In his speech introducing his 2023 budget, Governor Youngkin said that improving education is a top priority.  And that’s why the biggest item in his 2023 budget is...  more tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy?   What’s going on?

Here are the facts:  the key provisions of the Governor’s proposal -- which the Republican majority pushed through the House of Delegates last week -- would do the following:

--drop the individual income tax from 5.75% to 5.5%

--drop the business income tax from 6% to 5%.

What does that mean for taxpayers?  If your personal income is $40,000, you will save a little over $100 a year.  But if it is $2 million, you could save $2,500! 

So when the Governor talks about giving Virginians $1 billion in tax cuts, let’s be clear about which Virginians are getting most of that money – the wealthiest.

Now all of that might not matter if Virginia was doing a great job in supporting K-12 education.  Sadly, however, (as we first reported last February), it is not.  Here are some more facts:   

—Virginia K-12 teachers are paid less than the national average.  But it’s worse than that:  

—Because Virginia is a comparatively wealthy state, our teachers are actually paid 31% less than they could get in comparable non-teaching jobs, according to a 2019 study.  And that is one of the biggest gap in the country!

—But the problem isn’t just teacher salaries.  In fact, another 2019 study showed that Virginia ranks 41st – near the bottom –  in state education spending per student! This is partly due to the continued existence of a cap on state spending for support staff - a cap that is “left over” from the 2008 recession.

—And then there is the longstanding and enormous underfunding of K-12 school infrastructure, a problem especially acute in rural counties.

The net result?: The state’s underfunding of education forces individual school systems to make up the difference. And who does that favor? The wealthy school districts who have a strong tax base to draw from. (After all, where do most high-income earners, the ones who will benefit most from the Governor’s tax cuts, live?)

To be sure, there has been some progress in recent years, including the bipartisan law passed last year to increase teacher salaries by 10% over two years. And the Governor’s budget does propose some new education spending - unfortunately that money will not go to core needs, as it is mostly for niche ideas like a one-time 1% teacher-\retention bonus. That does not address the long-term problem.

The bottom line: not surprisingly, Virginia teachers are now leaving the profession in droves.  Low salaries, staff shortages, poor infrastructure, stress from the growing politicization of education, and lots of other good job opportunities – all that means that there were 3,300 teaching vacancies at the start of the school year.

That is why a coalition of Virginian parents and educators recently called for an extra $1 billion in spending – just to get Virginia’s K-12 educational effort up to the national average.  

Meanwhile, several Republican legislators are pushing hard for a new school voucher program.  That too, however, would primarily benefit better-off families, while taking even more funding away from public schools. And rural communities, with no real private school options, would be especially hurt. 

What happens now?:  For this year, it’s a stalemate:  Because the Democrats (narrowly) control the Senate, they can at least hold up the Governor’s tax cuts.  But without bipartisan agreement, our schools won’t get the real funding increases they need.  

However... we have an election this fall!  Therefore we the voters will soon have an opportunity to ask our representatives: ‘Are your words and your actions on the same page?’ If not, elections are our chance to hold them to account!  And if we don’t make it very clear to our representatives that we are serious about education, then why should they be serious about it?

Editor’s note: the Rapp Up! reported last August about a similar problem of underfunding of Virginia’s community colleges and universities. Read that here.

Want to learn more? Read these links:

https://cardinalnews.org/2023/01/24/house-passes-del-mcnamaras-tax-relief-bills/

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/12/15/buckle-up-youngkin-budget-proposal-includes-another-1b-in-tax-cuts/

https://www.wavy.com/news/coalition-calls-on-virginia-lawmakers-to-fully-fund-public-schools-and-increase-teacher-pay/

https://thecommonwealthinstitute.org/the-half-sheet/high-capacity-low-effort-virginias-school-funding-is-low-compared-to-most-rich-states/

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/08/09/virginias-teacher-shortage-is-fueling-big-spending-on-recruitment-and-retention/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/27/teacher-shortage-us/

https://thecommonwealthinstitute.org/the-half-sheet/high-capacity-low-effort-virginias-school-funding-is-low-compared-to-most-rich-states/ https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-penalty-dips-but-persists-in-2019-public-school-teachers-earn-about-20-less-in-weekly-wages-than-nonteacher-college-graduates/