Commentary: Youngkin must choose: tax breaks for the rich or more K-12 funding? (2024)

All children deserve to attend a public school that has highly qualified educators in every classroom and creates an environment to meet their potential. Yet, for too long, the state has failed to live up to this promise and has underfunded schools by billions of dollars annually, according to a recent report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), the state’s nonpartisan research agency.

While the needs of our schools are great, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed a state budget with hundreds of millions of dollars less direct aid for public K-12 schools and effective pay cuts for educators. The school cuts were needed in the governor’s budget to give multimillionaires an average of nearly $10,000 in state tax breaks annually while raising taxes on low- and moderate-income families.

Fortunately, state lawmakers sent Gov. Youngkin a bipartisan budget that instead prioritizes historic investments in our students and educators.

Competitive pay for hardworking educators is one of the biggest differences between the two proposed budgets. Virginia is among a handful of states that didn’t see average teacher vacancy rates improve over the past year, hovering at a historic high of 3.9% statewide. Here in Central Virginia, our average teacher vacancy rate skyrocketed to 5.8%, the highest in the state. Virginia also has the third least competitive teacher pay in the country.

The Richmond region is hemorrhaging teachers, and our dramatically low pay has led many to leave the profession. Competitive pay is critical to ensure all students have permanent, highly qualified educators in their classrooms. Given this, the governor’s proposal of a budget with no pay change for educators next year and a meager 2% increase in the 2025-26 school year is unacceptable. Meanwhile, the General Assembly sent legislation to the governor’s desk committing the state to reach the national teacher pay average over the next four years and including a robust 3% pay increase over each of the next two years.

In addition to educator pay, our budget focuses on our most vulnerable children. While educators are a significant factor in student achievement, many other factors impact outcomes. Some students face social barriers or have learning needs such as English proficiency. JLARC indicated the state is falling short of meeting these students’ needs.

The General Assembly responded and passed a budget with a historic $371 million increase distributed to schools based on their share of students from low-income families and an overdue $72 million increase in state funding for English-language students. Virginia has long been among the stingiest in supporting English language learners, and this 60% increase is a much-needed course correction. No student group lost more ground than English learners during the pandemic. If Virginia is committed to making sure that a robust education system is the primary vehicle for a strong workforce supporting a business-friendly environment, we must support English language students effectively.

These historic K-12 expenditures in the bipartisan General Assembly budget were made possible by adopting the governor’s proposal to expand the sales tax to include digital goods. In a highly unusual move, he proposed expanding the new digital sales tax to consumers only and created a carve-out for corporations. Thirty-eight states have already expanded a digital sales tax, including all our neighboring states; only one state has a full exemption for corporations.

Rather than exclude corporations, the General Assembly’s budget proposes that businesses pay the same tax as families on software such as Microsoft 365. Now, the governor is balking on including sales tax modernization in a final budget. Apparently, he only wants to modernize when that money goes to wealthy, profitable corporations and not when it goes to our children.

The governor claims he can have both revenue reductions and spending increases, but families know budgets don’t work like that. The governor proposed a budget with $300 million less in direct aid for public K-12 schools than current spending levels. His proposed changes to educator salaries eroded over time due to inflation.

When we add it all up, our budget provides Henrico County with $46 million, Chesterfield County with $55 million, and the city of Richmond with $24 million more for public education than his does. That’s a real commitment to public education.

The General Assembly sent the governor a strong budget with the high-impact investments for students that Virginia families are calling for. With the bipartisan budget sitting on his desk, Gov. Youngkin must make a choice: invest in student success and our future economy, or fight for another tax handout to big corporations and his wealthy friends.