(Richmond Times-Dispatch) — “Here are a few of the notable education-related bills the committees and chambers took up and how they fared. Bills that were passed must be signed by the governor before becoming law.”
The Virginia General Assembly will reconvene next month to carve out a budget, an act that will have major impact on education in the state.
The House of Delegates version of the budget, which includes Medicaid expansion, allocates more state funding per student than the Senate’s, with a salary increase taking effect July 1, 2019. Teachers in Virginia continue to make below the national average of teacher salaries.
The state lags behind Maryland, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, among others, with an average classroom teacher salary of about $51,000, according to data from the Virginia Education Association. Teachers in Virginia make 70 cents for every dollar non-teachers earn, according to The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a research organization based in Richmond that focuses on economics and policy.
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