A group of college graduates. (Photo by Getty Images)
Higher education leaders in Virginia and Ohio announced Thursday that they will join forces to create a model for three-year bachelor’s degrees, cutting the traditional timeframe of obtaining the credential by one year.
The move reflects Virginia’s strategic plan to better align higher education with student and employer needs and increase affordability.
Currently, the laws in Virginia and Ohio require at least 120 semester credit hours to earn a bachelor’s degree. By spring 2028, participating institutions are expected to propose two 90-credit degree programs.
If successful, the 90-credit undergraduate degree would likely require legislative action, depending on how programs are structured.
“Virginia’s higher education institutions continue to lead the way in innovation, demonstrating a statewide commitment to ensuring higher education delivers on its value proposition to students and families,” said Scott Fleming, the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia’s executive director, in a statement on Thursday.
“Colleges and universities throughout the country are already offering three-year degrees, but there is no national model. This effort will create new pathways for students to pursue their life and career goals while ensuring a rigorous education experience,” he added.
The effort emanates from a joint venture with Jobs for the Future, Arnold Ventures, Strada Education Foundation, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and Ithaka S+R on the “Scaling College in 3” initiative.
The three-year degree initiative builds on the work of higher-education researchers Robert Zemsky, Lori Carrell, and colleagues through the National Center for Inquiry & Improvement. The group argued in 2023 that college takes longer and costs more than it needs to, and many students are paying for credits that aren’t essential for a degree or a career.
Higher education representatives from Virginia and Ohio will meet with national experts over the next year to discuss the program’s design.
Potential legislative changes may be required in some states that have statutory or regulatory minimum credit-hour requirements.
In Virginia, however, state officials indicate that the code does not prescribe credit-hour requirements for public institutions or exempt nonprofit private institutions, so any impact would likely depend on accreditation standards and institutional policies rather than state law.
The General Assembly has already supported goals to improve affordability and encourage expedited degree completion.
The Virginia Board of Education may delay the full implementation of the state’s plan to raise academic benchmarks for reading and math by two years, rather than gradually increasing them over a four-year period starting this year as scheduled.
The department briefed board members on the proposed delay at their work session on Wednesday at J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College in Henrico County, following a state study’s finding that the new K-12 accountability system, which includes the cut scores, could be refined.
Virginia will raise cut scores for its Standards of Learning assessments to boost student proficiency, a process that was slated to begin this school year. This initiative, led by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, followed findings of declining reading and math scores among students in grades 3 through 8, a trend that began during the pandemic.
But critics are urging a slower rollout, saying a quicker shift could increase teacher burnout, lower graduation rates, and worsen inequitable access to education. Several members of the board said at Wednesday’s meeting that they wanted to keep to the original timeline.
Board member Amber Northern, an appointee of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, said Virginia has received national praise for moving toward higher standards and accountability. She is concerned the proposal jeopardizes the board’s earlier work.
“Regardless of whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat in office … Virginia’s is for high standards and they’re going to work together with colleagues that are on the right, the left, the center .. to continue to do the right thing by kids on an aggressive, yet doable timeline,” said Northern.
Ida McPherson and Bill Hansen, both Youngkin appointees to the board, opposed delaying implementation of the accountability system that includes the cut scores, citing concerns that staving off implementation would negatively impact student outcomes.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jenna Conway emphasized that higher proficiency cut scores would be in effect one year faster than the original plan.
She also added that staff would meet the request of some members for a side-by-side comparison of the proposal to the board’s original plan, which some — including Fairfax County Public Schools, representing the largest groups of students in the commonwealth — took issue with.
“These changes will have a significant and potentially detrimental impact on schools and students,” Fairfax said in a statement last fall about the original plan. “FCPS supports rigorous standards, but will continue to advocate for this work to be done in meaningful and measured ways.
Arlington Parents for Education, a group advocating for high academic expectations, said in a statement it opposes this proposed delay.
“This last-minute proposal to lower expectations would mislead parents and allow schools to keep delaying the improvements Virginia’s kids desperately need,” the group said in a statement. “Major changes to academic standards should be made through a transparent process focused on student outcomes – not rushed through at the eleventh hour.”
According to a study conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, if the plan passes, schools’ overall scores will drop by about 8.5 points, while proficiency scores will fall by about 21 points in reading and 17 points in math.
The study stemmed from lawmakers directing the commission to examine the state’s K-12 accountability system, which was split into two parts: accreditation, which determines whether schools meet legal and regulatory requirements; and the School Performance and Support Framework (SPSF), which provides clear data on student and school performance.
The board praised the report that included recommendations to refine the accountability system. Overall, the recommendations urge the board and lawmakers to continue developing a more transparent and fair system that better reflects student growth and ensures stronger support for struggling schools.
The department is asking the board to consider the proposal to adjust the timeline for rolling out new cut scores to avoid “confusion” and to ensure divisions can fully prepare without having to manage multiple major changes each year.
If approved, the plan starts this upcoming school year. The Department of Education will provide divisions with a preview of results under the higher standards. Schools’ academic progress labels will also change, from “off track” to “approaching expectations,” and from “on track” to “meets expectations.”
Under the proposal, if a student recently moved to the U.S. and is still learning English, they are exempt from the reading assessment in their first year (2026-2027).
High school ratings will use current achievement data instead of longer-term cohort results. Elementary and middle schools won’t be penalized for having too few English Learner students to get a fair evaluation.
For the 2027-2028 school year, the department plans to preview updated School Performance and Support Framework results for divisions without consequences.
Implementation will start in 2028-2029 with a single increase in cut scores and the adoption of the new SPSF version.
Test data from the 2028-2029 school year will be released in the summer of 2029, and accountability data will be published in the fall of 2029, reflecting the new cut scores.
One area that wasn’t mentioned in the proposal was whether the board’s interest in having Virginia’s cut scores meet the “proficient” standard set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress would change.
This standard is defined as a student demonstrating a deeper understanding of complex topics and the ability to apply them in real-world situations.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger appointed four new members to the nine-member board, which remains controlled by Youngkin’s appointees, most of whom supported a gradual four-year increase last November that would have been completed during the 2029-2030 school year.
