VEA Rescues Vital School Funding
October 15, 2020
October 15, 2020
October 15, 2020
Contact: John O’Neil, VEA Communications, at 804-775-8316
Statement from VEA President Dr. James J. Fedderman on the budget agreement reached Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators:
This budget agreement, thankfully, helps our public schools avert the worst of the financial hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we commend House and Senate negotiators for their work.
In particular, the agreement includes vital provisions to helps schools deal with the effects of sales tax revenue declines and with student enrollment losses that we believe are temporary. Over the last few weeks, VEA members have sent more than one thousand emails to the Virginia Senate to adopt items in the House budget that would protect the educational capacity of our schools, and the Senate did the right thing. Without these provisions, school divisions were headed down the path of layoffs and furloughs of school employees—just as students needed caring and committed educators more than they ever have.
Our state’s commitment to public education needs to grow, and we cannot hope to maintain Virginia’s reputation for high-performing schools and a robust economy without a much stronger, sustained commitment to investing in our students. Virginia state spending on schools is now less than it was before the Great Recession more than a decade ago, when adjusted for inflation. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how under-resourced our public schools are, as many students and teachers lacked high-speed internet and PPE in some schools amounted to a tiny bag with hand sanitizer and a disposable mask or two. The members of the Virginia Education Association will not rest until our elected leaders show their commitment to our most precious resource—our children.
The more than 40,000 members of the Virginia Education Association believe that every child deserves a great public school.
Virginia is a top 10 state in median household income, but ranks 36th in the US in state per pupil funding of K-12 education.
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