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Recent JLARC Studies and Recommendations
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) is a bipartisan agency in the legislative branch of state government charged with program evaluation, policy research, and oversight. The Commission is composed of 9 members of the House of Delegates (5 of whom are members of the House Appropriations Committee), 5 members from the Virginia Senate (2 of whom are members of the Senate Finance Committee) and 1 Ex Officio member. In addition, it includes a director and approximately 30 paid staff.
In 2023, JLARC released three studies relating to public education. One evaluated the funding formula for K-12 public education, one examined the K-12 teacher pipeline, and the third examined the impact of the pandemic on K-12 education. Findings show that Virginia is one of only eight states which use a staffing-based funding model to finance public education. The vast majority of states use a students-based funding model. In funding staff positions, the JLARC study found that the SOQ funding formula supports 113,500 positions while 171,400 individuals are actually employed in Virginia K-12 public schools. Total funding for these positions must be supported from other sources, primarily localities. Estimates speculate that as many as 216,100 positions are actually needed to meet the needs of Virginia students. In addition, 4,104 teaching positions were unfilled in SY 2023-24. The number of unfilled teaching positions was 897 in SY 2019-2020 in the year prior to the beginning of the pandemic.
The teacher pipeline continues to reflect a widening gap between the number of newly licensed teachers and the number of teachers exiting the profession. In SY 2021-22 (the most recent year for which data was available for the JLARC study), 5,482 more teachers left the profession than were newly licensed. This reflects the shortage in teachers and may continue to contribute to the staggering number of unfilled positions. For more information on the JLARC studies and recommendations see the presentation here: https://vrta.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/JLARC-presentation-to-VRTA_4-24.pdf .
Fund Our Schools, a coalition of 24 organizations representing parents, students, teachers and others, had twelve priority bills that passed both houses of the General Assembly and successfully made it to the Governor’s desk. Of the twelve bills, the Governor vetoed eight or two-thirds. These bills which received bipartisan support in the legislature included requiring state budgets to provide the state’s share to raise the average teachers’ salary to at least the national average by the end of the 2026-2028 biennium, allowing localities to establish a local tax to support education, and providing funding for at risk programs. A 3% salary increase was included for teachers for each of the years in the biennium. However, this salary increase was funded from budget surplus funds and there is no provision for the continuation beyond this biennium.
Governor Youngkin has repeatedly claimed his support for public education. Regrettably, his actions during the 2024 legislative session fail to support his words. He has not proposed any revisions to the Standards of Quality funding formula, which has never been fully funded since the origination in 1988. Adequate funding of Virginia public schools must become a priority for the Governor and the General Assembly! It is time to address the deficits in the current funding formula by fully funding the Standards of Quality. Please remember to discuss these issues with your Delegate and Senator as you talk with them during the summer.
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