Lawmakers are preparing to release budget details this weekend, although they're having a hard time balancing the books, especially for schools.
House Democrats are furious about a Department of Education mistake in calculating basic state aid for school divisions across Virginia – a mistake that’ll cost more than $200 million to fix.
"The governor said that he was going to accelerate everything. We didn't know he was going to accelerate his incompetence," said House Democratic Leader Don Scott, who led a press conference blasting the administration.
"I think he must have got caught up in the COVID pandemic because as incompetent as he is, he fell further behind. We need solutions, not more culture wars and lost opportunity."
Delegate Schuyler VanValkenburg is a Democrat from Henrico County who is also a high school civics teacher.
"It's a perfect example of what happens when you prioritize MAGA policies of taking MLK out of history standards, of creating teacher tip lines, of spending your time picking on kids because of who they are," VanValkenburg said. "And you drop the ball on the things that really matter. And so, you don't focus on funding schools, you don't focus on what localities need."
A spokesman for the department calls the $200 million mistake a human error, adding that the problem was not identified until after the governor signed the budget in June. This weekend, lawmakers will receive more details about how those problems might be fixed in the next budget.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
