Governor
Terry McAuliffe presented his budget amendments to the money committees (House
Appropriations, House Finance and Senate Finance) of the General Assembly this
morning. The full speech is available
here.
Here is what
our Governor said about public education:
EDUCATION
More than any other priority, Virginia’s future
economic success is staked upon our public education system. If we are
going to attract the jobs of today and create the jobs of tomorrow, we must
constantly improve the quality of the education we offer every Virginia child.
Today, I am proud to announce that my budget
recommendations contain no cuts or program reductions for elementary and
secondary education and no additional cuts to higher education in Virginia.
But we can’t be satisfied with simply doing no
harm. Education is too important. So I am targeting much-needed dollars to help
schools facing the most daunting challenges, so that a child’s future is not
determined by his or her zip code. It’s time to stop kicking the can down the
road and start taking action.
My budget proposal includes $713,000 to help
train principals in underperforming schools so they can steer their teachers
and students toward greater academic success. Those principals and others at
our local schools will also get extra help from school improvement and
curriculum specialists hired at the state level.
Of course, a student can’t be expected to ace a
test if he or she is hungry. Today, only half of all children who could benefit
from starting their day with a healthy breakfast are able to do so. That’s why
my budget includes $537,000 to enhance our school breakfast program, to help
these students start their day ready to learn. By contributing just a
nickel extra per breakfast, schools will now be better able to overcome
logistical challenges to making breakfasts a part of the school day.
These efforts build on the work done this year by
the First Lady, who has worked to bridge the nutritional divide and solve
childhood hunger. She’s achieving those goals while promoting Virginia’s
agriculture economy and supporting local programs related to community
nutrition, food access and health strategies.
And I am not forgetting about our teachers. I am
taking proceeds from the sale of unclaimed stocks and bonds turned over to the
state and significantly reducing the unfunded liability of our teacher
retirement fund. I am committing $150 million to protect teachers and to reduce
liabilities on local government balance sheets. This action will save money
through reduced future retirement payments for the state as well as localities.
An additional $75 million from the stock sales
will go to the Literary Fund to fuel school construction loans and interest
rate subsidies on loans through the Virginia Public School Authority.
Although my budget contains no new money for
preschool, I am proposing a common sense policy that will allow us to keep
making progress on early childhood education. We will allow school systems that
are maxing out their use of state pre-K funding to receive extra money from
dollars not used in other divisions.
And of course last week I was proud to announce
that Virginia has been awarded a $17.5 million U.S. Department of Education
Preschool Expansion Grant that will allow the Commonwealth to serve as many as
1,600 additional at-risk four-year-olds in new, high-quality preschool classes.
Budget Highlights for PreK-12
Governor McAuliffe’s Proposed Budget Amendments 12-17-14
- Faced
with sluggish economy and sagging revenues, the state had a shortfall in
the budget approved last Spring of almost $900 million. The Governor’s budget does not make any substantive cuts
to K-12 over the biennium.
- Additional
funding for education is minimal.
The increases are:
- Add
positions in Central Office for school improvement specialists: FY 2016 = $0.6 million
- Provide
funds for training of principals in underperforming schools: FY 2016 =
$0.7 million
- Provide
money for expedited retakes for SOL tests and expand computer-adaptive
SOL testing: FY 2016 = $0.9 mil
- Enhance
school free breakfast program: FY 2016 = $0.5 million
- Reduce
unfunded liability in teacher retirement fund: FY 2016 = $150 million
- Revive
use of Literary Fund for school construction loans and subsidies: FY 2016 = $75 million.
- Some
technical reductions were taken in PreK-12.
The Governor’s staff stated that these would not impact funding to
local schools.
- Enrollment
growth is lower than anticipated, reducing state costs: FY 2015= $19.8
million and FY 2016 = $11 million
- The
contribution to offset the unfunded liability in teacher retirement fund
saves the state money and also saves localities as rates can be
adjusted: FY 2016 = $10.4 million
(state)
- Increases in sales tax revenue allows reduction in other state funds: FY 2015 = $2.4 million and FY 2016 = $3.6 million
The Governor’s
presentation of his amendments today is the beginning of the budgetary
process. As the late, great Senator
Hunter Andrews used to say, “The Governor proposes, and the General Assembly
disposes.” The Governor’s presentation
is significant in that it singled out public education and spared us from cuts. We can only hope that the General Assembly
will follow his lead in this regard, and we hope that Governor McAuliffe will work
with us in the years ahead to restore the cuts we have experienced since 2008.
