The Latest from VEA

Earlier this afternoon, Governor Youngkin previewed his amendments to the bipartisan proposed budget sent to him from the General Assembly in March. Overall, the Governor proposed amendments to slash $635 million of state direct aid for K-12 public schools over the next two years, hitting our highest-poverty and rural schools hardest. The Governor decided to remove critical revenue streams, giving another break to big corporations, and siphoning money from environmental initiatives – in turn blowing a $2 billion hole in the state budget and demanding harsh cuts.

In response to the release of the proposed amendments today, Dr. James Fedderman, President of the Virginia Education Association said:

“Once again, the Governor prioritizes handouts to big corporations while slashing crucial funds for our highest-need schools. His proposed cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars directly target high-poverty schools, jeopardizing the future of our children. Instead of genuine investment, he resorts to smoke-and-mirrors tactics, burdening the budget with short-sighted gimmicks that will undermine essential services like school construction and staff retirement in future years. While he touts the “historic” investments he’s making, it’s baffling that a former business figure fails to grasp the basic concept of inflation, leaving our schools and educators further behind the rising pace of costs. Our students deserve better than lip service – it’s time for real action to prioritize education over corporate interests.”

Below, we detail a couple of the most significant proposed amendments impacting K-12. 

Cuts to Highest-Need Schools and Students

The Governor’s amendments slash over $162 million earmarked for at-risk students, which could result in larger class sizes, fewer resources like tutoring and counseling, and diminished support for students facing socio-economic challenges. Additionally, the Governor’s proposed $47 million cut for English Learner (EL) services would likely lead to fewer EL teachers and support staff, impeding the progress of non-native speakers in mastering English and integrating into the academic environment.. These were targeted funding streams to support our students who face the greatest barriers to learning and who our non-partisan state research agency, JLARC, indicated the state has been severely underfunding for years. Indeed, EL students lost the most ground of any student group on Virginia state tests since the pandemic and critically needed additional state support. 

Teacher and Staff Pay

Fortunately, the Governor did not touch the 3% pay raises from the state over the next two years that the General Assembly proposed. The Governor’s initial proposed budget didn’t even keep salaries up with inflation over time. Yet, the Governor’s administration shared an embarrassingly misleading graph, suggesting that Virginia has already surpassed the national teacher pay average. This is plainly wrong.[1]

We and others have pointed out to the administration that they continue to use data that is not comparable and are thereby misleading the public on where Virginia stands on teacher pay.

[1] The administration used both National Education Association (NEA) average state teacher pay data and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) salary report data in their graph. The issue is, VDOE gives NEA the average teacher salary for their annual report each year. 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. VDOE 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 and DOES NOT include supplemental pay. Each state may calculate its own average in its own way while NEA performs its calculation the same way for each state, allowing for robust state-by-state comparisons.