Now is the time to reach out to members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committee. Let them know how fully funding public schools would positively impact your school community.
Virginia PTAs legislative priorities, which are driven by membership approved resolutions, have remained unchanged for the better part of a decade because important investments in schools; such as funding best practice staffing levels recommended by the Virginia Board of Education, and renovating aging schools have not been included in the final budget adopted by the General Assembly.
Below are updates on key priorities &
ways you can #TakeAction4Kids in your school.
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What is happening right now in the General Assembly? |
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This Tuesday, February 15th marks the mid-point of the 2022 General Assembly session, known as 'cross-over. This is when all bills that originated in the House must have been approved to cross-over to the Senate and likewise all work on Senate bills must be completed and ready to cross-over to the House.
Over the next week the Virginia House and Senate will each develop their own version of a two year budget based on the budget presented by Governor Northam, and amendments and bills that were approved in their chamber. These budget proposals will each be released on Sunday, February 20th. Each budget will then be debated by its respective chamber before moving to a Conference Committee where members of both chambers will work together to develop a budget that can be sent to Governor Youngkin for final approval.
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Joint Letter: Tip-line & Divisive Concepts |
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Over the past couple of weeks we have heard the outpouring of concern from volunteers and educators across the Commonwealth who are concerned about the tip-line established under Executive Order 1.
Virginia PTA signed-on to a joint letter with seven other education associations calling for an immediate end to the tip-line, and re-affirming the myriad of ways that parents and schools work together to support student success. The letter also acknowledges that School Boards are already required by the Code of Virginia to provide policies "with clear procedures for handling challenged controversial materials" and opportunities for parents to participate in developing curriculum and policies.
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Successful Capitol Day in Richmond |
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Thank you to Delegate Carrie Coyner (R-62nd) and members of the Virginia House for the warm House welcome as members of Virginia PTA visited the Capitol to advocate for funding and resources that would improve educational opportunities for students. #VAPTAAdvocacy #TakeAction4Kids
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Virginia PTA's Advocacy Committee facilitated more than 50 meetings this session with Virginia's legislators.
Volunteers from schools across Virginia shared stories about how their school would benefit from legislation that would equitably staff schools, fix aging buildings, improve data transparency, reform literacy instruction, and provide new career technical education pathways.
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Budget Amendments &
Standards of Quality
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For the past decade, the Virginia Board of Education has proposed staffing improvements that would balance teacher work-load and improve the quality of education for our students. These basic standards still have not been funded by the General Assembly.
As a member of Fund Our Schools, a statewide coalition of 18 associations, Virginia PTA signed-on to a letter supporting of key K-12 funding priorities for the proposed two-year state budget.
Priorities include investments to support students' mental health, infrastructure improvements, the SOQs, teacher pay, staffing shortages, and more.
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Watch the livestream Fund Our Schools discussion on budget amendments on Facebook, Monday Feb 14th at 11:00 a.m.
Standards of Quality Bills (SB 490 / HB1135) Senate Finance and Appropriations committee reported a substitute version of SB 490 that would provide additional specialized support staff for students, but won't fully fund the Standards of Quality. While this is a much more limited approach than fully implementing the Standards of Quality as prescribed by the VBOE and as included in the original version of the bill, we continue to support SB 490 as an important step forward. Much like how the bill was amended last year, the bill would now provide four specialized support positions for every 1,000 students, up from the three to 1,000 positions that last year's SOQ bill secured.
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Specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions, which may either be employed by the school board or provided through contracted services.
English Language Teacher Bills (SB156 / HB1184) SB 156 was amended and while it no longer offers funding based on student proficiency it does take an important step forward in funding English language teachers at a ratio of 22 full-time equivalent instructional positions per 1,000 students in the 2022-2023 school year, up from 18.5: 1,000 in the 2020-2021 school year and 20:1,000 in the 2021-2022 school year.
Mental Health. The most significant supports for mental health this session are in the form of budget amendments. Notably an amendment for a School-based Mental Health Integration pilot (McClellan 331#5s/Price 311#3h) would provide $10 million each year from the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services (DBHDS) to local school divisions to contract for community-based mental health services for students from public or private community-based providers.
YOU CAN HELP! Email legislators on the House Appropriations & Senate Finance Committee to share about staffing shortages in your school. Ask that they fully fund the budget amendments supported by the Fund Our Schools Coalition.
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The Literacy Act, HB 319 (Coyner) unanimously passed the Virginia House today AND companion bill SB 616 (Lucas) unanimously passed the Virginia Senate!
Now it will head to the Governor's desk to be signed into law!
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Bill SB 662 (Lucas) passed the Senate! This bill will increase data transparency by providing families and community members with data on teacher diversity on the School Quality Profiles.
TAKE ACTION: Email your House Delegate and let them know you support increased data transparency on the School Quality Profiles
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Early Childhood & Childcare |
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Bills that would expanding the Child Care Subsidy for military connected families (SB 529 - Reeves / HB 994 - Brewer) both passed out of committee the House and Senate floor.
Bill HB 389 (Bulova) which would to establish more robust regional public-private child care resources and infrastructure passed unanimously out of the full House Appropriations Committee and is being considered on the House floor.
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School Building Modernization |
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Did you know ... PTAs across Norfolk have been raising money to purchase water for their students because they don't have access to drinking water in their schools? Many of Virginia's schools have leaking roofs, windows that don't open, lack fire sprinklers and fail to meet other modern health & safety standards.
Virginia has made no significant contribution to school infrastructure in the last 12 years and Virginia's contribution to school infrastructure is among the lowest of any state in our Nation! Virginia's oldest school buildings are in our poorest communities and over half of Virginia’s schools are 50 years old.🌟Every student deserves to learn in a building that meets modern health and safety standards!
- Virginia PTA is advocating for $500M in this year's budget to modernize school buildings. We are also supporting series of bills that would define building standards for schools and require regular maintenance. Disappointingly, many of the school modernization bills are failing to make it through appropriations in either chamber.
How you can help
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Charter Schools & Vouchers |
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There are several bills moving through the 2022 General Assembly Session that would divert funds from public schools for tax credits, private voucher programs and private schools and/or allow the state Board of Education to supersede local school boards in approving new charter schools.
Bills that appear to be moving forward in both chambers expand the current ability to establish "Laboratory Schools", a K-12 academy developed in partnership with colleges and universities to create “innovative” new curriculum. Currently, only colleges with teacher training programs are allowed to establish lab schools under Virginia code.
Governor Youngkin has proposed $150 million in budget amendments to support Lab Schools. The House version (HB346) and Senate version (SB598) are quite different. The Senate version , which has had substantial bi-partisan work, includes provisions to require lab school applicants to describe how they plan to cooperate with local school boards in founding and operating the lab school and also including students in the student count of their school division, which would retain public school funding while expanding public school options.
PTA supports public charter schools that expand school choice and which operate with local parent input and transparent reporting of public dollars. PTA opposes private school voucher systems and tax credits that divert public funds to private or sectarian schools. Public dollars carry the responsibility for providing public access, governance, and accountability.
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