House Democrats Declare Victory on Protecting Public Education

RICHMOND – House Democratic leaders celebrated a victory today in protecting Virginia’s education system when House Republican budget conferees ‘walked away’ from their demand to drastically reduce future funding for K-12 education. The proposed changed to the Standards of Quality would have cut $78 million from this years budget and upwards of $250 million in the next budget according to the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee.

“Democrats stood firm in our opposition to cutting funding for public education. We sent a clear message that we will not lower per pupil spending, we will not pass the burden to localities, we will not play budget games with our children’s education and the future of our Commonwealth,” said Delegate Ward Armstrong.

The gap between the national average teacher salary and Virginia’s teacher salary has doubled in the past decade. We have fallen $6,100 per teacher behind the rest of the country. Virginia’s attorneys general have consistently supported public education and stated that our funding formula must take into account the actual costs of education.

“Today is a great victory for those who want a strong, quality public education system,” said Delegate Brian Moran. “We have successfully defeated an ill-conceived proposal that would cut education, hold back teacher salaries and drive up property taxes.”