At the Statehouse: End of General Assembly Session

The 2025 General Assembly Session ended on February 22. Sadly, bills that called for improved funding for public education were defeated in the legislature. This was even after the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) recommended there be substantial increases in funding for Virginia’s public schools as these school systems are seriously underfunded. All six of 4 Public Education’s priority bills failed, as have some other bills that 4 Public Education supported. Those include a proposal to provide free breakfast and lunch for all public school students and a proposal to allocate additional state funding for English learners. 

Although it is disappointing that these bills did not pass this session, it is likely that they will be considered again in future years and many of those issues are being addressed further in the state’s budget. 

The House and Senate money committees resolved differences between the amended budget bills of the two chambers on February 18 and the conferees published a Joint Conference Committee report on February 20. A comparison of the Conference Budget and the Governor's Budget can be viewed at this link. On February 22 there was overwhelming bipartisan support for the Conference budget when it came to a vote in the General Assembly (81-18 in the House and 27-3 in the Senate). Since then the conference budget has been delivered to the Governor. 

With that overwhelming bipartisan support in the General Assembly there is hope that appropriate funding for public education will come through in this year’s final budget. In fact Ashley Kenneth, President and CEO of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis (TCI) reported that:

The proposed budget continues recent historic investments made by state lawmakers in public education. After over 15 years, lawmakers have proposed significant funding to finally lift the arbitrary cap on state funding for student support positions, which covers the state share of the cost of an additional 4,725 support staff to help students succeed in the classroom (numbers for each school division are available here). Additionally, the conference report includes an additional $52.8 million in flexible funds for localities to be able to better support students with disabilities by paying for critical supports like learning aids and assistive technology. 

There are several major differences between the Governor’s and the Conference Budget. Governor Youngkin called for $50M for school vouchers for private schools, or $5K per student, but the Conference budget does not support any funding for school vouchers. Similarly, the Governor proposed $25M for lab schools and the conference budget called for no funding for that purpose. Also, the Governor’s budget did not consider lifting the support cap but the Conference Budget includes the funding needed to lift that cap. 4 Public Education agrees with the Conference Budget and finds the Governor’s Budget undermines public education by taking funding away from teachers and students.

Now Governor Youngkin may sign the bill, veto the entire bill, veto certain line items, or recommend amendments to the bill. If the Governor vetoes any part of the bill, or if he recommends amendments, the bill will go back to the General Assembly in the spring during a reconvened session for that body to act on the Governor's proposed amendments. 

We don’t yet know the outcome of the state budget negotiations, and there is additional uncertainty in Virginia’s education budget due to the current assault on the US Department of Education (ED). Only about 14% of public school funds come from the ED to the states, but the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) appears to be crippling the agency’s ability to provide education services needed by the states. The ED is being stripped of staff, contracts, and grants, all of which are being terminated without apparent pre-planning or logic, leaving the agency in chaos and unable to fulfill its responsibilities. 

One of the necessary services in jeopardy is the measurement of student achievement across the nation using the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), known as the Nation’s Report Card. Because NAEP relies on grants and programs that are being eliminated by DOGE, it will be difficult for the federal government to administer the NAEP and monitor performance of schools in each state. This is particularly ironic in light of Virginia’s recent NAEP scores. The latest report showed that Virginia is last in the entire nation on math recovery. 

It is now up to Governor Youngkin to make the correct choice on funding our public schools. Will he choose to defund our public school students despite public outcry?