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By Colleen, March 17, 2010 7:00 am

This budget season we’ve tracked and either fought against or lobbied for a number of bills dealing with VRS.  Here’s a summary of the “final” results on VRS:

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There are some changes being made to the Cost of Living (COLA) adjustments, Average Final Compensation (AFC) formula, and retirement age calculations.  However, these changes do not affect current employees and will apply only to new hires/those with no prior VRS service as of July 1, 2010.  Retirement benefits are being reduced for these new hires, and this is a loss.

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For employees who are in the system prior to that date, one piece of good news is that the VRS multiplier (1.7%) is not changing.  There was a major push to lower the multiplier, but those proposals were defeated.

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Now – for ALL employees, current and future, here’s what the released budget does: 1) It allows school boards/localities the option of requiring employees to pay some portion from 0 – 5 percent of the employee contribution to VRS.  School boards can decide individually what, if any, whole percentage of this burden that they will shift to employees.  This would effectively lower take home pay while maintaining the same retirement contribution. THIS IS A CONCERN, because it could certainly result in localities pressuring school boards to seek revenues via this route, and any change here WILL decrease take home pay for employees.  2) It included language that allows for localities to opt out of the group life insurance coverage that has been a standard component of VRS benefits.  This would not be an option until 2012.

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As these are both new developments, finalized in the just-released budget, we have no sense of where Madison stands on either of these issues.   It is interesting to note that both changes do not affect state employees; they merely give localities/school boards the option of making these changes at the local level.

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By Colleen, March 16, 2010 11:29 am

Well, we (as in the state of VA) have a budget.  In the past week we’ve been watching Richmond and waiting for a final product to come from the Budget Conference Committee.  Please note that this is not a final budget; it has now been sent from the General Assembly to the governor’s office.  In the next few weeks we should have some idea as to whether it will be amended, vetoed, or adopted as written. Here’s a breakdown of our newest/most current budget:

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All of these changes are revisions being made to Kaine’s proposed budget that he left behind as his term ended.  His budget is our baseline when we talk about additional changes, and the current Madison School’s budget (the one eliminating 12 positions district-wide) is based upon numbers from that proposal.

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After weeks in session, the House presented a proposed budget that would have resulted in an additional $685 million in cuts to education, and the Senate presented theirs, which cut an additional $114 million from education.  These cuts are a result of the resistance of lawmakers to any/all measures that would increase revenues.  Kaine’s original proposal compensated somewhat for a $4 billion hole in the budget by increasing revenues, and many of those measures have been thrown out from the start of this session.

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As is the norm, the fate of education funding (this time – how bad?) fell to a standoff of sorts between the House and the Senate, and the “good” news is that our Senate advocates came through again.  The final, adopted budget cuts K-12 education funding an additional $253 million, which is definitely a blow but is far less than the House proposal’s $685 million could have been.

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While it could have been MUCH worse, these additional cuts will certainly result in additional cuts and budget revisions for Madison and every other district in the state.  Our best guess at this time is that our district will not be able to build a budget based on new numbers without cutting additional positions.

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VEA is currently processing the numbers and calculating additional dollar amount cuts per district.  As soon as we know exactly what this amounts to for Madison, we will share those numbers.

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By Marc Lebendig, February 24, 2010 6:57 am

As we mentioned yesterday, Virginia’s Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson, has told Virginia educators that the cuts to the education budget are necessary, and not that bad, since education has received so much money lately.

VEA President Dr. Kitty Boitnott has responded, pointing out the misrepresentations of facts and lack of logic in Secretary Robinson’s letter:

VEA Response to Robinson

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By Marc Lebendig, February 23, 2010 7:35 am

Virginia’s new Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson, sent the following letter to several educators throughout the state, in which he defends the cuts to public education.

Letter from Secretary Robinson –

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By Marc Lebendig, February 22, 2010 5:11 pm

From VEA’s most recent annual study of teacher pay:

Benchmark salaries in the Commonwealth–the average figure school divisions pay to teachers at entry level and after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years in the profession–declined across the board this year.

In another sign that educators are sharing the burden of the economic recession, these benchmarks declined for the first time since VEA began tracking the average change in 1993. The decline ranged from .1 percent to 1.4 percent, depending on the particular benchmark. One way to understand the decline: a teacher with five years of experience in 2009-2010 is being paid about the same, or less, than a teacher with four years of experience earned in 2008-2009.

The publication of the report comes as lawmakers in the General Assembly are considering massive cuts in education funding to localities, virtually guaranteeing another year of frozen or decreased salaries. Virginia has fallen below the national average in teacher pay, as small increases in pay during brighter economic times were not enough to help the Commonwealth move up in the rankings.

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By Marc Lebendig, February 21, 2010 4:06 pm

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By Marc Lebendig, February 20, 2010 7:48 pm

VEA President Dr. Kitty Boitnott addresses the 16% reduction in force the most recent cuts will bring to K-12 education in Virginia:

Today, cuts advanced by Governor McDonnell include nearly $731 million from public schools and would reduce state funding for an additional 10,247 positions, bringing the total to nearly 28,429 potential school job losses.

[$731 million - 15% non personnel costs ($110 million) = $621 million, $621/2 to annualize = $311 million X 33 teachers per million = 10,247 more jobs lost]

This figure does not include the cuts in the FY10 budget which eliminated state funding for 8,758 positions.

There are 58,740 support and 128,277 instructional positions in our schools according to the 2007-2008 Annual Superintendent’s Report.  This totals 177,017 positions in our public schools.  A decrease of 28,429 positions is a 16.1% reduction in force.  This reduction will have a devastating impact on our schools that will cause class sizes to rise dramatically and programs to be eliminated.

More than 28,000 jobs lost will have a ripple effect on our local economy and compromise the ability of our schools to produce the skilled work force needed for future economic development.

As part of his campaign, Governor McDonnell pledged his top priority would be “bringing jobs and opportunity to every region of Virginia.”

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By Marc Lebendig, February 19, 2010 7:44 pm

Save Virginia Students from More Than $1 Billion in Funding Cuts from VEA Communications on Vimeo.

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By Marc Lebendig, February 18, 2010 6:14 am

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