The 2008 General Assembly
March 21, 2007
The General Assembly adjourned on Thursday, March 13, once again having staggered into overtime to reconcile differences over House and Senate versions of both the current fiscal year and the next two-year state budget. The approved budget, as well as legislation passed during the 60-plus day session, now goes to Governor Kaine for his action. The governor has 30 days from the session’s end to act on bills presented to him; the legislature then gathers on April 23 for its annual reconvened session to consider amendments and vetoes proposed by the governor.
This summary will be devoted to information about education-related provisions of the 2008-10 state spending plan approved by the legislature.
The compromise budget updates the state share of funding for the Standards of Quality (SOQ) by around $1 billion, while rejecting a pair of methodology changes that would have reduced the state’s rebenchmarking costs by around $140 million. This includes changes that 1) proposed to recalculate teacher and other SOQ-funded positions costs by recognizing only state, and not also local, costs, and 2) would have increased the federal revenue deduction, which results in a savings to the state but an increase in required local costs. As an alternative, budget language directs the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding, which is expanded from two to eight members, to study the state’s use of the prevailing salary and cost approaches to funding the SOQ and to review the “federal revenue deduct” methodology.
The budget did alter the existing inflation cap for non-personal and health insurance costs for teachers and other SOQ funded positions. The budget conference report states that this change is consistent with state payments for Virginia Retirement System (VRS) post-retirement supplements for non-SOQ personnel; however, it nonetheless reduces funding to localities by nearly $21 million the next two years by giving full credit for the first three percent of inflation and 50% of inflation increases between three and seven percent. Currently, full credit is given for the first five percent of inflation, and 35% of any inflation increase above five percent.
The budget provides $77.6 million in the second year for the state share of a two percent salary increase for SOQ-funded instructional and support positions, effective July 1, 2009. For more than 15 years, any state-provided teacher salary increases were provided in November or December, thus reducing state fiscal year costs, so having the funding available at the start of the fiscal year is a positive step. Budget language specifies that the annual teacher salary survey on average teacher salaries shall also include information on starting salaries and average salaries by school.
The budget provides a total of $30 million first year and $20 million the second year for Literary Fund interest rate subsidy grants to school divisions. This should leverage up to $120 million in new school construction loans. However, as has been past practice, money also is seized from the Literary Fund to help pay state costs for teacher retirement. The budget captures a total of nearly $300 million for the biennium.
The budget maintains the Virginia Preschool Initiative program for free lunch “at-risk” four year old students. Additional funding is provided to increase the state share of the per pupil amount from $5,700 to $6,000 and to provide an FY10 composite index cap of .50 to encourage localities to increase student participation. The budget removes $2.1 million proposed in FY10 for data coordinators, while providing language to allow certain, additional at-risk funds to be used for data coordinators for unaccredited schools or those not meeting “adequate yearly progress” under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Finally, as a result of state VRS savings for SOQ funded positions in the amount of about $93 million, localities also should realize savings due to lower contribution rates. The retirement contribution rate for each year, excluding the 5 percent employee portion, was set at 8.81 percent for public school teachers and 1.08 percent for the teacher retiree health insurance credit.
The plan reverses the proposed 15% increase in teacher licensure fees, proposed in the introduced budget and which had been expected to generate nearly $400,000 over the two years. Meanwhile, an additional $200,000 is provided as bonuses for teachers who have earned National Board Certification, while $75,000 in funding is reduced from an incentive program for those seeking such certification.
The budget eliminates five, $100,000 leadership development grants annually, thus produced a state savings of $1 million over the biennium. For the past four years, 20 such grants have been awarded for the establishment of models for leadership development training programs.
The budget restores $150,000 each year that was proposed to be reduced in the introduced budget for the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Program to address critical shortage areas. Under the program, to be eligible for scholarships of up to $3,720, college students must be enrolled in a critical shortage area in a teacher education program at a four-year institution; be at or beyond the sophomore year; possess at least a 2.7 GPA; and be a Virginia resident. In FY07, 170 recipients were awarded a total of $558,000.
The approved plan restores additional funding for the Jobs for Virginia Graduates program, provided by the 2007 General Assembly for fiscal year 2008. The introduced budget proposed removing $100,000 each year for this program.
The approved budget captures $5.2 million in savings by revising certain "Education for a Lifetime" programs. The spending plan 1) provides level funding in the next biennium for both the Mentoring/Induction program and Virginia Middle School Math Teacher Corps (t the FY08 levels); 2) eliminates funding for turnaround specialists and incentives for teachers in hard-to-staff schools; and 3) eliminates proposed new funding of $100,000 each year in the Career Switcher Mentor program, which provides grants to school divisions to provide salary supplements to senior, experienced teachers who mentor new teachers with no teaching experience. Finally, the budget provides $81,000 each year for the Commission on Civics Education.
Language amendments approved as part of the spending plan 1) require school divisions to provide a copy of their comprehensive strategy for intervention, prevention, and remediation, including number of students served; and 2) direct the Superintendent of Public Instruction to review the current Standards of Learning to determine whether they inhibit students from pursuing career and technical education programs and/or seeking industry certifications.
Click here for access to specific information about the General Assembly-approved State Budget.
