Budget Update

On February 17, Governor McDonnell made public his proposal for reducing Virginia's budget. The Governor's plan calls for public education to be cut $731 million over the next two years. Cuts of this nature are potentially devastating to public school divisions throughout the Commonwealth. As various media outlets have reported, our school divisions must resort to cutting personnel in order to meet the drastic budget deficits that we are facing.

When the House of Delegates and Senate released their respective budgets last week, there was some positive news as the cuts do not appear as drastic; although, still significant. The House proposed reductions of $620 million while the Senate suggested cuts of $133 million. Regardless of the final outcome from the General Assembly, it is inevitable that our funding will be reduced for the next two years. The extent of those cuts is unknown at this point.