Here’s the latest on the Senate & House budgets according to The Alliance for Virginia's Students, which supports the Senate education budget.
The Senate budget:
• Cuts education funding by $350 million less than the House budget in FY 2011.
• Protects education by making temporary, not permanent cuts.
• Preserves funding for programs supporting at-risk students, does not block grant those programs, and continues to target the funding and programs on the basis of Free Lunch eligibility, maintaining the targeted nature of these resources.
By contrast, the House budget:
• Cuts education funding permanently, eroding the Standards of Quality, the minimum foundation of education in Virginia.
• Slashes funding for programs supporting students at-risk of educational failure by at least $70 million over the biennium.
• Block-grants programs supporting at-risk students. Block-grant funding diminishes over time, leading to the elimination of valuable and effective programs.
• Distributes the at-risk program dollars on the basis of Average Daily Membership in a school division instead of based on the Free Lunch population in a school division. This change recognizes size over need, and it is a major reversal in the intent of the current policy. At-risk program dollars were intended to be targeted toward the students who need them the most.
These two very different budgets must now be negotiated by 12 budget conferees from the House and Senate. Contact and re-contact state officials before March 13 with these two new messages for our schools.
#1 -- Thank the Senate for their budget and urge them to stay strong for students. Click here to send a message to all six Senate Budget Conferees.
#2 – Ask the House Conferees to PLEASE reconsider the House budget’s devastating cuts to public education. Click here to send a message to all six House Budget Conferees.
MORE STATE BUDGET INFORMATION...
• Virginia State’s direct aid to public education from 2009-2010 decreased by nearly $400 million. This will be marked by the $23.8 million funding reduction from the state to FCPS.
• The Virginia General Assembly oversees Fairfax County in accordance with “The Dillon Rule.” Fairfax County only has the powers granted to it by the state legislature. This rule is often criticized for imposing unreasonable constraints on communities’ capacity to govern itself. Only four states still have the Dillon Rule.
• Because of composite index factors, Fairfax County Public Schools historically earn only 19-28 percent of its operating revenue from the state while on average Virginia schools are awarded 48-60 percent (some as much as 83 percent) of their revenue from the state.
• Fairfax County has the highest true property value, adjusted gross income and taxable retail sales by billions of dollars. Its population outnumbers other Virginia districts by hundreds of thousands.
• The state of Virginia derives its general fund from income taxes, sales taxes and corporate taxes, amounting to $29.9 billion. In return, the state distributes 45.9 percent of this income ($13.7 billion) to school districts based upon a local composite index.
