household income according to the most recent Census data.