Virginia Education Association: Senate Budget Proposal Offers Real Compromise and Stronger Path for Educator Pay, Public Schools
June 16, 2026
June 16, 2026
“Virginia educators and school staff are facing an affordability crisis. A budget that fails to keep up with inflation is not a raise, it is a pay cut. The Senate proposal recognizes that reality by funding 4% pay adjustments for school staff in both years and by asking powerful data center corporations to contribute more fairly to the public services they rely on. Tax policy is education policy. If Virginia wants strong public schools, competitive educator pay, and real support for students in high-poverty communities, lawmakers must choose a budget that asks everyone, including large corporations, to pay their fair share.”
– Carol Bauer, President, Virginia Education Association
The Virginia Education Association supports the Senate budget proposal released today because it offers a stronger, more responsible path for educator pay, student support, and long-term public school investment.
The Senate proposal includes 4% pay adjustments in each year for educators and other school staff. That matters. Inflation has accelerated rapidly since lawmakers adjourned earlier this year, and school employees are facing rising costs for housing, groceries, childcare, health care, and transportation. A budget that fails to keep educator pay aligned with inflation leaves school employees worse off, no matter how it is described.
By contrast, the House proposal of a 3% salary adjustment would not keep up with current inflation and would represent one of the largest inflation-adjusted reductions in school staff compensation in Virginia over the past quarter century outside of the periods immediately following the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Calling that a raise ignores the reality educators and school staff are living every day.
The Senate proposal also provides more sustainable, ongoing support for public education. Importantly, the Senate includes ongoing funding to increase the At-Risk Add-On, which supports students from low-income backgrounds and high-poverty schools. Ongoing funding can be used for ongoing services and personnel, which is the kind of investment that actually moves the needle for students. One-time funding, while helpful for short-term needs, cannot responsibly support permanent staffing, sustained intervention, smaller classes, or long-term and reliable student supports.
The Senate proposal also includes meaningful investments in special education, school breakfast, infrastructure and operations, school construction, and childcare support. These investments reflect the real needs of students, families, and educators across Virginia.
Just as important, the Senate proposal identifies revenue from the data center industry to support these investments. The proposal no longer fully eliminates data center tax preferences, meaning the Senate has already made a significant compromise. Instead, it advances a data center impact fee that would generate substantial revenue for the Commonwealth while still allowing the industry to grow. By pairing new revenue with recurring investments, the Senate proposal is also more structurally balanced and better positions Virginia to make additional investments in public education in future biennium budgets rather than relying primarily on one-time revenue sources or temporary fiscal conditions.
That is a compromise. Asking powerful, profitable corporations to contribute more fairly toward the schools, infrastructure, energy systems, and public services they depend on is not extreme. It is common sense.
The House proposal, by contrast, relies on a reforecast, which simply updates state revenue estimates, and does not ask data centers to pay their fair share. That approach limits Virginia’s ability to make durable investments in public schools and leaves educators and students to bear the consequences. Public schools benefit everyone in the Commonwealth, and all corporations should contribute to this common good.
There is broad support in the Senate, including among Senate Democrats and several Senate Republicans, along with a strong majority of the public at large, for requiring data centers to contribute more fairly. The Senate has offered a compromise that protects core services, keeps school staff pay closer to inflation, and invests in students who need support the most.
VEA urges the Governor and General Assembly to pass a final budget that keeps school staff pay aligned with inflation, protects and strengthens public education, provides ongoing funding for high-poverty schools, and asks powerful corporations to pay their fair share.
According to a poll conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University, 66% of Virginians say public schools do not have enough funding to meet their needs.
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