The proposal would wrap up during the 2028-2029 school year.
Hansen, the board’s vice president, will finish his term June 30 and his replacement will be appointed by Spanberger’s administration.
The board is not expected to take any action on the proposal on Thursday, their next scheduled meeting.
By Nathaniel Cline, Shannon Heckt, Charlotte Rene Woods, Samantha Willis Virginia Mercury
Members of Virginia’s Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee speak with the press in the Capitol Rotunda on June 22, 2026. The legislature advanced a $205 billion, two-year spending plan the same day. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virignia Mercury)
On Monday, Virginia legislators approved a two-year, $205 billion budget proposal to fund healthcare and public education, provide 4% teacher raises and a 3.5% pay bump to state employees, establish a retail weed marketplace and hedge against decreased federal dollars.
The spending plan also includes a provision to tax data centers for their energy consumption, which is slated to generate a maximum of $600 million each year but doesn’t include the environmental standards the House of Delegates wanted to impose on the industry or the end of the sales tax exemption that the Senate sought.
Senate Finance Committee chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said after her chamber’s morning session that she “didn’t love” the data center compromise and framed it as a necessity — but not the final solution.
“I would have preferred another method, but we had to get a budget. We were not going to let the government be shut down, and so this was a good start,” Lucas said.
“This is a compromise proposal — one my administration helped craft — and it builds a strong foundation for further discussions about the future of this industry in Virginia on issues like environmental and community impact,” Gov. Abigail Spanberger said of the data center provision in a statement.
The Senate passed the budget proposal 23-16 vote, while the House advanced it 71-22.
With both chambers finally on the same page after months of gridlock over data centers, the plan will now be reviewed by Spanberger. She can sign it as-is, recommend changes or veto line items. The whole process must be finalized by July 1, when the new budget will take effect.
Here are the key priorities addressed by the spending plan.
Data centers
The amended budget proposal creates an energy consumption tax for data centers which totals $.011 per kilowatt hour used per month.
The state will collect up to $600 million a year from this new tax, according to budget language. Any funds collected over that cap would be put into a fund and given back to data centers at the end of each fiscal year.
This is only a fraction of what the state could have made if they had ended the sales and use tax exemption, but, after months of arguing, lawmakers ultimately didn’t agree to that measure. Spanberger supported keeping the exemption in place through the end of the agreement’s term in 2035.
Additionally, language was put into the budget to direct the Department of Environmental Quality to study the groundwater impacts of non-closed loop data centers, which use millions of gallons of water each year.
DEQ will locate “cooling water scarcity areas” where the use of potable water for computer cooling systems could be detrimental to surrounding areas’ water quality and availability.
The department will have until July 2027 to create regulations for the scarcity areas. After they are developed, future data centers in that area will be required to “use air cooling, closed loop cooling systems, or more efficient cooling systems that become available.”
After July 1, 2027, data centers in the Eastern Groundwater Management Area will have to “use air cooling systems, 100% recycled water and/or stormwater for cooling, or use a closed loop system.” A study will be released in October 2026 on how to retrofit existing data centers in those areas to align with the new regulations.
Some Republican lawmakers characterized the measure as inconsistent.
“The budget does not create one strong statewide water usage standard for data centers. Some parts of Virginia get stronger protections and other parts get weaker protection or no protection at all,” said Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield. “That should concern every locality that is concerned about becoming the next target for a massive data center.”
Budget language also directs DEQ to put in place noise abatement regulations for data centers before the end of 2029. The department will determine the lowest possible noise level for data centers and make it the standard starting in 2030.
After that date, facilities who violate the noise standard will face a fine of $32,500 per day.
“The noise issues are some of the things we hear the most from people that live next to data centers,” said Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, whose district contains dozens of data centers. “Water is a rising concern, especially for any data centers that are gonna be put east of I-95, where we already have a real problem with our declining aquifer.”
Lucas told reporters that this is not the end of the conversation about doing away with the sales and use tax exemption, and that a study group will look closer at the issue and provide a report on their findings in November.
Health and human services
Overall, the pending budget will earmark $158.3 million in the state’s general fund for fiscal year 2027 and $245.1 million in 2028 for healthcare and social services.
The money was set aside both for healthcare and social services the state typically handles along with support to comply with new federal mandates and partially plug holes created by federal funding shortfalls.
As thousands of Virginians have fallen off Affordable Care Act health insurance this year, Virginia’s new budget entails $150 million to support a state-level version of the expired federal assistance for people between 138% and 250% of the federal poverty level.
Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, a former journalist and restaurant worker, described the difficulty of living uninsured for two years in a floor speech on Monday.
“I don’t want anyone to live like that,” she said.
She added that the budget “puts major money” into making sure that the state is “taking care” of people.
Sen. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, speaks on the Senate floor during the special budget session on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)
The plan calls for $3.5 million to determine ways the state can ensure eligible people remain on Medicaid amid forthcoming eligibility requirement shifts and additional verification work.
Virginia’s roughly 850,000 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries went without their food stamps last fall during the federal shutdown. And due to a reconciliation bill Congress passed last summer, states like Virginia are attempting to reduce their error rates.
State lawmakers have designated $135 million to handle SNAP, should the error rate not fall to the required 6% by the end of the calendar year.
Sometimes SNAP households are overpaid or underpaid because of paperwork mistakes by government staff or outdated information from beneficiaries. Work in social service departments is already underway to reduce error rates.
Free clinics will receive $20 million in state funding over the next two years while federally qualified health centers will get $10 million in that time.
While federally qualified health centers offer sliding scale fees for low-income patients, free clinics are also a resource for uninsured patients. Both entities have been bracing for additional clients as Virginians lose their ACA or Medicaid insurance.
A little over $1 million is allocated to help local health departments statewide handle rent increases. The regional centers help fill healthcare access gaps and are often tailored to the local communities they serve.
