(Appeared in the March 24, 2004 edition of the Reston Connection.)

As the General Assembly enters its second week of a special session to resolve an impasse over the biennial budget, a surprising issue has emerged as central to the debate. In a report to the House of Delegates, Appropriations Committee chairman and chief negotiator for the House Vincent Callahan of McLean stated, “Whether or not the state should provide additional resources to fund the total cost of public education is what this debate is about.”

That’s a pretty incredible statement from an elected official whose district currently receives only 19 percent of its education funding from the state while paying the biggest share of taxes to the state of any region. And it is disappointing to realize the extent to which Callahan and his band of negotiators are willing to go to deny full funding to public schools.

By the numbers arrived at by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) when Callahan was chairman, the state underfunds the Standards of Quality for public schools by nearly a billion dollars. The State Board of Education calculated that $1.2 billion was needed to “rebenchmark” the Standards to account for inflation and enrollment growth. The state is statutorily supposed to pay 55 percent of the cost of public education in the states and the localities 45 percent. Recent calculations are that the state pays 40 percent of the costs with the localities having to pay 60 percent.

Callahan, speaking on behalf of the budget negotiators, said in his report, “Many of our localities have elected to exceed the state’s current Standards of Quality.” The State Standards of Quality are the bare minimum standards for schools, so bare in fact that even the poorest of school divisions exceeds them. The State Board of Education recommended recently that the Standards be raised to more nearly reflect prevailing practices and the rigorous accountability standard in Standards of Learning and the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The Standards have not been adjusted for 15 years. Callahan also proposed that there be a referendum on the Board of Education’s proposed revisions to the Standards of Quality!

The House budget would force local property taxes to increase. There is no need for a referendum on quality schools in Northern Virginia. Public support is clear. What the region needs are more elected representatives to stand with me and others to insist we have the best possible schools, that the state pay its share, and that we stop forcing costs back onto the local property tax payer. The moderate members of the Republican Party in the House of Delegates need to assert themselves.

Senator Janet Howell and I will discuss the state budget impasse at a community meeting at the Reston Regional Library on Saturday, March 27, 2004, at 1:00 p.m. We will present a report, answer questions, and take your suggestions. Please attend if you can.