The General Assembly voted on Saturday to extend the session
until Thursday at midnight. Part of that vote was to allow them to continue to
debate bills that were in conference, but it was also because there had been a budget
impasse on a few items. By late Saturday night news had come that the budget
impasse was over and that the budget would be available today around noon. That
is important because before the budget vote can be happen, it must be available
for review by legislators and the public for 48 hours. With the budget being
available today, legislators can come back on Thursday to take a final vote on
the 2020-2022 biennial budget.
The conference budget amends the budget that was introduced
by the Governor in December. Where the conferees added money, that is above
what was included in the Governor’s budget. Where there are reductions, that
is, again, from the Governor’s budget. We are still looking at numbers, but overall,
the conferees made additional investments to K-12 over the Governor’s
proposals. Over the next 48-72 hours, the VEA will be digging into the numbers
and get out our summary along with the state support amounts by school
division. For now, I wanted to share some high (and low) lights.
The conferees listened to the VEA and rejected the idea of a
one-time bonus for SOQ positions. They funded a full-year 2% salary increase
for all SOQ positions in both years of the biennium. I know many want more, and
the VEA requested 5% in each year. There are a couple of things to keep in
mind, though, as you argue for salary money. These two increases extend the
years of state support for salary increases to four. Each of these four years
have been a full year. The last time there was a string of four years of state
support for salary was 1998-2001. None of those four years was a full year of
funding. So, while this is not as much as we wanted, there is a very clear
indication that the General Assembly recognizes the need to sustain its efforts
on salary.
The other thing to keep in mind is that any salary increase
is only for the SOQ-funded positions. Salary increases for any position not
indicated in the current SOQs in Code is 100% the responsibility of the local
governments. Also, since school employees are not state employees, salaries are
a shared responsibility between the state and the local governments. That means
the local governments are responsible for their share of the salary increase
for all the SOQ positions in their divisions. We must realize that until we
offset the burden for so many of the costs of K-12 from the localities, many,
if not most, can’t afford to give the salary increase even with the state
support. The VEA will always fight for state support of salary increases, but
we are short sighted if we don’t also look at ways to offset the local burden
on the overall cost of K-12.
One way to do this is to implement the SOQs as issued by the
VA Board of Education this fall. While the General Assembly did not adopt many
(most) of the revisions, they did adopt improved staffing ratios for school
counselors and teachers of English language learners. These changes will,
ultimately, increase the number of positions that are now covered with the
salary increase money as they are SOQ funded positions. So aside from all the
good these additional teachers and counselors will do for our students, they
will also offset the costs for some divisions.
The conference budget also added an additional increase to
the At-Risk Add-On Funding proposed by the Governor. Again, the VEA would have
liked to have seen the approach issued by the VA BOE, but in the last two
budgets, there has been a significant increase in the at-risk funding. Every
single school division in the Commonwealth benefits from this funding source,
and it is the only direct funding we have for our students who meet the federal
definition of poverty. The VEA has been fighting for increases in the At-Risk
Add-On for years.
The conference budget includes enrollment-loss funding to
support our small and rural school divisions. These are vital dollars that help
our small divisions maintain programs as they lose students. Since VA funds
K-12 on a per-pupil basis, even a loss of 10-20 students can have a significant
impact on many of our divisions. Again, the VEA would have liked to have seen
the pre-recession era funding levels restored, but it is important to have this
funding included in the biennial budget.
The conference budget does not include significant
investments in school construction, but it does increase the per-pupil
allotment dollars and restores the requirement that they go back to being used
for non-recurring costs. Non-recurring costs include school construction,
additions, infrastructure, site acquisition, renovations, school buses,
technology, and other expenditures related to modernizing classroom equipment, plus
debt service payments on school projects completed during the last 10 years.
This is not the big fix schools need but is a step in the right direction to
using these funds as they had been used prior to the recession.
There is a very big win for our Education Support
Professionals in the budget. The budget includes almost $2 million to provide a
health insurance credit of $1.50 per year for services to retired non-teacher
school division employees having at least 15 years of total creditable service.
The VEA has been fighting for this benefit for years, and we worked hard this
session to pass House Bill 1513, establishing this benefit. We are grateful to
Delegate Delores McQuinn for her work on this issue.
There are lots of other details in the budget, but I find
the studies, workgroups and language changes interesting. First, there is
language to establish a collective bargaining workgroup that will give a report
to the General Assembly before the next session. The labor coalition had asked
for that language to be included on the bill but thought we would need to get
the Governor to add it. The language in the budget was a surprise and we are
glad it is there. That will compel the General Assembly to talk about
collective bargaining next session.
There are other studies in the budget that foreshadow some
action we may expect next session. The budget asks that data be collected on
the prevailing practice of planning time for our elementary school teachers.
This has been an issue for years as it is so hard to build into the day. There
were two bills this session (HB273 VanValkenburg/SB134 Stuart) that the VEA
worked closely on, and we used our data to inform the legislators’ votes.
Senator Stuart, in particular, highlighted the data we have collected. Our work
led to this language in the budget and the work the DOE will now need to do to
determine the actual prevailing practice and, hopefully, lay the groundwork to
increase planning time for our elementary teachers.
The budget also included $100,000 for the Department of
Education to study the teacher licensure process and any required assessments
in the licensure process for any inherent biases that may prevent minority
teacher candidates from entering the profession. This was a specific
recommendation from the inaugural Teachers of Color Summit, and the VEA brought
this issue to Senator Locke, who worked to pass this study this year.
There is also money in the budget to require the Department
of Education to collect and report information about vacant positions in each school
division and the number of individuals graduating from education preparation
programs, by endorsement area. Basically, the DOE will need to identify the
actual vacancies in positions and look at the pipeline for these positions. We
thank Delegate Willet for championing this legislation. These studies show that
the budget conferees want to dig into the teacher shortage and school employee
working conditions. That is good news.
One other interesting language item addresses standardized
statewide tests (the SOL tests) and performance assessments. While the VA Board
of Education revised graduation requirements a few years ago, their work was
overruled by the General Assembly. For the last few budgets, the General
Assembly included language that prohibited the issuing of verified credits for
graduation through performance assessments. The Board of Education recognized
that there are better ways to assess student learning and the verification of a
credit towards graduation then a bubble test. The General Assembly disagreed
and prohibited any test that wasn’t an SOL-type test. The VEA opposed this
action as it is a clear overstep of the constitutional authority of the General
Assembly into the work granted to the Board of Education. Today, the budget strikes
the prohibition language and grants the BOE the authority to issue verified
credits using locally developed performance assessments. I tell folks all the
time, our budget has lots of important numbers, but there is a whole lot of
impactful language as well. It was about time this language was removed.
Overall, the conference budget continues the work that
started with the last biennial budget. There is still a long way to go. The
road will not be easy as there will need to a real look at new revenues—not casinos,
or games of skill, or on-line lottery sales—that can be invested in K-12. We
cannot keep shifting money from one priority to another. We must develop a real
plan to move more money into all our public services including, and especially,
public education. It is well past time.