As federal dollars for HIV/AIDS care are slashed, the state budget also contains over $26 million for that specific type of healthcare over the next two years. Staying on top of medication is critical in preventing the spread of the disease.
Education
Under the newly approved budget proposal, K-12 education funding would increase by $1.4 billion, including a 4% increase for teachers in each of the next two years.
Lawmakers propose $590 million for rebenchmarking, declining enrollment, and high-need groups, including $28.9 million for at-risk and $148.4 million for special education students.
Also included: $500,000 for grants to help schools purchase Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and implement cardiac emergency response plans.
In higher education, the budget proposes restoring funding for affordable access and tuition moderation, as well as expanding nursing programs at several public universities. The Internships Virginia (InVA) initiative to provide paid internships for postsecondary students would also be funded.
To support educational infrastructure, lawmakers also agreed to expand the authority to allow all localities to use a 1% sales tax to pay for construction costs, contingent on a referendum that must pass in each jurisdiction. The language also permits jurisdictions in Northern Virginia to use the funds for transportation projects to address public transit needs.
Tax deductions
Taxpayers will be able to keep a bit more of their cash, as the new budget increases the standard income tax deduction from $8,750 for single filers and $17,500 for joint filers to $9,200 and $18,400 in 2027 and $9,300 and $18,600 in 2028.
RGGI/environment
A budget amendment was added into the conference report that would divert 45% of the funds earned from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative back to ratepayers.
The funds come from carbon credit sales, which utilities must purchase if they want to burn carbon-based fuels sources that release emissions. Those costs are then passed down to utility customers.
When former Gov. Glenn Youngkin removed the state from the agreement in 2021, it cost about $4 a month on the average residential customer’s bill. Recently, Dominion Energy filed for the “RGGI Rider” to be added back to monthly bills as mandated by a law to rejoin the agreement, signed by Spanberger in recent weeks.
Dominion is required to begin purchasing from the carbon credit auction in July but the charge to customers won’t begin until March should the State Corporation Commission approve the application by the utility. This will lead to an increased charge of $10-$13 monthly.
The state previously earned about $800 million from the RGGI funds that had to go towards community flood preparedness projects and low-income energy efficiency projects. The new budget language includes the rebate for customers, which would put money back in wallets but detract from the funds for flood and efficiency projects.
The rebate will not apply to co-op utility customers.
Housing
While a handful of housing bills passed the 2026 session and have since been signed into law, the new spending plan includes measures to ensure bills with fiscal impacts get off the ground.
The state budget proposal directs $60 million overall for housing initiatives, $40 million of which will go to the state’s Housing Trust Fund and $20 million that will go towards a mixed-income housing pilot program.
Additionally, lawmakers set aside $11.5 million for the Virginia Eviction Reduction Program and $10 million for the Clean Energy Innovation Bank.
Cannabis
Spanberger and lawmakers announced June 16 a reworked proposal for a retail cannabis marketplace that included key compromises between legislators’ and the governor’s visions. The marketplace is set to launch July 1, 2027 and will be limited to 350 stores statewide.
State sales tax on retail weed will be 6% at launch and will increase to 8% in 2029. Localities also have the option to add an additional tax of 1 to 3.5%.
Because lawmakers added a Part 5 amendment, the market will be permanently established in the state.
The new framework includes a $250 public consumption civil penalty that will not take effect until 2027.
“We had serious concerns about creating extreme new penalties that would not have meaningfully reduced the illicit market,” Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Henrico, said at a press conference announcing the framework last week.
“But we believe this final framework strikes the right balance for enforcement mechanisms, but also in accountability, but also not harming those who just choose to participate in the market.”
Child care
The budget sets aside $137.6 million for the state-subsidized child care program slots, which will be devoted to families making 85% or less of the state median income.
This follows legislation carried by Del. Briana Sewell, D-Prince Wiliam, requiring the state education department to update how it calculates the cost of childcare for Virginia families. A majority of Virginia parents and employers say child care costs are prohibitive.
Spanberger signed the bill into law last month.
A new cost-sharing program for child care will be funded through the budget, with lawmakers allocating $25 million for the initiative to spread the price of child care between families, employers and the state.
Transportation
Lawmakers included $153 million in the budget for additional operating assistance for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or Metro, with the caveat that Metro must produce a 20-year capital plan and annual performance reports.
The action comes as inflation has driven up the costs of operating transit services.
Lawmakers also proposed directing the secretary of transportation to evaluate options, including public-private partnerships, to accelerate large-scale improvements to the I-81 corridor.
The legislature allocated $7 million for the Route 460 Phase IIA Finish Grade Project and directed stakeholder engagement to prioritize improvements along the U.S. Route 220 corridor.
The budget also directs the state to identify federal funds to support rural electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and provides $500,000 to continue developing Advanced Air Aviation Test Sites to enable advanced air mobility.
What’s next
The proposal will now head to Spanberger, who said it contained “a lot to be proud of” in a Monday afternoon statement.
“Today, the General Assembly has moved forward with a budget proposal — and that means we are keeping our government open and delivering for the 8.8 million people who call our Commonwealth home,” she added.
A view from inside the Virginia House of Delegates chamber on June 22, 2026. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
A 2021 tour of the construction of the new Highland Springs High School in Henrico, estimated to cost about $80 million. (Photo courtesy of Henrico County Public Schools)
Over the past five years, several Virginia localities have generated just $119 million total from a targeted sales tax to fund school construction and maintenance, fueling calls to expand the tax statewide.
When lawmakers first established the tax in 2021, a state survey showed over half of Virginia’s schools were more than 50 years old, with replacement costs in the billions.
House Education Committee Chair Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, said the totals further emphasize the need for the commonwealth to do more to address aging buildings.
Rasoul, along with Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, proposed legislation to allow all counties and cities in the state to impose an additional local sales and use tax, at a max rate of 1%, strictly for public school capital projects. Both measures were ultimately added to their respective chamber’s budgets and is part of the combined budget legislative negotiators released Friday.
