My most recent blog, Essential Boundary Policy for a New Century , identified some “interesting” school boundaries in our area. Any rational person would look at those boundaries and wonder how they came to be. Of course, those non-contiguous, gerrymandered boundaries are a developer’s dime a dozen in Fairfax County. Nevertheless, I did a little research (shared below), but first I want to discuss the recent history of Policy 8130. I was surprised by recent history and previo

It Is Time For Some Real Change After months of debate, the Fairfax County School Board is finalizing a comprehensive overhaul of the county’s current boundary policy which was originally adopted in 1986 and last revised in May of 2013, despite 5-year review requirements. This all followed a February school board meeting on Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) amendments, when most of the school board members expressed strong concerns that one-off boundary adjustments at individu

The Gaslighting Continues while Youngkin Explains away his Vetoes Although Governor Glenn Youngkin claims to be making education his...

While we are celebrating that our K-12 education funding priorities are funded for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, we must remember that,...

2025 FCPS Budget Public Input At the May 14, 2024 Public Hearing in front of the Fairfax County School Board on the 2025 Budget, the...

In collaboration with the Virginia Grassroots Coalition , 4 Public Education initiated a letter to Governor Youngkin about the upcoming...

Discover the complexities of Virginia's budget cycle and the contentious budget put forward by Governor Youngkin. Learn how it impacts public education in VA.

End of Session Update: Budget Amendments The 2024 General Assembly session ended on March 9th with 12 of the 4 Public Education priority...

The pace has picked up in Virginia’s General Assembly as we approach some key deadlines. ‘Crossover’ is February 13, the deadline by which legislators must complete work on bills originating in the House of Delegates or the Senate. Any bills that have not passed their respective chamber will be left behind for this legislative session. In addition, deadlines loom for each chamber to complete their budget amendment bills. The House Appropriations and the Senate Finance an

February 3rd will end the third week of the 2024 Session of Virginia’s General Assembly. At the time of this writing, one priority education bill has cleared the Senate (SB14) and most of the other priority education bills 4 Public Education endorses are working their way through the committees. One of the bills we opposed (SJ9) was defeated. The early success this year is at least in part due to the vigorous support of these bills by public education advocates who have been

For two years in a row, Governor Youngkin has blamed slow growth and recovery of SOL test scores on his predecessors and pandemic school closures. Although scores showed some recovery in 2022 during Youngkin’s first year in office, 2023 SOL scores remained stagnant during his second year in office. This begs the question: Is Youngkin intentionally attempting to gaslight Virginians and spread disinformation, or does his administration fundamentally not understand how SOLs are

The following is a transcript of remarks made by 4 PE's Cheryl Binkley made to the Virginia Board of Education at their meeting on April 19th: There are so many problems with Governor Youngkin’s lab schools I hardly know where to start. I urge you to delay moving forward on approvals of lab school guidelines, applications and programs until the legal issues with them are resolved. It will save you from later involvement in testimonies about your part in a program that is at b

The General Assembly reconvenes in Richmond on April 12th to address unfinished legislative business. There are three major items on the session’s agenda: the state budget, bills the Governor vetoed, and remaining appointments made by the Governor since the General Assembly session ended in February. Below is an explanation of what to expect related to K-12 education for this April session of the General Assembly. The Budget Virginia has a two-year budget cycle; thus, in even

The 2023 General Assembly adjourned on Saturday, February 25th. During this session, things played out as predicted for a divided legislature where each party blocked efforts of the other party which resulted pretty much with the status quo as a result. Regarding 4 Public Education’s priority bills, all the bills we opposed failed, but most of the bills we supported also failed with two exceptions: A bill to increase mental health resources in K-12 went to conference but was

After the General Assembly adjourns on February 25, 2023, all bills that pass both chambers will go to the Governor for his signature or veto; however, the General Assembly will reconvene on the sixth Wednesday after adjournment (April 6th) to consider any of the Governor's recommendations and vetoed legislation. Bills that are signed by the Governor will become law on July 1 of this year. Now the attention turns to the 2024 State Budget. The Governor provided his proposed bu

At this the first full week after Crossover, only five of our original 29 priority bills remain active. We oppose three of those bills and support two. The following information about those bills is current as of Wednesday morning. You can help oppose or support them by answering the easy one-click call to action. HB1448 and HB1379 will be heard in the Senate Public Education subcommittee on Wednesday. These bills are part of the attempt to ban books in public school libra

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 is the Crossover deadline in Richmond for the 2023 General Assembly. Advocacy by the public has been successful.

Things continue to be hectic in the General Assembly with the House and Senate both trying to finish hearing bills before crossover (to the other chamber) next week. Education bills are progressing, thus we are continuing to update Calls to Action as the bills change status. Another update will be sent out via email on the weekend Take Action Alerts. If you haven’t subscribed to get email updates, please do now here. These bills are current as of 1/31, and are broken out base

If it is the end of January in Richmond, Virginia, then the General Assembly is in session. The General Assembly consists of state Senators and Delegates who make new or change existing laws. Bills can be introduced by either Senators or Delegates, be debated in committees, and if successful, can advance to the chamber floor. If the bills pass the chamber where they are introduced, they will be passed to the other chamber during ‘crossover’ where the bill must go through the

We are fortunate in Virginia to now have a surplus in our budget. We are pleased to have legislators who advocate to apply that surplus toward public education to solve critical problems such as overcrowding, deferred maintenance, and inadequate staffing. These needs have gone unfilled in past years because the budget could not stretch far enough to meet those needs. However, other officials in our executive and legislative branches intend to use that surplus to cut taxes, de