On
Sunday, the House Appropriations committee and the Senate Finance committee
released their versions of the budget, making amendments to the Governor’s
introduced budget. The full details of these amendments were released yesterday
afternoon. There are certainly pluses and minuses to both proposals but overall
public education fairs well.
So what’s the bottom
line?
If we look solely at direct aid to localities, the House provides
$39.7 million more than the Governor’s introduced budget, and the Senate
provides $27.6 million less that the Governor’s introduced budget.
To
assist you in your work, we have compiled a list of specific K-12 budget
amendments from both proposals that we believe you would be most interested in.
Each link will take you directly to the budget language for that specific
amendment. You can also find the reports from the House
Appropriations Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee here and
the Senate
Finance Education subcommittee here. The budget process is very fluid and
will continue to change until the final budget is passed by March 12th.
We will keep you apprised of new information as it becomes
available.
Item
137 #4h – Virginia Virtual School
Provides $275,000 in the first year from
the general fund for a one-time start-up payment for the Virginia Virtual
School. In the second year, $550,000 is provided from the non-general fund to
the Virginia Virtual School for personnel costs pursuant to the passage of HB8.
Item
138 #2h – Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment (VA STAR)
Provides $50,000 each
year of the biennium from the general fund to support the Virginia Student
Training and Refurbishment (VA STAR) Program. The VA STAR Program takes surplus
hardware from state agencies or private companies in order to offer students IT
repair certification. Once refurbished, the computers are available for school
use or distributed to students' families and community foundations needing
them. This amendment
continues funding necessary for VA STAR to continue the program within
currently participating school divisions and to expand the number of
participants through the 2016-18 biennium.
Item
138 #3h – Positive Behavior Intervention & Support
Removes $500,000 each
year of the biennium from the general fund by continuing the current fiscal
year 2016 level of funding for the Positive Behavioral Intervention &
Supports initiative.
Item
139 #1h – Expand Local Flexibility for Salary Increase (language only
amendment)
Provides additional
flexibility to school divisions in implementing and satisfying the local
matching requirements for the two percent salary increase for instructional and
support positions. School divisions will be allowed to include salary increases
provided to instructional and support positions during fiscal year 2017 and
fiscal year 2018 by January 1, 2018 in an accumulative manner, to satisfy the
required minimum average salary increase of two percent has been provided by
the second year by January 1, 2018, in order to be eligible to receive the
state's share of a two percent salary increase effective on July 10, 2017.
Item
139 #7h – Re-purpose Additional Instructional Positions to Lottery PPA
Redirects $42.7 million
in the first year and $96.5 million in the second year from the general fund to
be used toward reinstating the policy of providing school divisions with a
Lottery Fund per pupil amount basis.
Item
139 #8h – Re-purpose At-Risk Add-on Range Increase
Redirects $24.7 million
in the first year and $24.9 million in the second year from the new funding
included in the introduced budget for the increased range used for the At-Risk
Add-on, toward reinstating the policy of providing school divisions with a
Lottery Fund per pupil amount basis.
Item
139 #9h – Lottery Proceeds Fund Per Pupil Allocations
Provides $85.2 million in
the first year and $157.2 million in the second year from the Lottery Proceeds
Fund and distributes to school divisions on an LCI-adjusted per pupil amount
basis. This amendment reinstates the policy that provides a per pupil amount to
school divisions from the Lottery Fund. There are other amendments in this item
that provide additional revenues toward this initiative that collectively equal
to $105.5 million in the first year and $167.2 million the second year.
No more than 50 percent of these funds can be used for recurring costs, with
the rest reserved for nonrecurring capital and equipment expenditures.
Item
139 #15h – Parental Choice Education Savings Account (language only
amendment)
This language only
amendment implements part of HB389, requiring resident school divisions to
deposit the appropriate state’s share of SOQ, sales tax, and any applicable special
education funding received from the Department of Education for a qualifying
student into an approved and established Parental Choice Education Savings
account. The amendment further directs local school divisions to receive
applicable receipts and invoices from parent expenditures for review of appropriateness
of each expense and possible audit and directs the Department of Education and
the Virginia College Savings Plan agencies to manage and audit such accounts.
This amendment only addresses the transfer of state funds to student accounts,
no funding is provided to local school divisions to implement, and is pursuant
to the passage of HB389.
Item
139 #18h – Dual Enrollment for Home School Students (language only
amendment)
The Department of
Education, in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, will
ensure that the same policy regarding dual enrollment tuition-free waiver
option shall be applied in the same manner for students enrolled in the public
education system and students that are home-schooled. In addition,
any reduced tuition cost options afforded to parents of public school students
who are enrolled in a dual enrollment course in a community college shall also
be available to parents of home-schooled students.
Item
139 #19h – Virginia Virtual School – Transfer of Statewide Average SOQ Per
Pupil Amount (language only amendment)
Pursuant to the passage
of HB8, the amendment directs the Department of Education to transfer the
average state share of Standards of Quality per pupil funding and the state's
sales tax per pupil amount of funding to the Virginia Virtual School for each
student that is enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School and who was previously
enrolled in public school. Funds shall be transferred based on
the number of actual students enrolled in the Virginia Virtual School with a
limit of 5,000 students per school year.