Rasoul said that while $119 million is a small fraction of what the commonwealth needs, “it’s a good start to be able to help localities have another tool in their toolbox.” He continued, “The commonwealth needs to do more to help with school construction, but one thing we can be doing is at least help some localities help themselves.”
Voters in each locality would decide through a referendum whether to adopt the additional local sales tax to fund school construction and maintenance.
Virginia’s localities are only allowed to exercise powers granted by the legislature, including changing sales taxes. As a result, only nine localities — including the city of Danville and the counties of Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Northampton, Patrick, and Pittsylvania — can currently levy a 1% sales tax for school projects.
Danville has collected the most, with $30 million in three years, according to data from the Department of Taxation obtained through a FOIA request. In fiscal year 2025, tax revenue for school construction and maintenance varied unevenly across the nine localities, with significant per-student variation. Danville, which has levied the special tax for three years, generated the highest tax revenue per student enrolled in the district, at approximately $2,171.
That’s more than four times the per-student amount in Pittsylvania ($478). Most other localities collected between roughly $950 and $1,260 per enrolled student, while per-resident (total population) contributions ranged from $63 to $276.
McPike said that the state’s revenue figures highlight the urgent need for school construction funding and the proposal’s key feature—local option through voter referendums.
“The core of the issue is that we are billions behind, and we still have kids in classrooms with leaky roofs and air conditioning that often breaks,” McPike said, adding, “and we know that overall localities need ways to pay for school construction, and the beauty of it is, this is one thing they have the option to do.”
“I know (the proposal) in discussions of including it in the budget, which is great, because ultimately this also has to go to voters if the locality decides to move forward with it, and the voters get to decide—it’s the purest form of democracy.”
These figures indicate the amount of school tax revenue each area can generate based on its local tax base. The per-student numbers reflect the total tax revenue divided by the number of students enrolled in each district, rather than the amount spent or paid by any individual student or resident.
In a recently adopted resolution, the Charlottesville City School Board said it supported efforts to expand the 1% sales tax for school construction.
The board said in its resolution that utilizing a local option sales tax allows Charlottesville to diversify revenue streams and reduce the burden on local property owners by sharing school infrastructure costs with visitors and commuters who utilize the city’s commercial corridors.
Members added that if the city gains this legislative authority, the school board encourages “collaborative efforts with the city council to advance a local referendum, allowing the citizens of Charlottesville the opportunity to invest directly in the future of our children, our schools, and our community’s infrastructure.”
Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, has lobbied for such a measure in her home district, but the effort wasn’t successful. Price emphasized the importance of funding safe, modern school facilities in Virginia, amid federal funding cuts.
Price said she would love for Newport News students to have schools like those she has toured elsewhere, where the environment is “welcoming and encouraging for creativity and not oppressive and dark and hard to breathe.” She added, “I think all Virginia students deserve that.”
The school tax proposal’s supporters are eager for the state budget to be finalized. To place the referendum on the November ballot, lawmakers must adopt the language by June 29 so it can be properly advertised. State law requires referendums to be ordered at least 81 days before the election.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, is cautiously supportive of the idea that a local sales tax has become a useful tool for certain localities that dislike raising real estate taxes, and acknowledges it has generated a “decent amount of revenue” for school construction.
Surovell stressed, however, that Virginia faces a multi‑billion‑dollar backlog in school construction and maintenance. He argued that a Northern Virginia casino, which he proposed, could have been one of the “easiest” ways to close part of that gap, but Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed it.
The proposal would have removed the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ authority to advance a casino referendum, Spanberger explained in her veto statement.
The Senate and House are set to return to Richmond Monday to deliberate the budget, which will take effect July 1.
The abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass is known for many things, but perhaps among the most significant is his views on education’s relationship to slavery. Douglass himself was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818.
Douglass described in his 1845 autobiography how one of his enslavers, Mrs. Auld, began teaching him to read when he was a child. Mrs. Auld’s husband ordered her to stop giving Douglass lessons.
“Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read,” Douglass writes. “To use his own words, further, he said, ‘If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master.’”
Congress enacted the 13th Amendment on Jan. 31, 1865, abolishing slavery. It was not until June 19, 1865, that word of the amendment reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, marking the origin of the Juneteenth holiday.
The Biden administration declared Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021. Today, Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. But the story for formerly enslaved people continued to unfold in complex ways well after Juneteenth, including when it came to their educational journeys.
Juneteenth made clear that freedom was not just confined to someone’s physical enslavement, but mental enslavement as well, bound in the laws that barred enslaved people from receiving an education in Southern states.
A drawing of a National Freedmen’s Bureau school in Richmond, Va., in 1866. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Making learning illegal
In 1739, the Stono slave rebellion took place in South Carolina. Fearing that educated slaves would go on to plot future rebellions, South Carolina passed an anti-literacy law in 1740, banning slaves from being taught how to read.
Meanwhile, the first African Free School for Black children was established in New York City in 1787. The one-room schoolhouse began with 40 students, the majority of whom had parents who were formerly enslaved. Six additional, similar schools were created with public funding by 1824.
Others opted to remain where they had been enslaved, seeking to experience freedom in familiar surroundings. In fact, the vast majority of freed people remained in the South.
Relentlessly, they endeavored to establish themselves as free citizens within the nation. One of these newly freed people’s primary goals was to receive an education.
Learning to read, write and more
After the Civil War, newly freed people gathered in churches, homes, cellars, sheds, meetinghouses and even under shade trees in the fields where they worked the crops to learn how to read and write. They also learned basic job skills, such as the ability to read and understand labor contracts.
Many of the teachers had no formal training, and some of them were local Black people who were self-taught.
Other educators included white teachers from the South and the North, sent by churches and aid societies.
White aid societies and religious organizations from the North, including the American Missionary Association and the National Freedman’s Relief Association, sometimes funded these free schools for formerly enslaved Black people.
However, most of the money to fund these schools came from the newly freed Americans, who privately paid for their schools.
Newly freed Black people also began to have more options for higher education.
The first historically Black college and university, Cheyney University, was established in Pennsylvania in 1837, well before the Civil War. A total of four HBCUs were established by the end of the Civil War in 1865.
