The way Virginia funds its schools hasn’t changed in over 50 years. But hopes for updates to the system are high after legislators took the first steps towards reform this week.
“We’ve been taking small bites of the apple; this is a big bite,” Senator Mamie Locke said at Monday’s meeting of a joint committee to study Virginia’s K-12 education funding formula. The small bite was billions added to education budgets in the last decade, the Hampton City Democrat said, but the big bite is reforms for the way we fund public schools.
The current, staffing based model has created geographic and economic differences, leaving school divisions underfunded according to Levi Goren with The Commonwealth Institute.
“It doesn’t provide enough money overall to meet the needs of our students and it also in particular doesn’t meet the needs of students facing higher barriers: English language learners, students with disabilities and students in low-income families,” Goren told Radio IQ.
A 2023 study from the Joint Legislative Review Commission affirmed the funding shortages and had changes to the funding formula among recommendations as well.
To solve this problem the committee voted Monday to approve a request for proposals from contractors to develop a new school funding formula. Goren said the final product will inform the Department of Education and legislators like committee member and Newport News Democratic Delegate Shelly Simonds.
“This is going to protect us and make sure every child in Virginia gets a world class education," Simonds told Radio IQ after Monday's meeting. "We know this is critical to our business climate in Virginia, the opportunities our families have and our students have.”
Botetourt County Republican and fellow committee member Delegate Terry Austin said funding issues are already impacting rural districts, including Franklin County.
“It’s affected their revenues and their abilities and last year they closed two elementary schools because of that,” Austin told Radio IQ.
Holly Coy is with the Virginia Department of Education. She said legislative input helped guide the proposal requests, and said the proposal will lead to a "customizable data model to assist [elected officials] with determining if and how Virginia will transition from the current staffing-based model to a student-based formula."
Simonds said it was important to switch to a student-based formula because the staff-based system was susceptible to tweaks and caps, including those added in the wake of the 2008 market crash and the state-austerity measures.
"Most other states in the nation have adopted this student-based model," Simonds said.
The committee gave itself two years to complete reforms, Democratic Senator Lamont Bagby said it can’t happen soon enough.
“I don’t think there’s anything that’s going stop the governor, the legislature, the secretary’s office, from making sure we get something done this time,” Bagby said.
