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Richmond, VA – No school division that has planned its local budget using data provided by the state on how much it should expect to receive this year and next should be penalized for the $201 million calculation error made within Governor Youngkin’s Department of Education. Yet, despite misleading statements about what the recently passed “Skinny” Conference Budget actually included to hold schools harmless from the Governor’s $201 million error, only $16.8 million was included. School divisions are by no means made whole.

“By using money that would have gone to schools anyway and deceptively changing the goalposts, Republicans have sought to mislead the public into believing they have made schools whole for the $201 million mistake,” said Dr. James J. Fedderman, President of the Virginia Education Association. “Only the Democrat-proposed Senate budget offered a complete fix to this careless mistake, and we need lawmakers to come back to the table and fully fund our schools.”

The Democrat-proposed Senate budget would have made all school divisions whole for the $201 million calculation error, and the Republican-proposed House budget never even attempted to reach this threshold. What was passed on Saturday should be viewed as a stop-gap budget that includes $242 million of technical updates that would have been provided to school divisions regardless of the error. The $16.8 million added to the budget is for the purpose of a deceptive talking point to claim victory on a totally different and internally-devised benchmark to confuse the public and media into believing the full $201 million error was adequately addressed.

Because the deception of this budget was so mathematically complex, it’s important to review the facts. The $16.8 million added in the Skinny Conference Budget on Saturday, February 25th was to account for the difference between what divisions were told to expect through the June budget calculation tool for this current school year and what they actually should have received in the December budget after technical updates were made. The $201 million that has been widely cited in the media represents the difference over two years (fiscal year 23 and 24) between what divisions were (erroneously) told to expect using the December budget calculation tool and what they would actually receive under the December budget after technical amendments were made. Republican leaders have been craftily not saying they will make divisions whole for the $201 million mistake, and never corrected the record of their intent with media who continued using the $201 million benchmark. Instead, they have quietly addressed the June calculation mistake for the current year only (not the full biennium) by supplanting the technical updates to school funding that would have occurred regardless, adding in a paltry $16.8 million, and claiming they covered the gap. The vast majority of money used by Republicans to fill the gap is funding that would have gone to schools no matter what, through technical updates for things like changes to enrollment and sales tax projections. Make no mistake, this is supplanting.

Because Republicans prioritized tax giveaways for the wealthy over critical services in their budget, they didn’t have enough to fully fix the $201 million error. In turn, they played games to deliberately deceive the public. They moved the goalposts internally, used some mathematical sleight of hand, and thought education advocates wouldn’t notice. But numbers don’t lie. Republicans never got close to closing the $201 million gap in their budget and have been unwilling to negotiate a deal to do so in the final budget. Instead, they’re doing everything they can to shortchange schools in the hopes of giving away more tax dollars to profitable corporations. We call on all lawmakers to come back to the table, prioritize kids over massive and unneeded tax giveaways that mostly benefit the wealthy, and actually fix this $201 million error.

Below, we provide a table showing the amounts each school division would need beyond the amounts provided in the Skinny Conference Budget to correct for the $201 million calculation error.

Example of how to read table below: The Skinny Conference Budget severely shortchanges Accomack Public Schools, compared to what they were told to expect after Governor Youngkin’s December budget was released. The calculation error between what divisions were told to expect after Gov. Youngkin’s budget release and what they really should have gotten was more than $201 million statewide and nearly $796,000 in Accomack County. The public schools in Accomack will still be down in the recently passed Conference Budget by $179,000 this school year and $616,000 next year compared to what they were told to expect in December. That comes out to an average loss of $175 per student, forcing schools that already budgeted for the larger amount to make tough cuts.