At this point, true liberation began, as a growing number of HBCUs offered academic freedom to Black Americans, who otherwise would have been prohibited from attending most colleges and universities.
In the 15 years following the Civil War, a total of 59 HBCUs had opened their doors to Black students.
A history class at the Tuskegee Institute, a coeducational elementary and secondary school for Black Americans founded in 1881 in Georgia. (Photo by Corbis/Getty Images)
A promise that requires education
A whole new set of challenges and opportunities greeted the formerly enslaved Black Americans who sought freedom in the North. Most arrived in cities such as Chicago and New York, where they found some humanitarian support but also racial discrimination and poverty.
Education ranked high among the free people as a priority, as they looked to gain new skills and advance in life. They learned not only the basics in reading and math, but also job skills, citizenship and advanced learning in professional careers, such as law, medicine, pharmacy and teaching.
Ultimately, Juneteenth offered a promise of freedom – but education was necessary to make it happen.
Interim Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project Jajuan Johnson presents at the Summer Sankofa Workshop in July 2025. (Photo courtesy The Lemon Project)
William & Mary’s Lemon Project helps African Americans in Williamsburg uncover their families’ histories and the role their relatives played in shaping the college, the city and the landscape of the early United States.
On Thursday morning, the Lemon Project is taking its services to the college’s Juneteenth Celebration in the Sadler Center.
“It resonates deeply if you have been told for generations that you did not make a substantive contribution to the building of a nation and now you have records that say ‘Yes, I did, I did build this place,’” said Jajuan Johnson, interim director of the Lemon Project. “We think that they’re worth the search, they’re worth the labor.”
The Lemon Project was created in 2009 to investigate William & Mary’s ties to slavery, starting with its founding in 1693. The college’s historic campus was built by enslaved people, and its founding president, James Blair, was instrumental in the institutionalization of slavery in Colonial Virginia.
The project was inspired by similar work at Brown University and pushed forward with advocacy by faculty and students such as Tiseme Zegeye, who in 2007 proposed a resolution in the Student Assembly that called on William & Mary to research and publicize the college’s role in slavery and create a memorial to the enslaved. The Board of Visitors agreed in 2009. “Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved” was dedicated in 2022.
“We wouldn’t be here without students; they are key to our success,” said Sarah Thomas, associate director of the Lemon Project.
Johnson helped establish the project’s public genealogical research work about five years ago. Members of the Descendant community, African Americans with roots in Williamsburg’s earliest days, had been asking for it for years.
A $1 million grant created a foundation to get started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People were wanting to connect,” Johnson said. “They are in place, sheltered and they’re wanting to connect with family.”
Interest in genealogy predated the pandemic, Johnson said, but as historical records were digitized and made available online, it became easier for Black people to investigate unanswered questions about their lineage.
For people who descend from enslaved people, however, ancestry work can be difficult. Many records were lost or destroyed during the Civil War. In other cases, records pertaining to the enslaved were sparse or nonexistent, sometimes noting the presence of an enslaved worker but not their name.
“Slavery was injustice against family lines,” Johnson said. “So much is not recorded because you were considered property.”
Despite the challenges, many records do exist in William & Mary’s Swem Library special collections. The Lemon Project also makes use of Library of Virginia records and Freedmen’s Bureau records, which Johnson said have been instrumental in their work.
“Although people are told that they can’t find anything prior to 1865, I would say 80% of the time they do, they find some type of clue,” Johnson said.
The Lemon Project collaborates on genealogy work with other groups, including the Bray School Lab, the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society of Hampton Roads and Black residents, Johnson said. Where institutional records fell short, records from historical church congregations in Williamsburg, such as First Baptist Church, Oak Grove Baptist Church and Bruton Parish, sometimes provide new leads.
“African American cemeteries and the structures as well are major testimonies of African American life and history and family history in this region,” Johnson said. “These are places that are repositories of information that tell the story of people and the communities they built.”
The project doesn’t always start in the distant past and move forward. Using a mix of oral history, death certificates and payroll documents from the 1900s at the college, Johnson said, the project was able to follow lineages backward.
“We see that not only are these people in the early 1900s on this payroll list working at William & Mary, but they have children who are working at the college,” Johnson said. “We can trace back to find that there was this labor lineage at the college.”
Thomas said the project’s work builds community and connects people.
“We had a genealogy roundtable and cousins met each other for the first time,” Thomas said. “We didn’t plan it, it just happened; those kinds of stories are priceless.”
Those moments and demonstrating the Black community’s role in building early Williamsburg and overcoming oppression make the project’s work resonate with people, Johnson said.
“They built the churches, they cared for their dead, they reproduced, they established businesses, they did everything that people have told them — that institutions have told them — they did not do,” he said. “It’s sustaining when you consistently live in a world that tells you you don’t matter, it reaffirms ‘No, this is my place; this, too, is my nation; this is my institution.’”
On June 12, 2026, Gov. Abigail Spanberger was joined by student interns from agencies across the commonwealth and the 2026 Governor’s Fellows as she signed bipartisan legislation creating Virginia’s first State Internship Coordinator. The new role will strengthen state internship programs and expand opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in public service and build successful careers in Virginia. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Governor's Office)
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger recently signed a law creating a Virginia State Internship coordinator position, designed to improve how students and recent graduates gain workforce experience through state agencies.
In 2019, Virginia established the Innovative Internship Fund and Program to expand paid and credit-bearing internships statewide, reinforcing the commonwealth’s commitment to workforce development. The new role builds on that foundation, as does the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership, which helps connect students and government agencies with these opportunities.
Then in 2023, the Department of Human Resource Management, in partnership with the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia and V-TOP, created the COVA Internship Connection Pilot, which uses the V-TOP system to help agencies recruit interns.
The COVA Internship Connection Pilot was designed to be a temporary, multi-agency initiative during and after the COVID pandemic, so students studying remotely could still find meaningful paid or unpaid, work-based learning through the state government.
