Virginia Education Association slams McDonnell's cuts, 28,500 jobs on the chopping block....

Virginia Education Association President Kitty Boitnott said Gov. Bob McDonnell is balancing the budget on the backs of our school children, saying the potential cuts could trigger 28,500 jobs lost.

Here's the text of the release:

Virginians should be shocked by the degree to which Virginia’s budget is being balanced at the expense of investment in K-12 public education. We are very disappointed that Governor McDonnell has chosen to balance the budget on the backs of Virginia's school children.

The Governor asserted in his remarks that K-12 was a “better target for cuts” based on the premise that Higher Education and Public Safety has been cut by 14% while K-12 has been spared. This assertion is false. Senate Finance Committee staff, in their November retreat acknowledged that K-12 state funding has already been reduced by 15% since 2008:

There was a 15% reduction in GF K-12 funding in the last biennium. For a jobs Governor, he has chosen to facilitate the layoffs of thousands of school employees and to deny our children the educational opportunities they need to compete for jobs in today's and tomorrow's economy.

As we indicated previously, we project that the state share for 18,182 positions is eliminated in the introduced budget.

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.

This is certainly a very sad moment for Virginia, and it represents an equally sad start for Governor McDonnell. We hope this is not a sign of what is in store for public education for the next four years.

Comments

[Average American Eagle]

Why is cutting education money so easy to do for Gov. Mc Donnell? Do Conservatives think education is not important, but over spending for military is. If your one of those who think that the amount of money spent on education is wasted, then blame yourself for not learning all you could have in school, not your teachers! You wish to talk about wasted tax dollars start with the 761 military installations, around the world and what they cost the US tax payer every year. We have 124 installations in Japan, 38 on Okinowa alone and 100 in Italy just to mention a few. You can't tell me that some of those bases/installations couldn't be closed at a tremendous tax savings. Bring those service men and women back to the US where they could be spending their pay here instead of Italy or Japan helping our own economy instead of theirs. By the way if can can read this message, blame a teacher!

[Len H]

Governor Kane had a balanced approach to cuts and revenue increases. Even his cuts would have been painful. These cuts are intolerable. Under McDonnell we will see Virginia fall behind in education and other areas.

Len
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