Education

Public funds are for public schools. That's the message from supporters of Virginia schools who say the governor should not be appropriating money from the lab school fund to private institutions.

After months of debate, hearings and contentious drafts, Virginia’s Board of Education adopted new K-12 history standards Thursday.

This week, members of the Virginia Board of Education are expected to take up controversial new history standards. Union leaders are hoping that labor history will be part of the curriculum.

Virginia Tech’s women's basketball team will play Friday, March 31 in the national semifinals of the NCAA tournament. This is the first time the team has made it to the Final Four, and fans are gearing up ahead of the game.

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 sciences.

Parents advocating for students with disabilities say Virginia is not doing enough. And now federal funding may be at risk.

The Fairfax County School Board recently approved a resolution allowing for collective bargaining among public school employees, and the Falls Church School Board is expected to follow suit sometime soon. School divisions across Virginia are starting to unionize.

As leaders on the money committees of the General Assembly meet in private to nail down budget numbers, they will need to make a determination about how much money needs to go to schools to fix a math error from the Department of Education.

A $200 million mistake in estimating basic aid for local school divisions has lawmakers scrambling to make up the difference. Before they left town over the weekend, members of the General Assembly passed what they call a "skinny budget" as a stopgap measure.

Lawmakers in Richmond are taking a look at what role parents should play in public education. Michael Pope reports that even gets down to the level of guest speakers.