Compromise Budget Makes Meaningful Progress for Public Schools but Falls Short on Worker Rights, High-Poverty Schools, and Tax Fairness
June 20, 2026
June 20, 2026
“Virginia educators and school staff fought hard for the investments included in this budget, and there are real wins here for students and public schools. The 4% salary adjustments will help school employees keep pace with the rising cost of living. Major investments in special education, teacher preparation, and school funding formula modernization are meaningful steps forward.
But keeping up with inflation is not the same thing as providing a real raise. Educators and school staff are still trying to afford rent or a mortgage, groceries, child care, health care, transportation, and student loan payments on salaries that have lagged behind for far too long. They deserve competitive pay that lets them feel real progress in their lives, not just cost-of-living adjustments that keep them from falling further behind.
This budget also shows why tax policy is education policy. Everyday workers, including teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, instructional assistants, custodians, and families across Virginia, pay their taxes every year. Meanwhile, powerful corporations and the ultra-rich continue to benefit from unfair breaks. It is outrageous that some of the most profitable tech companies on the planet continue to receive lucrative tax advantages while our highest-poverty students lose out on investments that could change their lives.
Virginia must keep working toward a fairer tax code, stronger public schools, competitive educator pay, and the workplace rights public employees have waited too long to receive.”
– Carol Bauer, President, Virginia Education Association
The conference budget provides 4% salary adjustments for teachers and school staff in each year of the biennium. With inflation running at roughly the same level, these adjustments will help educators and school staff keep pace with rising costs. However, they should not be mistaken for the kind of meaningful compensation increases needed to address Virginia’s educator shortage, improve retention, or move the Commonwealth toward truly competitive educator pay.
For classroom teachers, instructional assistants, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, counselors, nurses, and other school employees, the difference matters. A cost-of-living adjustment may help cover higher grocery bills, rent increases, or rising child care costs. But it does not make up for years of underpayment, does not solve staffing shortages, and does not ensure school employees can afford to live in the communities where they serve students.
The conference budget also includes nearly $160 million in additional special education investments, building on progress made in previous budgets and continuing Virginia’s effort to better support students with disabilities. This is one of the strongest elements of the final agreement. It puts the Commonwealth on a path to continue strengthening add-on funding for special education students and better support the educators and school staff who serve them.
VEA also supports the inclusion of $3 million for teacher preparation scholarships. This is not everything needed to address the financial barriers facing aspiring educators during student teaching, but it is a step in the right direction. Virginia must continue growing this investment so more future educators can afford to enter and remain in the profession.
In addition, the conference budget includes $1.25 million to support the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding as it continues its work to modernize Virginia’s school funding formula. VEA strongly supports this investment and expects robust stakeholder engagement from educators, school staff, parents, students, and communities across the Commonwealth. Getting Virginia’s funding formula right is foundational to every other conversation about public education. But funding formulas can only distribute the resources Virginia chooses to raise in the first place.
The compromise budget also includes language authorizing every Virginia locality to hold a voter referendum on an additional 1% local sales tax dedicated to school construction and related capital needs. This change gives communities a new tool to address aging school facilities, overcrowding, and long-delayed building projects. The language allows referenda to begin as early as this November, and ensures that any revenues generated are used only for new school construction projects and associated financing, not to pay down previously issued debt. VEA supports giving local voters the opportunity to decide whether this dedicated funding source is right for their communities.
At the same time, the compromise budget represents a significant missed opportunity for students in Virginia’s highest-poverty communities. Earlier Senate proposals would have provided substantially larger ongoing investments through the At-Risk Add-On. The final agreement includes only approximately $29 million for the At-Risk Add-On, far less than what is needed and far less than what was possible if lawmakers had required data centers to pay their full fair share. That loss has real consequences. At-Risk Add-On funding can support additional staff, smaller groups for intervention, attendance supports, wraparound services, family engagement, and other evidence-based strategies that help students overcome barriers to learning.
It is deeply unfortunate that students in Virginia’s highest-poverty communities are among those who lose out because lawmakers chose a limited deal with the data center industry rather than requiring these powerful corporations to pay their full share in taxes.
The deal includes new (temporary) capped fees on data centers, generating $1.2 billion in revenue over this biennium only. But the agreement falls well short of full tax fairness. Instead of asking data centers to pay taxes like other businesses, Virginia continues to preserve major tax advantages for an industry that is growing rapidly and placing major demands on local communities, energy systems, infrastructure, natural resources, the environment, and public services.
The fight over data center tax fairness is not over. Virginia should not cut deals that allow powerful corporations to pay limited fees while shielding them from the full tax responsibility expected of working families and small businesses. As the data center industry grows, its contribution to the Commonwealth should grow as well. And given the temporary nature of this agreement, Virginia will face the same fundamental tax fairness question again in future budgets.
The final budget also fails to provide funding to begin establishing the Public Employee Relations Board and other infrastructure necessary for statewide collective bargaining. This is one of the most disappointing omissions in the agreement. Public employees have waited far too long for the workplace rights enjoyed by workers in many other states. Without beginning the infrastructure work now, Virginia will need to move at a much faster pace in future years if school employees are going to have access to collective bargaining during this governorship. The lack of progress on collective bargaining infrastructure is especially troubling at a time when state leaders have spoken so often about the importance of advancing worker rights.
This budget makes progress. It keeps school staff pay from falling further behind inflation, makes a meaningful investment in special education, supports teacher preparation, and advances school funding formula work. But it also leaves major work unfinished.
Virginia’s students deserve fully funded public schools. Educators and school staff deserve competitive pay and collective bargaining rights. High-poverty schools deserve sustained investments that match the needs of their students. And working families deserve a tax code where powerful corporations and the ultra-rich pay their fair share.
VEA will continue fighting for those priorities. The choices legislators make about taxes are not separate from the choices they make about schools, worker rights, infrastructure, or public services. Virginia cannot build world-class public schools and strong communities without raising the revenue needed to support them. When powerful corporations and the ultra-wealthy are allowed to avoid paying their fair share, students, educators, and working families are left to bear the cost.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers in Virginia earn 67 cents on the dollar compared to other (non-teacher) college-educated workers. Virginia’s teacher wage penalty is the worst in the nation.
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