Education
Great public schools are the cornerstone of a vibrant, thriving community. During the 2019 General Assembly session, we secured funding in the budget for a 5% pay increase for our hard-working teachers to continue to attract and maintain the best educators in the country for our children. While this was a wonderful step in the right direction, we can still do more to support our teachers and avoid losing talented educators to neighboring states.
Fairfax school enrollment, especially along the Richmond Highway corridor, is growing fast and our facilities desperately need to catch up. I will fight for more state funding as well as work with local elected officials to find more funding. I am a strong proponent of expanding access to early childhood education, preschool, and quality childcare. Every dollar spent on education creates a greater savings down the line, and makes Virginia stronger.
During the 2019 session, I submitted the largest budget amendment of any member, requesting $177,086,046 to be added to the FY2020 budget from the general fund to the school divisions. This large number would have brought our public education funding back to the same level it was before the Great Recession, when enrollment was 30,000 fewer students.
This year, I was proud to support the tuition increase freeze in Governor Northam’s budget for the 15 public universities and colleges in Virginia. With the drastic increase in college tuition costs over the last two decades, this step will help ease the burden on students and families.
This year I passed HB 1724, the Grow Your Own Teacher Pilot Program, which aims to increase the teacher workforce and diversity in Title I schools across Virginia. My bill provides four-year college scholarships and institutional support to low-income high school seniors who are committed to teaching in high-need public schools in their community for a period of at least four years. I also worked to pass HB 1936, which secures in-state higher education tuition eligibility for foreign service officers in the Commonwealth after 90 days of residence.
During the 2018 session, I passed HB 81, which grants school boards an additional 180 days to select a new division superintendent. This additional time allows for school boards to select the most qualified candidate to fill a superintendent vacancy. My bill HB 80 was also signed into law, which requires the Board of Education, in its regulations providing for teacher licensure by reciprocity, to permit applicants to submit third-party employment verification forms. This bill cuts on unnecessary government regulation which led to new Virginia teachers not receiving their provisional teaching license and allows the Department of Education to accept employment verification forms from other states.
