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VEA Daily Reports

February 17, 2020

Yesterday, the money committee in the House and Senate each revealed their budget proposals for the 2020-2022 biennial budget. The VEA staff is digging into all of the numbers and our analysis will be out very soon, but for someone who has seen this process play out for well over a decade, there are a few things I wanted to highlight.

Both the House and the Senate add additional money to the PK-12 budget that the Governor introduced. So, they increased his increases. The House and Senate both prioritized state support for salaries, and they also both supported raising the minimum wage in VA. I realize that there is a whole lot of attention on teacher salaries, but many of our support personnel are working for $7.25 an hour. If we only focus on teacher salary, we are failing to recognize the importance of our ESPs earning a living wage. We need to raise up the good work the new majority has done this session for our ESPs.

Let’s talk about salary for a minute. I realize there are many who are disappointed with the House and Senate salary increase proposals. We need to put this into perspective. Both the House and Senate have money for salary (or a bonus) in each year of the biennium. The House calls for 2%/2% and the Senate for 3%/4%. That is a good sign that there will be salary dollars in both years of the final budget that will come out of conference. If the 2020-2022 biennium does include salary in both years, it will be the first time in over two decades that the state has included state support for salary increases in four consecutive years. We are still digging into the data, but I will guess that the last time there were four years of salary incentives was during the late 80’s. I will confirm that once we pull all the data, but, at a minimum it’s been 20 years. We must acknowledge the state’s commitment to turning the tide.

The other important component is the fact that the incentives on salary are just that, they are incentives for local school divisions to implement salary improvements. Without local support, these incentives aren’t utilized. The state cannot raise salaries, only local school boards and local governments can do that. We know that many of our small and rural divisions will not be able to use the incentives because they can’t afford to pay for their local share or for the full share of all the positions that aren’t currently required by the state. Keep in mind, localities only receive incentives to raise salaries on positions required in the Standards of Quality. That’s why yesterday’s proposals to increase counselors and ELL teachers are so important. They mean there are more positions included in the SOQs and more positions for which the state will support incentives for salary increases. Again, we need to look at the proposals in whole.

Here’s what we know we need in Virginia. We need significant new revenues, earmarked for PK-12. The VA Board of Education recommended almost $1 billion in new spending for SOQ improvements. Without new revenues, that money isn’t there. When you listen to the full budget proposal, you hear all of the other important programs supported with state dollars. Don’t get me wrong, K-12 has been shortchanged, but so has higher ed, transportation, social services for Virginians most in need, mental health services and beds, community support programs, health care, and support for fair elections and a fair count in the census. There are many, many state priorities that Virginia cannot afford with current revenues. It is time to look at Virginia’s antiquated tax structures and systems. There are ways to bring an additional $1 billion in new revenues to our General Fund. We just need to put pressure on the General Assembly to take action. Of course, the Democrats are worried about losing the majority if they prove to be “tax and spend”, but without some type of significant change, we will continue to see incremental steps, not the systematic changes we need to state support for our public schools.

We cannot react to the budget using only a salary lens. Please don’t get me wrong, the VEA asked for 5% in each year of the biennium, so we will continue to press legislators to do more on salary incentives. However, we need to decide, do we want them to cut at-risk add on dollars to do that, do we want to cur school construction or enrollment loss funds to do that? There is a lot that legislators will need to work out, and there are decisions that we will need to make as we are asked what items we want in the final budget.

I encourage everyone to not be short-sighted. I also encourage everyone to get ready next session to push for revenue increases so that Virginia can actually fund the needs of the Commonwealth.