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Local educators say they hope state budget cuts for education can be made temporary, and that school systems can be given greater flexibility in distributing funds.
Teachers, administrators and school board officials filled a room for a two-hour meeting held yesterday by state Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, at Germanna Community College's Locust Grove campus.
Houck, who sits on the Senate's budget-writing Finance Committee, called the meeting to talk about cuts the state will be making to deal with an expected $4 billion shortfall in the 2011 and 2012 budget years.
Outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine has submitted a budget proposal for those years that caps school support staff positions and makes other budget cuts to both K-12 schools and colleges.
Houck's meeting drew school superintendents and school board members from several area localities, along with teachers and parents.
For the most part they and Houck were on the same page; none of them wants the cuts that Kaine proposed. Houck and others said that cutting school funding is shortsighted, because a good education system promotes a good economy.
Several people said lawmakers shouldn't pretend that the cuts won't impact classroom instruction.
"This absolutely does damage to the classroom experience," said Madison County teacher Marc Lebendig, who talked of the number of jobs that would be cut. "To think that isn't going to devastate the educational experience is foolish."
Several people protested against making permanent changes to the Standards of Quality, which is the formula by which the state determines what it will pay for in local schools. Educators said they don't want SOQ changes that are made to help balance the budget now to become permanent parts of the SOQ formula.
An example of that would be capping the number of support staff that the state helps pay for.
Kaine has proposed such a cap, because there's a cap on the number of teachers the state will help localities pay for, and he believes similar limitations should apply to positions such as school counselors, nurses and administrators.
Orange County schools Superintendent Bob Habermehl said Kaine, as well as incoming governor Bob McDonnell, have "vilified educational support staff and administrators" while not discussing the state and federal mandates that often lead to those support staff being hired.
Spotsylvania County schools Superintendent Jerry Hill agreed, saying he's offended by the idea, pushed by legislators, that there's wasteful spending on support staff.
"That is purely bull," Hill said.
Spotsylvania teacher Peter Pfotenhauer said support staff allow him the freedom to teach, without having to also be a child's nurse or counselor.
"These cuts are going to hurt, and they're going to hurt badly," he said."
Permanent changes to the SOQ formula mean that when the state budget improves, school funding won't rebound, said Kathy Burcher, legislative chairwoman for the state PTA.
"The vast majority of our members do not understand the impact these cuts will have," Burcher said. "Recovery in our economy will not equate to recovery in our schools."
Houck agreed with most speakers and said he will try to mitigate the damage to schools from budget cuts, but said education makes up about a third of the state budget and it's hard to hold it harmless from $4 billion in cuts.
Culpeper resident Gardiner Mulford suggested that Houck and other lawmakers look at the array of tax credits, rebates and other exclusions that cost the state about $2 billion a year. Almost half of that is the car-tax cut.
That's what the Virginia Education Association is doing, said the group's legislative director, Rob Jones.
Jones said that in the next budget the state will be providing a billion dollars less than the SOQ require. He said to counter that, the VEA is working on a tax package composed at least in part of eliminating tax credits, and other measures to help get more money to schools.
Jones said the VEA will announce its plan early in the legislative session, which begins Wednesday.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com
