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The artificial cap on funding school support staff and decade of under-funding nationally-recognized staffing practices has left Virginia’s schools where they are today-- 40th in the nation for per pupil spending, with a catastrophic teacher shortage, falling scores on national achievement tests, and students learning in aging buildings that don’t support modern education or safety standards.
Virginia has $4.5 billion in available resources this year. Now is the time to directly invest in the success of our students and communities!
The proposed amendments to the 2022-24 biennial budget take different approaches to funding schools.
Whereas the Governor's Proposed Budget Amendments and House Proposed Budget Amendments focus on addressing pandemic-driven learning loss and the youth mental health crisis, the Senate budget goes a step further and additionally prioritizes rolling back the recession-era cuts to public education.
Of particular note, the Senate Budget provides nearly $310 million to fully lift the Support Cap and adds $38.6M for instructional aides in high-need schools. Adding thousands of critical support positions to schools will provide students additional time and attention to address learning loss.
In recognition of the safety and behavioral health challenges faced by our schools, each of the budgets allocates $15.5M to improve the integration of school-based mental health programs with community-based providers. The Senate Budget additionally allocates $56.9M to fund specialized support staff at a 4:1,000 ratio, increasing access to school counselors, psychologists, social workers and licensed health and behavior analysts.
The House budget allocates $12M to improving school security, while the Senate Budgets allocates $50M to improve school security with an additional $100M for school building modernization.
These investments are critical to helping our students get back on track academically and creating a safe and supportive learning climate which enables our communities to thrive.
We encourage you to email members of the House and ask them to place students first by restoring critical education funding.
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