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Session 2023 Resources

With a divided legislature and a short session, every moment of the legislative session is important. So we’re preparing to leverage every opportunity to advance solutions that work and fight any attempts to roll back the progress we’ve made together over the past few years.

Below, you’ll find more information on some of the key issues that TCI is working on this session along with resources to help you engage this session. This is not an exhaustive list of our efforts or resources, and we are proud to be a part of an ecosystem of advocates who are working to advance racial and economic justice from a variety of angles.

This session, we are working to:

Center People in Virginia’s Budget and Tax Policy

Our state budget shows who and what we value and is a critical tool to advance policies that will meaningfully dismantle barriers for people of color and families with low incomes across the state. Below are some overview resources on budget and tax issues being discussed this session. Since the state budget touches everything we care about, you’ll find issue-specific budget information throughout the other sections as well.

Resources

Make Sure Students and Teachers have the Resources to be Successful

Instead of attacking our schools and our teachers, Gov. Youngkin and legislative leaders should put forward plans to provide public schools the resources they need to provide a high-quality education for every student in every zip code. Recent investments do not make up for the fact that the state has historically underfunded Virginia schools and ranks 40th in state funding per student. The state must fully fund our schools to remove barriers to a high-quality education and so that they can hire the teachers and counselors that our students need.

Resources

Increase Family Economic Security

There is much focus on corporations this session, but conversations around business and our economy must center the well-being of the very people who drive them — working people and their families. At a time when corporate profits (after taxes) are near all-time highs while rising costs are testing family budgets, we must make sure that we are enacting policy that lifts up families and communities rather than prioritizing corporations and rejecting policies that threaten our progress.

Resources

Cover All Kids & Protect our Progress on Health Care

What we look like and where we are from should not stand in the way of accessing affordable and comprehensive health care. Virginia has made great progress in connecting people to health care in the last few years. State policymakers can protect Virginia’s progress by properly planning for the future and updating backwards eligibility rules that currently force many families to choose between paying the rent or getting care for their sick of injured child.

Resources

Reform Laws that Punish Poverty and Exacerbate Racial Injustice

Courts impose excessive fines and fees that many people simply cannot afford to pay and that lock people into cycles of debt they cannot escape. And this is done with unparalleled intensity in Black communities. Under current law, people can be on the hook for court debt for up to 60 years, essentially a lifetime sentence. Of the many ways we can reform the criminal legal system, key opportunities include reducing the time that court debt can be collected and gathering better and more inclusive data to illuminate and address racial injustice.

Resources

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