© 2024
Virginia's Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Virginia Schools Face Another Financial Crisis Thanks to COVID-19 and Economic Woes

In August, lawmakers will return to Richmond for a special session, and money for schools will be one of the key areas they’ll focus on.

Earlier this year, before the pandemic, Virginia’s New Democratic majorities in the House and Senate passed a budget with a host of new priorities — investing in at-risk communities, funding preschools, increasing access to meals. Then the economic bottom fell out, and a lot of those priorities lost their funding.

Chris Duncombe at the Commonwealth Institute says moves that were taken in response to the economic crisis harmed school divisions that are most in need. 

“This decision starts Virginia down a very similar path that they took in the last recession," he explains. "Where the budget was balanced through reductions in a lot of public services including K-12 education and the impact was greatest for the school divisions with the highest child poverty rates.”

Delegate Mark Keam of Fairfax County says the governor was in a tough position. He had an unprecedented health crisis and a difficult economic crisis. Now a special session will happen with a new spotlight on racial inequity. 

“Now that we’re looking at it from a lens of criminal justice and police brutality and all the various inequities within our health system and our educational system," says Keam. "What we need to do is reprioritize our budget so that we create a state that really is a state that stands for equity and justice.”

The special session in early August will be a chance to throw the old budget in the garbage and start over. It’ll also be a chance for lawmakers to take up new criminal justice reforms.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Michael Pope is an author and journalist who lives in Old Town Alexandria.
Related Content