When Spanberger signed legislation carried by Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Henrico, and Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, the pilot was transformed into a permanent, centrally managed program.
“This is a great example of what the commonwealth can do to provide real-world opportunities for young, talented people entering the workforce,” Spanberger said in a statement on Friday. “Virginia is the top state for talent in America, and one of the most powerful tools we have is making sure talented students stay and grow right here in Virginia.”
The legislation aims to centralize internship outreach, streamline application processes and provide agency support, making internships more visible and accessible to all students, including those from under-resourced schools and students with disabilities.
The legislation strengthens data collection and program tracking to measure internship results and enhance Virginia’s long-term workforce development.
“Internships are an essential opportunity to provide young people on-the-job experience and employers access to the workforce of the future,” Sullivan said in a statement. “As one of the largest employers in Virginia, it is imperative that the Virginia state government lead by example by expanding quality internships and attracting talent to support its vital mission.”
As someone who started her public service with a state government internship, Aird said she knows firsthand how transformative such opportunities can be for young people. She cited Virginia’s aging public workforce as a driver of the new law that will help develop the next generation of public servants.
“By strengthening and coordinating internship opportunities across state government, we can build a workforce that better reflects the communities it serves and ensure Virginia remains prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow,” Aird said.
Max Berckmueller, who graduated early from the College of William & Mary in 2023, credits his internships at multiple state agencies with helping him reach his goal of gaining real experience and making a tangible difference in his fellow Virginians’ lives.
Now working as a data analyst with the Department of the Treasury, Berckmueller helps review monetary and budgetary matters for the state.
“Conducting a budget or fiscal analysis, and seeing how the Department of Planning and Budget is taking that into account and changing their decisions based on the analysis that I did…that’s pretty cool,” Berckmueller said.
“You might not get those kinds of opportunities at the federal government, but the state always needs a lot of help, and there’s always a lot to do,” he added.
Spanberger also launched InternshipsVA, a statewide initiative to connect students with paid internships and strengthen Virginia’s workforce, as one of her first major economic development announcements at the start of her term. Recently, the program won a national Business Facilities 2026 Economic Development Organization (EDO) award.
Funding for the new position is included in the House and Senate’s budget proposals, which lawmakers are working to reconcile and finalize ahead of a June 30 deadline. The position is estimated to cost annually $172,224.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education announced plans for its further dismantling on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education announced sweeping efforts Tuesday to outsource its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies, in another major step by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the department.
The Department of Health and Human Services will administer programs under the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, while civil rights enforcement under Education’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, will be transferred to the Department of Justice.
The Education Department clarified in fact sheets that in the agreements announced Tuesday, it “will continue to perform all statutorily required duties and responsibilities.”
“The Trump Administration has been clear: as we scale back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Tuesday.
The administration has sought to do away with the 46-year-old department as part of Trump’s quest to return education “back to the states.” That push continues despite much of the oversight and funding of schools already occurring at the state and local levels.
Congress created the Department of Education, and only Congress has the authority to abolish the agency.
Special education
On a background call with reporters, a senior department official said OSERS “will maintain its independent statutory functions without interruption to vigorously enforce compliance with all of OSERS programs.”
OSERS is responsible for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities. The umbrella unit OSERS includes the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.
The official added that “students will not lose any rights, including their right to a free appropriate public education,” adding that “no agreement can alter the rights that students with disabilities are afforded under federal law.”
“In coordination with and at the direction of OSERS, HHS will support meaningful stakeholder outreach; grant administration; enforcement, compliance, and monitoring activities; annual performance determinations and assessments; collection, reporting, and analyzing of data for monitoring compliance; and drawdowns of Federal funds,” according to a fact sheet.
Civil rights oversight
Meanwhile, Education’s agreement with the DOJ is intended to “support and bolster the federal government’s enforcement of federal civil rights laws,” a senior department official said.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, is tasked with investigating civil rights complaints from students and families.
Under the agreement, “OCR will utilize the Civil Rights Division to evaluate, investigate and resolve complaints filed under the laws enforced by OCR,” the official said.
The official also stressed that under the interagency agreement, OCR “retains management and leadership of OCR in accordance with federal law.”
Education will also partner with the DOJ on student privacy protection, in which the Justice Department will “review complaints alleging privacy act violations, conduct necessary investigations and recommend potential resolutions,” per a fact sheet.
In another agreement, the DOJ will “provide technical assistance” in training and advisory services regarding the desegregation of public schools, according to a fact sheet.
‘This isn’t efficiency — it’s chaos’
The announcement sparked fierce condemnation from Democratic members of Congress, labor unions and advocacy groups Tuesday.
Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, the union representing Education Department workers, said the interagency agreements regarding special ed programs and civil rights enforcement “will leave our most vulnerable students and families who have been shut out of our education system without the services they need and without protection when they face discrimination,” in a Tuesday statement.
“This isn’t efficiency — it’s chaos,” Gittleman added. “Secretary McMahon is yet again targeting historically underserved students, eroding public trust, and sowing dysfunction for the federal employees who are trying to do their jobs on behalf of the public.”
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that “instead of helping kids get a great education, this administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the Department of Education,” in a Tuesday statement.
“It’s an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades of hard-won progress for students,” Murray added. “More kids with disabilities will be denied the education they are entitled to by law, and more college students who were harassed or assaulted will go without the justice they are owed.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the country, said the decision “will have dire, real-world consequences.”
“Congress — the only body that can legally take such actions — has refused to follow the whims of the White House when it comes to abolishing the Education Department,” Weingarten said. “And parents, educators, students, and the disability and civil rights communities are rising up — and will fight in every way possible to reverse this in the courts, at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion.”
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education announced sweeping efforts Tuesday to outsource its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies, in another major step by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the department.
The Department of Health and Human Services will administer programs under the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, while civil rights enforcement under Education’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, will be transferred to the Department of Justice.
The Education Department clarified in fact sheets that in the agreements announced Tuesday, it “will continue to perform all statutorily required duties and responsibilities.”
“The Trump Administration has been clear: as we scale back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Tuesday.
