Governor Youngkin continues to feed Virginians misinformation after he gutted the K-12 Education component of the Bipartisan General Assembly’s Conference Budget. Sadly, the Governor is gaslighting Virginians with untrue statements about how the Commonwealth funds public education in an attempt to rationalize his actions. Although he has been corrected repeatedly that his criticisms of the JLARC reports are unfounded, he continues to use that rationale to gut Virginia’s K-12 Education budget. This Virginia Education Association's Fact Check of Governor Youngkin’s error filled 'Fact” sheet is eye-opening.
Also, The Commonwealth Institute compared the Proposed Budget by Governor Youngkin from December 2023 to the Conference Committee Budget from March 2024 (endorsed by 4 Public Education) and the Governor’s amended budget he sent back to the General Assembly in April 2024. The K-12 Education budget starts on page 3.
Governor Youngkin's amendments impacts vulnerable students the most. Funding for high poverty schools, English Language Learners, Community Schools, School breakfast, Community Leaders and Literacy support are the most impacted by the Governor’s amendments.
The governor increased support for the controversial new Accountability and Assessment Systems (read more about them in this week’s blog) and, although it is difficult to find it in the budget, the Governor appears to have allocated $85 Million for his controversial Lab schools. Next week 4 Public Education president Cheryl Binkley will share her analysis of the Virginia Lab Schools and how they take money away from your public schools.