Virginia school superintendents rallied Tuesday in an effort to stop proposed funding cuts that they say will further hurt classroom instruction.
Speaking at a news conference at the Library of Virginia, Virginia Association of School Superintendents President Philip L. Worrell said current budget proposals will cause class sizes to increase and the quality of education to decrease.
Worrell said the association conducted an internal survey asking school systems what steps they were taking to balance their budgets: 59 percent of systems that responded indicated cuts to instructional programs; 49 percent responded with reduced or eliminated elective programs and 55 percent delayed textbook replacements.
"We all acknowledge that budget sacrifices have been required; however, each school division in the state has cut its budget to the bone during the past two years and there is nothing left to cut that won't negatively affect the quality of education we provide," Worrell said.
Last month, Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed amendments to K-12 funding that could shave money given to localities. He said systems will receive less funding because enrollment is declining but added that they have received an increase in funds from the sales tax revenue.
However, McDonnell also proposed that $57.6 million appropriated for a portion of school funding be moved to offset the state's share of a 2 percent increase for teachers' retirement.
Local schools systems are in the midst of preparing budgets for fiscal 2012 with less money than they had the previous year.
Henrico County is facing an $8 million to $10 million shortfall, but Superintendent Patrick Russo said the system will maintain instructional services and he doesn't expect to lay off any employees.
Dinwiddie Superintendent W. David Clark said his school system will work with less money because of state funding cuts and declining enrollments.
VASS officials Tuesday also lamented the increasing demand of federal mandates — such as all schools meeting a 100 percent pass rate on standardized tests by 2014 and ensuring 100 percent of the class of 2014 graduates within four years of entering high school — that come at a time when funding is decreasing.
"Their associated mandates create a pervasive culture of compliance that drives a general fear of failure," said Orange County Superintendent Robert P. Grimesey Jr., co-chair of the VASS legislative committee.
Also Tuesday, McDonnell proposed a $3 million pay-for-performance incentive program that will provide competitive grants for schools considered hard to staff.
In November, Henrico County implemented a program offering financial rewards to educators at schools where teacher attrition has been a concern. The school system received $16.4 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund Grant.
Russo said Tuesday that the program aims at providing stability at schools in eastern Henrico that have high turnover rates among their teachers.
jslayton@timesdispatch.com
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