Virginia Board of Education members yesterday heard the cost associated with a significant, looming policy decision on whether to recommend capping state funding for school support staff.
This year legislators agreed with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's plan for a funding cap in 2010 of one support position per 4.03 instructional positions funded through the Standards of Quality.
That funding cap affected an estimated 13,000 school support positions to save $340.9 million in salaries and benefits, beginning in fiscal 2010.
The General Assembly asked the Board of Education to consider whether that cap should be made permanent. Education Department staff were to estimate how much it will cost to fund the standards — largely for salaries and benefits — with the cap and without it.
Yesterday, the board was told that keeping the funding cap rather than funding all support positions would save the state $376 million in fiscal 2011.
The difference would grow to $378 million in fiscal 2012, for a two-year total of $754 million, according to preliminary estimates from Kent C. Dickey, assistant superintendent of finance at the Department of Education.
The board's review of the Standards of Quality, which outline the basic requirements for a public education in Virginia, is complicated this year by the General Assembly request.
The standards define minimum staffing for instructional personnel, but there is no such ratio for assistant superintendents, department directors, secretaries, attendance clerks, custodians, maintenance workers and curriculum specialists.
Over the years, the increase in the number of support staff has outpaced the increase in instructional personnel.
The state funnels about $6 billion to schools under the Standards of Quality.
The board is expected to make its recommendation by Nov. 1. Members have heard for months from students, parents, teachers and advocacy groups about the potential effects of such a cap.
Educators and the state's teachers union oppose the move, arguing that the schools are chronically underfunded. Robley Jones, with the Virginia Education Association, said yesterday that the state's support per pupil already ranks 37th in the nation.
Ashley Lewis, a University of Virginia student who attended Petersburg schools, told members in yesterday's committee meeting that the most troubling aspect of the proposal is the permanency of the change.
"It is not a temporary solution to current economic hardships," she said. "Instead, it is a permanent reduction in the Standards of Quality which will outlast the current recession."
Olympia Meola is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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