The House Budget retains the Governor’s
proposal to accelerate VRS rates to reflect 100% of actuarial rates in FY ’18.
NOTE: HB29 (the Caboose budget bill)
contains $188 million to fully repay deferred retirement contributions for all
VRS plans EXCEPT the public school teacher plan. That repayment allows for the
subsequent reduction in rates for those plans in the FY’17-FY’18 biennial
budget. Because the teacher plan is excluded from this repayment, the VRS
contribution rates faced by local school divisions remain at their higher
levels.
Item
139 #20h – Work Group to Review Use of Chromebook (language only amendment)
Directs the Department of Education to convene a workgroup to review the current
utilization of separate computer labs in schools for instruction and testing
requirements and consider a transition to the usage of Chromebooks and similar
other types of tablets or laptop computers in the classroom for students to use
as an integrated part of instruction and Standards of Learning testing using
the TestNav 8 software system upgrades. The workgroup will review the
Department's Virginia Digital Textbook Marketplace contract and guidelines for
the implementation of the pilot projects established in eight school divisions
in the 2015-2016 school year and review the effectiveness of the pilots at the
end of the year for improving academic success. Further, the workgroup
will consider repurposing new issuances for educational technology grants to be
used to purchase or lease Chromebooks or similar laptop devices.
Senate Budget – (SB30)
Item
133 #1s – Student Assessment Growth Model
Increases to $300,000
the amount for the new pilot for an analytical model to measure student growth
in schools. Preliminary results shall be provided to the President of
the State Board of Education and the Chairmen of the Senate Finance and House
Appropriations Committees in order to help evaluate whether a statewide
approach should be implemented.
Item
135 #1s – Technology
Assistance Services – eMediaVA
Provides additional funding for eMediaVA to help provide
competency-based, personalized learning opportunities. With over 150,000 users,
eMediaVA, a repository of audio, video, and interactive multimedia learning
resources, is free to all public, private, and homeschool educators and their
students statewide. The additional funds will be used to increase teacher
training and awareness statewide, including implementation of a single log-on,
development of customizable curriculum resources and additional infrastructure
to distribute materials.
Item
136 #1s – Develop Model Exit Questionnaire for Teachers (language only
amendment)
Directs
the Department of Education to develop a model exit questionnaire that school
divisions may administer to exiting teachers, which was a recommendation of the
January 2016 Feasibility Study on the Implementation of a Program to Track
Teacher Turnover in the Commonwealth.
Item
139 #1s – Salary Increase
Adds $48.9 million the
first year and $2.2 million the second year, to the $83.2 million the second
year in the budget as introduced, for the state's share of a teacher
compensation supplement. This amendment advances the effective date of the 2.0
percent compensation increase from July 10, 2017 to December 1, 2016.
Item
139 #2s – Reverse Additional Positions Mandate
Reverses the funding in
the budget as introduced for an additional 2,500 positions by the second year.
Instead, in a companion amendment, the funding in the first year is re-directed
towards advancing the effective date of the 2 percent compensation increase
from July 10, 2017 to December 1, 2016, and in the second year $96.4 million is
distributed in a more flexible manner at the discretion of the most pressing
needs of each school division's particular circumstance.
Item
139 #3s – Additional Support for Classroom Needs (Half Non-Recurring)
This amendment
allocates $96.4 million as flexible, additional support for classroom needs of
school divisions. The amount of funding per school division is calculated in
the same manner as the proposal in the introduced budget for state's share of
one instructional position per elementary school and two instructional
positions per middle and high school; however, this Additional Support for
Classroom Needs contains no such mandate to hire additional new on-going
positions. Funds may not be used for central office purposes, at least half
must be used for non-recurring expenses, and no local match is required.
Item
139 #4s – Additional Support for Classroom Needs (One-Time Funding)
Provides one-time
funding of $24.2 million as flexible, additional support for classroom needs of
school divisions. Funds may not be used for central office purposes, must be
used for non-recurring expenses, and no local match is required. The
distribution by school divisions is calculated based on the state's share of a
per pupil amount.
Item
139 #6s – At-Risk Add-On Range
Reflects savings of
$21.5 million from the budget as introduced, by adjusting funding based on
changing the percentage At-Risk Add-On range from 2.5-14 percent of Basic Aid
in the budget as introduced to 1-14 percent. This represents an increase from
the current range in fiscal year 2016 of 1-12 percent based on each school
division's percentage of students eligible for free lunch, based on family
income levels. A companion amendment also captures savings of $15.3 million in
this program.
Item
139 #7s – Rebenchmark Virginia Preschool Initiative Per-Pupil Amount
Provides $2.9 million
each year to re-benchmark the per pupil amount for the Virginia Preschool
Initiative to the first year of the biennium based on the same percentage that
Basic Aid increased in the first year due to re-benchmarking in the budget, as
introduced. This action increases the per pupil amount from $6,000 to $6,250, an
increase of 4.2 percent.
The Senate Budget retains the Governor’s
proposal to accelerate VRS rates to reflect 100% of actuarial rates in FY ’18.
