Va. House budget would cut $400M from teacher salaries, critics warn

Richmond (Map, News) - Opponents of the Virginia House's plan to change the way teacher salaries are funded argue it would cut $400 million from the state's share of pay raises and force local governments to raise property taxes.

The dispute is part of a larger rift over the education funding in the House and Senate budgets passed Thursday and was a key source of debate between Democrats and the Republican majority on the House floor.

"It does two really bad things: One, it hits at the single most important component of education quality, and that's the quality of your teaching work force," said Del. Kristen Amundson, D-Mount Vernon, on Friday. "And two, because it just shifts responsibility from the states to localities, it's an unfunded mandate that is only going to be made up at local government."

Localities supplement teacher salaries with varying degrees of generosity across the state, which, under existing policy, determines the average salary upon which the state recalculates its own contribution every two years.

Under the House's plan, only the General Assembly's pay increases would affect that formula.

"What we're saying is why should we approve salaries above and beyond what we established?" said Rep. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, who said the money will stay in education.

In the budget that runs through 2010, the change applies only to "support personnel" such as administrators and secretaries. But the budget bill would expand the measure to teachers in the subsequent two years, which the Virginia Education Association argues would strip $400 million in state funding.

Hamilton disputed the figure.

"I don't know how they know what the salaries are going to be," he said.

Hamilton said the rerouted money would primarily fund an immediate 2 percent pay increase for teachers this year, as well as new school construction.

The dispute is intensified by faltering revenues that have constrained budget planners. Virginia faces a budget shortfall of about $2 billion over the next three years, which mirrors deficits in local budgets.

wflook@dcexaminer.com

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