Showing posts with label K–12 (education). Show all posts
Showing posts with label K–12 (education). Show all posts

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Governor McDonnell Continues Commitment to K-12 Education Reform in FY 2015/2016 Budget

Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell speaking at...
Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell speaking at CPAC. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
RICHMOND - Building on his commitment to ensure that every child in Virginia, regardless of their zip code, has access to a top quality education, Governor Bob McDonnell today announced that his FY 2015/2016 budget will include $582.6 million in increased funding for the biennium for K-12 and pre-kindergarten education.  Funding is increased by $268.8 million in FY2015 and $313.8 million in FY2016.  This funding includes $38.0 million in anticipated additional Lottery profits each year, for a total of $76.0 million for the biennium. 

 Speaking about the new funding for K-12 education, Governor McDonnell said, “It has been said that providing high quality schools for all children, and thus greater access to the American Dream, is the civil rights issue of our time.  We have made great strides over the last four years to ensure that all students are able to get a world class education.  This started with increasing educational opportunities through college lab schools, charter schools and virtual schools.  We then focused on raising standards for schools and teachers, reducing mandates on local school divisions, enhancing teacher quality, and worked to end social promotion by providing reading intervention for students in third grade.  This year, we established the Opportunity Educational Institution to focus on turning around chronically failing schools in Virginia.  We implemented A-F school report cards so parents can better understand how their child’s school is doing.  We provided the first pay raise in five years and strategic compensation for teachers, authorized Teach For America in the Commonwealth and reduced red tape for school divisions.  Additionally, over the last four years we have directed more money into the classroom, where instruction occurs.  We are seeing the results of our reforms.  Nearly nine out of 10 ninth graders who entered high school in the fall of 2009 earned a diploma within four years, a 7.8 percent increase since 2008.  The statewide dropout rate fell to 5.9 percent for the class of 2013, compared with 6.5 percent for the class of 2012.  And, reading skills for Virginia’s fourth graders have greatly improved, with 43 percent of fourth graders reading meeting or exceeding the National Center for Education Statistics proficiency standard – almost 10 percent more than the national average.”

 Governor McDonnell continued, “My FY 2015/2016 budget continues our commitment to education reform.  Until every child has access to the high-quality education they deserve, our work is not finished.  That is why I am proposing $582.6 million in new funding over the next biennium for K-12 education.  This amount with targeting toward instruction operations moves Virginia from 61 percent to 64 percent of all education dollars going to the classroom over the past four years – just shy of the goal of 65 percent.  The new money includes $20 million to bolster and protect the Literary Fund for school construction loans so that our schools are equipped with the tools our children need to succeed.  Recognizing that math and reading are critical building blocks to success down the road, we will also invest over $4 million to help schools not meeting accreditation requirements by providing additional math and reading specialists and other professional support.  Finally, we will provide more than $500 million over the next biennium to local school divisions.  This funding provides support for the costs associated with rebenchmarking the Standards of Quality, accounting for the growth in student enrollment and increased teacher retirement costs.”

Specific programs and initiatives supported by this funding include:

·         Direct Aid to local school divisions – $233.2 million in FY 2015 and $282.1 million in FY 2016 is provided for the increased costs of the Standards of Quality and related incentive and categorical education programs.  This amount includes support from the increased Lottery profits of $38.0 million per year.

·         Support for school construction loans - $20.0 million in general fund support is provided over the biennium to replace literary funds used for teacher retirement, which has drawn down assets in the Fund.  The freed-up Literary Fund revenues will be used for its intended purpose of school construction loans in order to support the school renovation and construction needs of school divisions.  In addition, the budget continues the 2013 initiative of $6.0 million per year in authorized debt to provide grants to pay for upgrades to security at schools.

·         Pre-kindergarten programs - $7.4 million over the biennium to continue the state’s support of pre-kindergarten programs and an additional $2.0 million to implement kindergarten readiness assessment programs.

·         Opportunity Educational Institution - $600,000 per year to staff the Institution, whose mission is to help unaccredited schools improve the education provided to its students. 

·         Math and reading specialists - $4.3 million over the biennium to help schools not meeting accreditation requirements by providing additional support for math and reading specialists, as well as professional guidance on how to improve their academic outcomes.

·         Community support - $2.8 million to expand effective and innovative programs such as Communities in Schools, PluggedinVA, GReat Aspirations Scholarship Program, Virginia Center for Excellence in Teaching, and the positive behavioral interventions and supports initiative. 

K-12 Accomplishments During McDonnell Administration

·         In 2010, Governor McDonnell’s “Opportunity to Learn” package was highlighted by measures to facilitate the expansion of high quality charter schools in the Commonwealth, and further utilize and incorporate virtual and college laboratory schools into Virginia’s public school system.
·         Building on his “Opportunity to Learn” education reform initiatives that passed the General Assembly with broad bipartisan support in 2010, Governor McDonnell continued to work to expand educational opportunities for students in every corner of the Commonwealth in 2011.  The initiatives included a proposal to implement a groundbreaking performance pay incentive pilot program that provided competitive grants for school divisions identified as hard-to-staff. The Governor also advanced legislation which established a tax credit for companies donating to nonprofit organizations that provide scholarships to help lower income students attend nonpublic schools. 
·         The governor’s 2012 “Opportunity to Learn” K-12 education reform agenda focused on raising third grade reading standards for children, increasing incentives for schools and teachers, reducing mandates on local school divisions, expanding educational options like tuition tax credits, charter schools, and virtual schools for Virginia students, and funding for critical education and training programs.
·         The game-changing “All Students” 2013 K-12 education reform agenda generated numerous successful bills and policies focusing on increasing teacher pay, improving the ability to reward good teachers and increasing accountability for poor performing teachers, establishing the Governor's Center for Excellence in Teaching and the Governor's Academies for Excellent Teaching, creating a Teacher Cabinet, bringing Teach for America to the Commonwealth, creating transparent school report cards to provide parents and educators with clear A-F grading measures, reducing red tape for local school divisions, supporting teacher innovation and staffing, guaranteed long-term support for students to achieve key learning milestones in reading and mathematics to strengthen their education, helping students stuck in chronically failing schools by creating a turnaround entity to ensure schools dramatically improve and reach accreditation, providing parents with more public school choice, and continuing to recognize that excellent teaching is key to a great education.

The governor commends House Majority Leader Kirk Cox and former Secretary of Education Jim Dyke and many other legislators and constituent groups for their leadership and hard work in improving public education in Virginia.


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