Education Advocates Urge Virginia Lawmakers to Remove School Support Cap

Virginia lawmakers are poised to end a nearly 20-year-old cap on state-funded support positions in public schools, a policy originally implemented during the Great Recession that has since drained resources from critical roles like clerical, maintenance and instructional support.

The move, which comes with an estimated $1.1 billion price tag, follows years of chronic underfunding. Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, who is sponsoring the Senate bill, said Virginia schools have been shortchanged by more than $6.6 billion in recent years.

While the cap was partially eased last year by increasing the funding ratio from 21 to 24 support positions per 1,000 students, lawmakers and Gov. Glenn Youngkin agree more needs to be done.

Key to the plan is an overhaul of the Standards of Quality (SOQ), the state’s funding formula determining the financial needs of school divisions.

The proposed legislation follows a 2023 report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), which revealed that Virginia’s local governments are shouldering a disproportionate share of K-12 education costs compared to the state’s contributions.

“Money does matter when we’re talking about student outcomes, and that means having fair and accurate funding formulas that can make the difference,” Hashmi said at Thursday’s Senate Education and Health Committee hearing.

House legislation, sponsored by Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, takes aim at the longstanding support cap, which has limited state funding for non-instructional school staff. “The bill lifts the dreaded support cap imposed on schools,” Simonds said during a House Education subcommittee hearing.

The legislation requires the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to overhaul how it calculates funding for school divisions, prioritizing more accurate measures of support costs. Simonds noted this would involve using actual school division spending and factoring in “critical” employee benefits such as retirement, health care, life insurance, and payments for unused leave.

Additionally, the bill would eliminate arbitrary caps on funding for support service positions, giving school divisions greater flexibility to hire the staff they need without being “restricted” by outdated student-to-staff ratios, Simonds explained.

“Eliminating the support cap is key to providing a well-rounded, high-quality education in the commonwealth,” Simonds said. “This bill is a necessary step toward making sure Virginia schools are properly funded to meet the needs of students and educators.”

The Senate version of the bill goes further, prohibiting the VDOE from capping inflation rate adjustments on non-personal cost categories during the biennial re-benchmarking process for public education funding.

The legislation also includes provisions to support at-risk students and students with disabilities by proposing technical amendments to the SOQ. It establishes the At-Risk Program to support programs and services for students who are at risk of falling behind academically.

Highlighting the need for better funding, Hashmi referenced findings from JLARC: Virginia schools employ more than 11,000 special education aides, but the current funding formula accounts for only 1,700 that are “critical and essential.”

The legislation has garnered support from multiple organizations, including educators like Kevin Hickerson, a special education teacher and Virginia Education Association member. Hickerson urged lawmakers to act decisively during Thursday’s hearing.

“I know we have difficult decisions to make, but we can’t keep on kicking the can down the road,” Hickerson said. “JLARC has told us over and over again that we need to fund our special education students. When my students have a test, and they ask for extra time, I allow it, but if sooner or later, they have to take the test. lLet’s pass this bill.”

Agency opposition

VDOE surprised lawmakers this week when a member of the agency spoke in opposition to the two bills that advanced to their respective House and Senate Appropriations committees.

Christina Berta, VDOE’s chief operating officer, spoke against the legislation, aligning with the governor’s administration in advocating for a broader overhaul of the SOQ funding formula.

“VDOE does not recommend continued modification of the funding formula as it exists today,” Berta told lawmakers. “We do recommend providing specific weights to meet the needs of specific students, but we must ensure that we have valid data to do so.”

Berta’s remarks took an unexpected turn when she left the Senate hearing immediately after speaking, sparking criticism from one legislator publicly.

Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, called her sudden departure “disrespectful,” noting that hearings typically include a question-and-answer session with those who testify. He suggested the administration should be barred from testifying if it refuses to answer questions.

“I think if people are in the habit of testifying, they should stick around in case there’s questions,” VanValkenburg said.

“I find it incredible that an administration that wasted two years before they even mentioned ‘funding formula’ and then spent the last two years doing nothing to actually move forward with achieving funding formula change would come in here and say that ‘good is the enemy of perfect,’ or that we shouldn’t make any changes when we know we are historically underfunding.”

by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

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