Session 2026 Resources
This year’s legislative session carries especially high stakes for Virginia. Decisions made now — particularly around investments and protections for communities — will determine whether the state strengthens the progress we’ve made or moves backward in the face of mounting pressures.
Our priorities are guided by our Collective Agenda for Virginia’s Future, shaped by ongoing community input, and responsive to this year’s unique opportunities. This is not a comprehensive list of our work, but a snapshot of how we are engaging in a high-stakes session — alongside partners across the state — to build a more just and equitable commonwealth. We’ll continue to update this page as more resources become available.
This session, we are working to:
- Invest in All of Us through a Robust Budget and Fair Tax Code
- Fully and Fairly Fund Our Schools
- Create Greater Economic Opportunity
- Support Safe and Healthy Communities
- Reform Laws that Punish Poverty and Exacerbate Racial Injustice
Invest in All of Us through a Robust Budget and Fair Tax Code
Our state budget shows who and what we value — and this year’s decisions carry especially high stakes for our future. The budget is a powerful tool for dismantling barriers facing people of color and families with low incomes across Virginia. At its core, the budget reflects two linked choices: how we raise revenue and how we invest it.
Below are resources on the budget and tax debates shaping this legislative session. Because budget decisions affect everything we care about, you’ll find issue-specific budget information throughout the other sections.
Resources
- Budget Matters: How it Works and How It Can Work For Virginia Families
- Tight Budget Year Shows Why Virginia Needs New Revenues
- TCI statement on Gov. Youngkin’s Budget Proposal
- Charts of Key Budget Choices
- Revenue options to help you answer “How will we pay for this?”
- How Key Tax Proposals Would Improve Affordability in Virginia
- Fair share taxes:
- How mimicking certain federal tax choices could drain our shared resources
Fully and Fairly Fund Our Schools and Support Our Students
Every student in Virginia deserves a fully funded public education that supports them and helps them thrive — no matter who they are or where they live. Yet Virginia continues to fall short of what is needed to provide truly high-quality schools statewide.
Fully funding our schools is essential to removing barriers to opportunity, ensuring schools can hire and retain staff, and providing the programs and supports students need to succeed.
Resources
- Priorities of the Fund Our Schools (FOS) coalition
- FOS statement on governor’s budget proposal
- Better Meeting the Needs of Students Facing Barriers will Boost Funding for Every School Division (Division-level data)
- Virginia Must Boost Its Support for English Learner Students
- The Importance of Access to High Quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
Need help understanding some of the basics of school funding? Head over to our Policy Basics page and select Education.
Create Greater Economic Opportunity
Our economy works best when people have what they need to thrive — strong wages, affordable child care, a voice at work, and tax policies that support families with the least. Together, we’ve made meaningful progress in recent years, but too many families are still left behind.
This session presents opportunities to build on recent gains and advance policies that expand economic opportunity and help families across the commonwealth thrive.
Resources
- How Key Tax Proposals Would Improve Affordability in Virginia
- Minimum Wage: One-pager (English and Spanish)
- Statewide public-sector bargaining: One-pager | More Details
- When Campus Workers Have a Voice, Students Succeed: One-pager
- What’s Next for Virginia’s EITC: Making it Permanent and Expanding Access
- Many Families Who Benefit from the Federal EITC Benefit from the State Credit (data by locality and legislative district)
- The Importance of Access to High Quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
Support Safe and Healthy Communities
Strong communities depend on access to good health care and the resources families need to be safe and well. While Virginia has made significant progress in expanding health coverage in recent years, those gains are not guaranteed, and federal decisions increase that risk.
This session, policymakers can protect and strengthen access to care by removing barriers to health and investing in programs that support the well-being of families and communities across the state.
Resources
- Healthcare for All Virginians 2026 Priorities One-pager
- Choosing Care Over Corporate Tax Cuts: A Better Path for Virginia’s Budget
- Restoring Medicaid/CHIP investments: FAMIS prenatal, oral health, provider access
- Increasing access to Medicaid/CHIP for more families with low and moderate incomes (CHIP income eligibility)
- Addressing expired federal Affordable Care Act subsidies
- Supporting funding for Virginia’s free clinics (courtesy of VAFCC)
Reform Laws that Punish Poverty and Exacerbate Racial Injustice
Justice should never depend on how much money you have or the color of your skin. Yet Virginia’s legal system continues to impose harsh fines, fees, and pretrial practices that overwhelmingly harm people with low incomes and Black communities.
This session offers opportunities to reduce these harms, promote fairness, and make sure no one is trapped in cycles of debt or incarceration simply because they cannot afford to pay.