Education

Today the Virginia Board of Education will discuss a series of proposals for final consideration next month that would send a clear message to Virginia lawmakers that it’s time to fix how the state supports schools here in Virginia.

State funding cuts for higher education have increased tuition and mandatory fees at Virginia’s public universities, making college less affordable, and jeopardizing the ability of many students to receive the college education that is key to their long-term financial success and essential to growing Virginia’s economy.

A series of public hearings the state Board of Education is holding on the needs of public schools is an excellent opportunity for Virginians to tell the Board that cuts in support for education have hurt schools and kids and stand in the way of helping all communities to thrive.

A series of public hearings the state Board of Education is holding on the needs of public schools is an excellent opportunity for Virginians to tell the Board that cuts in support for education have hurt schools and kids and stand in the way of helping all communities to thrive.

If the two percent pay increase for teachers is cut, Virginia will have missed yet another opportunity to make the investments that help kids thrive. And this failure will particularly sting as it will come in a budget initially celebrated for investing in education.

Since publishing that report we’ve run the numbers for every school division in the state in the table below. The divisions highlighted in green are the 10 divisions that would see the largest funding increase. A PDF version is available here.

As the public and media hold their local schools accountable, we cannot ignore that different students have different costs associated with their education. The evidence is very clear that students from low-income families have substantially greater needs and require additional resources. Failing to provide adequate resources presents a false choice to schools: cut services for the general student body or ignore the specialized needs of low-income students.

Virginia’s state support for students from families that struggle economically lags behind many other states and behind what research shows is needed to provide these students with the same opportunities to be successful in the classroom as their financially more secure peers.

African-American and immigrant communities in Virginia share many challenges, and there are critical policy solutions that could improve the lives of both immigrant and African-American Virginians. This report explores some of these challenges and solutions, focusing on residential segregation, schools that too often fail to meet the needs of all students, employment challenges for adults without high school diplomas, low wages for many workers, lack of health insurance and culturally competent health care, significant caretaking responsibilities without the benefit of paid sick leave and family leave, and harsher punishment in the criminal justice system.