Funding Cuts Threaten Public Schools in Virginia

State governments across America are reporting record losses in their budgets as the continued economic downturn continues to impact (tax) revenue collections. With less available funding streams many state governments are cutting back essential services and public schools are not immune to these negative economic implications. In Virginia this situation is compounded by the fact that local school boards do not have taxing authority (they do in most other states) and therefore depend upon local appropriating bodies to fund schools. What this means in tough economic times is that Virginia schools typically will take a double hit: a reduction in funding first from the state share of public educational costs, and a second reduction when the local appropriating body (municipal governments) find themselves short of income to fund police, fire, emergency services, mental health services, recreation, roads, parks, etc., and as a consequence reduce school funding accordingly. Thus, school funding in Virginia becomes a dilemma for local school boards as they may expect to experience a dramatic downturn of expected funding from both the state and local governments.
Quality educational programs are not inexpensive and thus every community bears a responsibility to fund a high quality local educational in order to meet state and federal guidelines. Unfortunately, the rising costs of such programs are often "pushed downstream" to the local taxpayer and this very concept of local school funding has been the source of a dozen adequacy and equity lawsuits for more than two decades. Local taxpayers are being asked to more than they are able to in tough economic times and the whole system of educational funding appears to be at serious risk of collapse.
Virginia finds itself in the eye of the storm as current economic conditions not only present compelling challenges but threaten the sustainability of a high quality system of public education for the commonwealth. Why? Let's try to put the current scenario in plain language so our readers will understand the maelstrom that is about to overwhelm public education.
Proposed reductions by Virginia's governor in the Basic Aid school funding formula will have devastating effects in every school division in Virginia, unlike anything any of us have experienced in the past forty years. The finance office of the governor reports these changes as "technical adjustments" and insist they will not have a measurable impact on classroom instruction-but public school superintendents know differently. Every significant reduction in educational funding quickly finds its way to the classroom level. To make matters worse, the Virginia General Assembly appears reluctant to utilize the Revenue Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund) to bolster educational funding...we are not talking about a rainy day here, but a full blown hurricane.
Here's why: Serious reductions to localities (10% - 15% of state support) will result in immediate reductions in teaching positions and teaching related support positions. This in turn will created much larger class sizes and increased teacher-to-pupil ratios. The larger class sizes will disproportionally affect services to our most at-risk children and older disadvantaged students as resources are diminished at all levels. Finally, as school divisions contemplate a reduction in overall instructional time (for example, a movement is underway to consider a four day school week in some states) and the elimination of after-school and summer school programs for underachieving youth who need our help the most.
The core of many school budgets are employee expenses. In fact, our own school budget represents about 78% - 80% for teacher and employee salaries, health insurance, and benefits. If you combine the cost of instruction with operations, maintenance, and student transportation, the portion of the budget for these services is 92% of our budget. The rest is technology (4%), student health services (2%), and administration (2%).
There is little if any to cut from school budgets without seriously affecting what happens in the classroom. In fact, our school division participated in a voluntary state efficiency study just two years ago resulting in a savings of over 1.5 million dollars as the recommended cuts and adjustments were implemented. Now we are asked to cut an additional $3 million from the state share of our budget...our state basic aid contribution is only $26 million overall so the net impact will be an additional 12% loss of revenue. This type of deep cut will regrettably cause a reduction in the teaching force and other dramatic measures.
In difficult economic times the families we serve that live at or below the poverty line are most vulnerable. Many of them operate on the survival mode and the children of at-risk families often depend on public schools as the only source of stability in their lives. Schools provide many additional support services to identified special needs children that may have to be reduced to some extent due to budget restraints. Just a few additional children per classroom across our schools could have a negative impact on the delivery of basic services as children in large classes often loose their individual identity and must compete for the attention of an often overwhelmed teacher. In fact, research indicates that there is a strong correlation between low class size and increased student achievement, something we have been able to provide in Virginia over the years that contributes to the overall success of all our schools in this era of standardized tests and federal regulations.
We ask that our state government leaders consider the implications of severe and sudden reductions to school funding. State leaders could preserve school funding by:
1. not applying any permanent cuts to the state basic aid funding formula
2. restore the $85 million lottery construction fund and school construction grant program
3. use the Revenue Stabilization Fund in both 2009 and 2010 to reduce cuts to education
4. reduce or eliminate unnecessary testing mandates (both state and local).
(Note: The state could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars by suspending mandatory testing requirements at all current grade levels until economic times turn better.)
In conclusion, public education is an essential service, not an optional one. An educated, adaptive, vibrant and competitive workforce is directly connected to producing a strong economy. Diminishing support for a high-quality system of public education therefore has a diminishing return on the future workforce in Virginia, further depressing future economic conditions. This is the absolute wrong time to reduce support for educational funding. Every citizen needs to implore state lawmakers to preserve educational funding at current levels and not place in jeopardy Virginia's most precious resource: her children.