The following is an analysis of budget committee and floor amendments related to K-12 education that have been approved by the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee in Senate Bill 29 (2020-2022 Caboose Budget Bill) and Senate Bill 30 (2022-2024 Biennial Budget). This list does not include each amendment related to K-12 education in SB 29 and SB 30.
Senate Bill 29 K-12 Budget Amendments
Item 145 #1s- This amendment provides for the distribution of approximately a $1,000 bonus per position from the federal State and Local Recovery Fund (SLRF) pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). The funds provided cover the full cost of a 1.9 percent bonus for the funded SOQ instructional and support positions and Academic Year Governor's School instructional and support positions. Localities are not required to provide a local match for these funds and are encouraged to use additional available funds to provide pandemic bonuses to eligible school instructional and support positions.
Item 145 #3s- This amendment updates student enrollment at A. Linwood Holton Governor's School for 2022-2023.
Item 145 #4s- This amendment provides an additional $34.9 million from the general fund in fiscal year 2022 based on the revised sales tax distributions in the mid-session reforecast. This increases the estimated sales tax dedicated to K-12 by $78.7 million in fiscal year 2022 and reduces the state's share of Basic Aid payments by $43.8 million from the general fund in fiscal year 2022. A corresponding amendment adjusts the FY 2022 No Loss Payments as a result of this action.
Item 145 #5s- This amendment updates the No Loss Payments for the estimated additional sales tax revenue in FY 2022.
Item 479.20 #1s- This amendment updates the Education - Ventilation distribution from the federal State and Local Recovery Fund (SLRF), pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, to reflect actual utilization by school divisions, resulting in savings of $31.3 million.
Item 479.20 #2s- This amendment provides $137.4 million NGF the second year from the federal State and Local Recovery Fund (SLRF), pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, to provide approximately a $1,000 bonus per funded instructional and support position. These funds cover the entire cost for the bonus and require no local match.
Item 3-5.03 #1s- This amendment increases the sales tax transfer to Direct Aid to reflect additional assumed revenues from sales and use tax collections.
Senate Bill 30 K-12 Budget Amendments
Item 129 #1s- This amendment proposes $500,000 GF the first year to study options for additional virtual, online Governor's School opportunities across the Commonwealth. The Department of Education is directed to collaborate with Academic-Year Governor's School to develop a plan. The plan will consider how to ensure access to students who are currently not served or unable to participate in an Academic-Year Governor's School program and whether existing virtual resources through the Department of Education could be better leveraged to expand access to Governor's School courses. Funding for this initiative is repurposed from funding in the introduced budget intended to study options for the creation of a STEM Governor's School on the Eastern Shore.
Item 129 #2s- This amendment permits the Department of Education to use funds reserved by the agency from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund for the establishment of a system to assess student growth with a focus on learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each school division in the Commonwealth shall implement the system and make reports from the system available to educators to allow them to address learning for their students.
Item 130 #1s- This amendment provides $170,250 GF the first year and $70,00 GF the second year to support the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, to establish an advisory committee that will develop a resource that parents of deaf or hard of hearing children, up to age five, may use to monitor the language development of their children, pursuant to passage of Senate Bill 265.
Item 136 #1s- This amendment provides $100,000 GF each year to EduTutorVA to support targeted tutoring to help K-12 students recover from COVID-19 learning gaps.
Item 137 #1s- This amendment provides $104.1 million GF the first year and $257.2 million GF the second for the equivalent distribution of the one percent sales tax revenue from food and essential personal hygiene products. These payments are distributed to localities based on the estimate of school age population consistent with sales tax. The funding for this amendment is fully contained within the introduced budget since the introduced budget contained a hold harmless payment for the loss in dedicated K-12 sales tax from exempting food after the Basic Aid offset and contained the entire distribution of sales tax from essential personal hygiene products. The reductions reflected in this amendment are related to rounding variances when distributing these payments based on school age population and then calculating the Basic Aid state and local shares of cost based on the local composite index.
Item 137 #2s- This amendment provides $109.4 million GF the first year and $162.4 million GF the second year to increase the number of funded support positions. This would increase the funded ratio from 17.75 support positions per 1,000 students to funded SOQ instructional positions to 20 support positions per 1,000 ADM to funded SOQ instructional positions in the first year, and 21 support positions per 1,000 ADM to funded SOQ instructional positions in the second year. This increases state support for support positions and partially removes the funding cap placed on support positions beginning in FY 2010.
Item 137 #3s- This amendment provides $31.0 million GF the first year and $31.8 million GF the second year to provide one reading specialist per every 550 students in kindergarten through third grade.
Item 137 #4s- This amendment clarifies that local school divisions must use revenues derived from local sources to match the state share of funding for the compensation supplement.
Item 137 #5s- This amendment includes language to allow local school divisions to use the School Construction Grants Program funds, as introduced, for debt service payments on school projects that have been completed or initiated during the last ten years, and clarifies that funds shall not be used for parking lot repairs or replacement or for facilities that are predominantly used for extracurricular athletic activities.
Item 137 #7s- This amendment removes the expansion of the Early Reading program to fourth and fifth grades. A companion amendment provides one reading specialist for every 550 students in kindergarten and third grade and allows those specialists to work with students in kindergarten through sixth grades.
Item 137 #12s- This amendment reflects the $1.3 million reduction of K-12 dedicated sales tax in FY 2023 and $1.6 million in FY 2024 from the exemption in SB 517. After the Basic Aid offset, this results in a reduction to divisions of $574,850 in FY 2023 and $707,513 in FY 2024.
Item 4-14 #1s- This amendment provides an exemption on the 1.5 percent state sales tax imposed on food purchased for human consumption or essential personal hygiene products effective January 1, 2023. Additionally, it provides that the amount of the one percent dedicated to public education be replaced with a like amount of general fund distributed based on school-age population, consistent with the distribution of sales tax.
