This is a moment of truth for Virginia. We have a chance to do some good with our budget this year and the way we respond will show what kind of government we have. I vote for more funding for our schools.
As a teacher when the Recession hit in 2009, I watched with horror as the General Assembly balanced the State budget on the backs of our students and teachers. I am running for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 94th District, to never let this happen again.
I am currently elected to the Newport News School Board and am watching the budget negotiations in Richmond closely because they will impact the salary increases we can give our teachers in our local budget.
The high point for State funding in our Newport News Public School budget was in FY 2009 with $195mn from the State. In FY 2010 we were cut to $170mn. We still haven’t fully recovered from those brutal cuts. The reduction has permanently changed our expenditure structure; what we used to spend on building maintenance and operational costs has been eaten up by salaries and healthcare. Almost 88% of our operating budget now goes to people costs, with the other 12% for everything else from printer paper and band instruments to equipment and fuel.
However, the Governors’ budget finally gets us back to FY 2009 levels which we project to be $198mn for Newport News Public schools in FY 2020.
But we need to keep the pressure on House and Senate budget negotiators in Richmond this week to make it happen. They are in the final stages of amending the budget and we need to demand investments in public education and funding for positions like school counselors who support our students.
According to the Virginia Education Association the budget should include $87.6mn to increase state support for salaries to a total of 5% and this funding should be for a full year, not for half a year as proposed in the House budget.
“The Budget should also include $35.9mn to increase the number of school counselors funded by the state. This change would structurally change the funding formulas for school counselors and send more state dollars to every locality in Virginia. And lastly it should have $35.6mn to increase the At-Risk Add On funding that is directed, on a per-pupil basis, to those students most in need,” according to the VEA website.
In my years as an elected Newport News School Board member and as an advocate for environmental issues in Richmond, I have seen the power of public opinion. Now is the time to make our voices heard and demand that Virginia can do better in funding public education.
A recent study confirmed what many of us experienced in our teaching careers: teacher salaries in Virginia do not match our educational attainment and professionalism. The Teacher Pay Gap is the difference between what a teacher earns and what other professionals with similar degrees earn. Virginia has the highest teacher pay gap in the country with salaries 40% less than the annual earnings for other college graduates. This is shocking even after considering that teachers have summer months off that other professionals do not. And this data from the National Center for Data Statistics shows teacher salaries have decreased by 8% in Virginia from 1999 to 2016 when adjusted for inflation.
We are a great state that deserves school funding to match the excellence our teachers and students demonstrate every day. Please join me in asking for a budget that prioritizes public Education in Virginia.