The administration has sought to do away with the 46-year-old department as part of Trump’s quest to return education “back to the states.” That push continues despite much of the oversight and funding of schools already occurring at the state and local levels.
Congress created the Department of Education, and only Congress has the authority to abolish the agency.
Special education
On a background call with reporters, a senior department official said OSERS “will maintain its independent statutory functions without interruption to vigorously enforce compliance with all of OSERS programs.”
OSERS is responsible for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities. The umbrella unit OSERS includes the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.
The official added that “students will not lose any rights, including their right to a free appropriate public education,” adding that “no agreement can alter the rights that students with disabilities are afforded under federal law.”
“In coordination with and at the direction of OSERS, HHS will support meaningful stakeholder outreach; grant administration; enforcement, compliance, and monitoring activities; annual performance determinations and assessments; collection, reporting, and analyzing of data for monitoring compliance; and drawdowns of Federal funds,” according to a fact sheet.
Civil rights oversight
Meanwhile, Education’s agreement with the DOJ is intended to “support and bolster the federal government’s enforcement of federal civil rights laws,” a senior department official said.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, is tasked with investigating civil rights complaints from students and families.
Under the agreement, “OCR will utilize the Civil Rights Division to evaluate, investigate and resolve complaints filed under the laws enforced by OCR,” the official said.
The official also stressed that under the interagency agreement, OCR “retains management and leadership of OCR in accordance with federal law.”
Education will also partner with the DOJ on student privacy protection, in which the Justice Department will “review complaints alleging privacy act violations, conduct necessary investigations and recommend potential resolutions,” per a fact sheet.
In another agreement, the DOJ will “provide technical assistance” in training and advisory services regarding the desegregation of public schools, according to a fact sheet.
‘This isn’t efficiency — it’s chaos’
The announcement sparked fierce condemnation from Democratic members of Congress, labor unions and advocacy groups Tuesday.
Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, the union representing Education Department workers, said the interagency agreements regarding special ed programs and civil rights enforcement “will leave our most vulnerable students and families who have been shut out of our education system without the services they need and without protection when they face discrimination,” in a Tuesday statement.
“This isn’t efficiency — it’s chaos,” Gittleman added. “Secretary McMahon is yet again targeting historically underserved students, eroding public trust, and sowing dysfunction for the federal employees who are trying to do their jobs on behalf of the public.”
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that “instead of helping kids get a great education, this administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the Department of Education,” in a Tuesday statement.
“It’s an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades of hard-won progress for students,” Murray added. “More kids with disabilities will be denied the education they are entitled to by law, and more college students who were harassed or assaulted will go without the justice they are owed.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the country, said the decision “will have dire, real-world consequences.”
“Congress — the only body that can legally take such actions — has refused to follow the whims of the White House when it comes to abolishing the Education Department,” Weingarten said. “And parents, educators, students, and the disability and civil rights communities are rising up — and will fight in every way possible to reverse this in the courts, at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion.”
By Shannon Heckt, Charlotte Rene Woods, Nathaniel Cline, Samantha Willis Virginia Mercury
The state Capitol building in Richmond. Lawmakers must reconcile the budget by June 30 to avoid a state government shutdown. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)
With a June 30 deadline looming before a state government shutdown, Virginia legislators have released new budget proposals, the latest actions in a long-simmering debate over the state spending plan that has deadlocked over whether data centers should keep being exempt from the state’s sales and use tax.
Virginia House of Delegates leaders presented their updated budget proposal Friday, revamping their $74 billion funding plan based on a new revenue forecast ordered by Gov. Abigail Spanberger last month. The House budget no longer includes environmental standards that data centers would have to meet to keep the exemption, which saves the industry nearly $2 billion annually.
Hours after the new House budget was unveiled, Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, divulged an updated Senate budget proposal, with scant details, on social media.
While Lucas didn’t outline the particulars of the plan, she said it included a 4% raise for teachers, $345 million for health and human services initiatives including food assistance for low-income Virginians and a $100 “fair share” rebate for individuals.
Here’s how each chamber plans to address key issues in the next two-year state budget.
Chambers still at odds over data centers
The data center sales and use tax exemption remains the biggest bottle neck on state budget negotiations.. The state currently forgoes an average of $1.6 billion annually by allowing the industry to not pay the 5.3% state tax on their computer equipment and server racks.
Lawmakers in the House of Delegates, including Speaker Don Scott, consider the exemption a strong driver for union electrical and construction jobs, whose workers build the facilities that make major investments on the local level. The House’s previous budget would keep the exemption in place and require data centers to use cleaner back up generators, improve their energy efficiency, and take other environmental steps to keep the tax break.
The House’s updated budget preserves the exemption through 2035 and eliminates the environmental standards. Instead, the House proposed creating a commission made up of legislators and stakeholders to examine data centers’ energy use and how the industry impacts the state and local tax revenues.
A similar report was released by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in 2024. But Spanberger, who supports the House’s plan, said the new commission would dig deeper and produce more in-depth reports that would help drive policy decisions in the next regular session of the General Assembly.
Concerning the proposed commission’s focus, Spanberger said Friday, “We want a little bit more help in understanding if we’re making good choices for our communities. (Such as) rules of the road, best practices, whether it’s setbacks or noise reductions, limits on diesel generators, requirements for battery backup.”
The Senate has not released the full context of their new updated budget proposal but it includes a “tiered state impact fee,” Lucas said in her social media statement. The fee would be placed on the facilities according to their generator type and their energy capacity. Lucas said the system would generate an estimated $1.7 billion in tax revenue for the state but didn’t detail how. Her office did not have further details of the proposal available for clarification on Monday.
Lucas also said the new Senate budget includes funding for a work group to study the tax exemption and other potential protections for ratepayers and local communities, similar to the house’s proposed commission.
Cannabis market still hazy
After Spanberger vetoed bipartisan legislation to create a retail market for recreational cannabis, House lawmakers said Friday that the proposal has been added to their updated budget.
