Making sure the state pays its fair share of public education costs
Responding to JLARC's study on school funding
Great public schools are the foundation of great communities. And with adequate education funding, every public school can provide a high-quality education that gives students the tools they need to succeed regardless of their background or their zip code. Even a 10% increase in public education funding can lead to increased income earnings and a decreased risk of poverty for students later in life.
Virginia’s nonpartisan research agency released a major report in 2023 that has provided a blueprint for how policymakers can improve the school funding formula to make sure the state pays its fair share and every student gets the support they need to reach their full potential and thrive. Lawmakers have made some steps since then to improve school funding, but there is much still to be done. You can read a more detailed update here. The Joint Subcommittee to Study Elementary & Secondary Education Funding have been meeting throughout fall 2024 to discuss next steps.
The Fund Our Schools coalition supports the implementation of JLARC’s near-term funding recommendations and add-ons based on Policy Option 5 to improve our support for English language learners and students with disabilities, which are two groups of students who Virginia currently most seriously underfunds. We also think it’s important for lawmakers to fully lift the Support Cap, a Great Recession-era policy that limits the state funding for school support staff, and take action to make state funding for teacher and staff salaries more attuned to what schools actually need.
Implementing these improvements during the 2025-2026 school years would provide a down payment on what our students need while community members and legislators work to determine how to implement JLARC’s recommended long-term investments in education.
Specifically, FOS supports funding for the following JLARC recommendations and priorities for the 2025 legislative session:
Making sure Virginia pays its share of the real costs to educate our students while making the formula simpler and more accurate
Recommendation 1: Make technical improvements to the Standards of Quality (SOQ) formula and compensation supplement calculations to stop leaving out division central office positions, facility and transportation staff, and certain other costs from various calculations.
Recommendation 4: Remove the hidden cuts to school funding that were built into the SOQs during the Great recession, including (i) fully lifting the arbitrary cap on state funding for student support staff (“support cap”), (ii) reinstating the non-personal cost categories removed in FY09 FY10, and (iii) reinstating the federal fund deduction methodology used prior to FY09.
Recommendation 6: More fairly calculate salary and other costs using division averages, rather than the “linear weighted average” that undercounts Virginia’s largest school divisions and results in prevailing cost assumptions that are well below actual costs for the majority of local school divisions.
Recommendation 7: Limit sudden swings in the Local Composite Index by using three-year averages, rather than a single year, when updating calculations every other year.
Updating and Improving Virginia’s Funding Supplements for Students in Lower-Income Communities with More Barriers
Recommendation 8: Move supplemental funding for students living in lower-income communities into the state’s main school funding formula (SOQs) to ensure students receive this critical funding, rather than keeping it as an optional “add-on.”
Simplifying and Boosting Funding for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners
Policy Option 5: Provide supplemental funding for students with unique learning needs by replacing the current SOQ formula calculations for special education and English as a Second Language with student-based funding calculations that are based on actual average school division expenditures. Virginia currently severely underfunds English language learners and students with disabilities, and shifting to a per-student funding supplement based on actual average school division expenditures would boost resources and increase local flexibility to meet the needs of students in the near term as policymakers study how to make sure these students have the support they need to thrive.