VEA Wields Influence During General Assembly Session

Legislators adjourned sine die  the  week  of  March  1 and VEA scored major victories during the session on  important  bills  and  on the state budget. Our biggest wins:

 

        The    budget    sent    to G o v e r n o r       N o r t h a m restored more than 95% of the  funding  “removed” from  the  budget  in  April 2020  due  to  COVID  and included   $845   million   in new policy spending. VEA also scored a major victory when the final budget included funding for essential support positions, s u c h       a s        s c h o o l psychologists, nurses, social workers, and others, at a ratio of 3 positions for every 1,000 students. The budget   did   NOT   include the   cost   of   meeting   the V i r g i n i a      B o a r d      o f Education’s price tag for fully funding the Standards of Quality (SOQ), which we will continue to fight for.

    The budget included money for the state share of  a 5% raise for eligible teacher an d supp or t professional positions under the SOQ. That was a significant increase from the

2% bonus initially proposed in the budget. No matter what the state funds, local school divisions must match the percentage increase to get the state share of the raise.   In    response,   VEA l o c a l      U n i o n s ,      l i k e Pittsylvania,    are making noise  locally  to  secure the full state allotment.   It is critically  important  that local school divisions follow the lead of the state in providing the full 5% in the FY21-22  school  year  to make sure we start to close the gap in reaching the national  average for  educator pay.

        As  legislation  (SB1303) about     the     return     to in-person instruction was debated, we ensured that students and educators would be protected. VEA leaders successfully argued that the bill should include priority     provisions     that t h o s e     e d u c a t o r s     t e a c h i n g remotely   because of ADA issues can continue to do so and that those who must quarantine or isolate because of COVID exposure may do their work remotely. We also took steps to make sure the bill did not infringe needlessly on  local authority by making sure the dates the bill would be operational were limited to July 1, 2021, to August 1,  2022.  VEA advocated  for schools to return to in-person instruction at the state and local level as health data and proper precautions could be established, not based on arbitrary dates.

 

For   a   deeper   dive,   read   this l e g i s l a t i v e      w r a p - u p, this  breakdown  of  the  budget, and this look at the important changes made to SB1303.