Few details were available Friday about the weed market plan, spearheaded by Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, but he confirmed “we have a deal, and it’s just a matter of finishing the legal edits” of the retail market framework. Krizek said more details would be released in a joint press conference with Spanberger on Tuesday.
House lawmakers also added “$865,000 each year from the general fund and four positions to support workload increases” in the The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Weights and Measures to their updated spending plan, “related to the establishment of an adult-use recreational cannabis market.”
The overview of the new Senate budget shared by Lucas didn’t include the cannabis framework. However, the chamber passed SB 542, the companion measure to the House bill which would create the marketplace. And the Senate ’s two-year budget pitched before the end of this year’s legislative session includes over $12 million for the operation of the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority over two years.
Sometimes errors in overpaying or underpaying households arise from paperwork mistakes by government staff or outdated information from beneficiaries. A federal law passed last summer mandates states drop their error rates.
That same law also entails verification changes to Medicaid, which is estimated to put thousands of Virginians at risk of losing coverage and add financial strains to hospitals.
These shifts are why the state budget proposals from both chambers include money to help streamline compliance for social service workers around the state and mitigate insurance drop offs.
The new proposal from the House maintains a $2.4 billion increase to fully fund Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program forecasts. It would also add $39 million to partially restore proposed cuts to Medicaid and CHIP.
House lawmakers earmarked $3 million to support social service staff compliance with the new SNAP and Medicaid federal standards.
Where a previous version of the House budget entailed a $5 million increase in funding for the state’s free clinics, the new draft increased it to $13 million. An already “strained safety net,” free clinics are bracing for an influx in uninsured patients as people lose Medicaid or ACA and are a key partner for hospitals to reduce caseloads in emergency rooms.
A holdover from the chamber’s previous proposal, lawmakers would direct $79.1 million towards a state-level version of the expired Affordable Care Act subsidies that Congress let expire last year.
“We’ve never had this much of an onus on the state before,” Henrico Democratic Del. Rodney Willett, who chairs the House’s Health and Human Services Committee, said in a previous interview. “It will take a lot of work with the people, processes and systems to go with that.”
Over 33,000 Virginians and counting have dropped their ACA insurance so far this year amid rising premiums. Of Virginia’s roughly 400,000 ACA clients, about 100,000 have been estimated to have lost the subsidies.
Likewise, the Senate has its ideas for addressing the federal fallout too.
Its newest version still includes $200 million for a state-level ACA subsidy along with a special enrollment period for people who dropped off and want to sign back up for insurance.
Health and human services work in the state would receive $345 million and would address a range of programs, from Medicaid to SNAP to developmental disability waiver rates.
It’s unclear how that will be divided up as the Senate had not fully released its next proposed version of the budget by the time of this publication. Initially, the chamber had settled on $135 million for SNAP, with lawmakers assuming the state cannot drop below a 10% error rate.
More recently, the chamber suggested $190 million to offset future rate increases in state employee health insurance premiums.
Housing support boosted
As a flurry of housing bills passed the legislature and were signed into law by the governor, both budget proposals entail funding to help get them off the ground — but they differ in how that should happen.
The House’s new draft would invest an additional $20 million into the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. The program offers loans for low-income housing projects and provides grants to organizations that serve unhoused people. The additional boost brings the House’s earmark for the fund up to $195 million over the next two years.
The House also wants to add $14 million over the next two years to support organizations that work with unhoused populations or help people at risk of homelessness.
As state lawmakers have refined Virginia’s Eviction Reduction Program, the House proposes $11.5 million in new resources for it, bringing total support to $18.5 million over the biennium.
On housing, the preview of the Senate’s forthcoming new budget draft entails $110 million for housing-related initiatives “including eviction reduction, weatherization programs, and Housing Trust Fund deposits.”
K-12, school construction funding reflects uncertainty
Local governments and school leaders are waiting on the budget to be finalized to decide how they will be able to cover teacher pay raises, and how much those raises will be. The legislature’s dueling spending plans also address another key concern: covering construction and modernization costs for the upcoming school year.
The House’s revised budget proposes a 3% raise for state and state-supported employees, including teachers, over the next two years, while the new Senate budget includes a 4% increase aimed at moving Virginia toward the national average teacher salary.
“With inflation being over 4%, a 3% raise does not really end up being a raise, it’s a pay cut in practice, and the average teacher would lose money in buying power,” Carol Bauer, president of the Virginia Education Association, said.
In the area of school construction, the House’s revised proposal includes an additional $299 million for school construction grants, bringing the biennial total to $519 million.
In contrast, Lucas’ overview of the updated Senate budget did not mention school construction grants. In February, the body approved a plan to allocate $172 million from the Literary Fund to the School Construction Fund for construction and renovation grants.
However, the Senate’s plans for the grants and the School Construction Fund remain uncertain, because its funding relied on expected casino tax revenues under the chamber’s previous budget.
Additionally, the House is now proposing to move the $172 million originally from the Literary Fund to cover teacher retirement costs, adding to the unpredictability.
Both chambers still proposed expanding a 1% sales tax to pay for construction costs; however, the House version goes further, permitting jurisdictions in Planning District 8, or Northern Virginia, to use these funds for transportation projects to address public transit needs in that region.
Among other notable budget moves, the House announced that the previously proposed $400 million one-time flexible funding was removed and replaced by a $98.4 million one-time supplement for at-risk student programs.
The amended House budget returned $10.1 million in unused laboratory school funds to the state’s main funding pool.
Both budget proposals are similar in that they fund the state’s special education line item: the House proposes $148.4 million, compared to the $150 million Lucas mentioned in her letter about the Senate’s revamped plan.
The delayed completion of the budget “puts hardship on school districts trying to get contracts out, puts a hardship on folks knowing what their actual compensation is going to be for the next year, and so we honestly would like things to get settled,” Bauer said.
House meets this week, Senate the next
The House reconvenes Thursday and the Senate is scheduled to meet in Richmond June 22. The chambers must reconcile their spending plans and approve a new budget before the June 30 deadline, or a state government shutdown — the first in the state’s history — will ensue.
