Governor Glenn Youngkin has a new superintendent in charge of a school system facing budget challenges and rising demand for services.
Next month, Virginia schools will be getting new leadership. Lisa Coons will take over as superintendent of a school system in transition. Lawmakers are currently meeting in secret to craft a budget that'll need to identify $180 million to fix a math error for funding school divisions, and the federal government is threatening sanctions for failing to provide services to students with disabilities. And then there are those standards for history and social science, says Laura Goren at the Commonwealth Institute.
"The prior superintendent was tasked with rewriting the curriculum standards for history and social sciences, and this was not something that the department was able to do well," Goren says. "And, I think, it also took up a lot of bandwidth and attention for the superintendent."
The Virginia Education Association responded to the appointment of an official from Tennessee with a statement expressing deep disappointment about another out-of-state official "with a political agenda." June Prakash is president of the Arlington Education Association.
"I think there is a wide breadth of experience in Virginia, where someone who understands the nuances and what we’re faced with as educators here could’ve come in with a lesser learning curve and really addressed what's going on here," Prakash says.
The stakes are high for Governor Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned on a platform of giving parents more of a say in what happens in the classroom.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
