A pair of bills that aim to increase the quality of Virginia’s schools made it out of a House subcommittee Tuesday morning.
The first bill, from Virginia Beach-area Democratic Delegate Michael Feggans, would reduce the current ratio of students to school counselors from 350 to one to 250 to one.
The ratio was first increased alongside funding caps in the wake of the 2008 great recession. But a pandemic-era decline in students’ mental health, and data that suicide is now the second leading cause of death for those between the ages of 10-24, offered particularly striking grounds for the effort.
“House bill 181 is our signal to students, parents and education professionals across the commonwealth that we are ensuring our students get the best emotional support that they desperately need,” Feggans told the committee before the bill passed 8-0.
But Chesterfield-area Republican Delegate Mike Cherry pointed out a hiccup in Feggans’ plan: some school divisions already have their own lower ratios for school counselors, but few have been able to hire enough as demand for the positions is at a fever pitch nationwide.
“We still don’t have enough now,” Cherry feared.
Feggans said the bill was aspirational but would help if and when the legislature fixed broader issues with the state’s school funding formula.
Next on Tuesday's headline making docket, Suffolk-area Democratic Delegate Nadarius Clark presented his bill which would bring Virginia’s teacher pay in line with the national average.
It passed 7-1 with Del. Cherry as the lone dissenting vote.
Cherry took issue with what data would be used to determine the national average. Clark said he’d joined his bill with a matching one from Senator Louise Lucas and that bill put the number around $66 thousand dollars a year.
But Cherry pressed about whether that would be the same pay across the state.
“We have to look across counties and see, with cost of living, and inflation as well, but we do want to make sure all localities can get there,” Clark said.
Both bills will now face larger committee votes before heading to the floor where a friendly Democratic majority is expected in both the House and Senate.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
