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Recent State and Local Education News
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
March 13, 2018
The Richmond region has made modest gains in some key measurements of education, jobs and quality of life over the last few years, according to a new report by the Capital Region Collaborative.
However, the region still lags behind some of its peer regions across the country in some key measurements.
The report also includes a survey of local residents showing that a majority of people think more needs to be done to improve education, transportation and access to basic needs for all residents.
Using data drawn from various sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the report showed incremental progress in some areas of education, employment and income.
For instance, the percentage of the population with a high school diploma rose to 90 percent in 2016 compared with 88.4 percent in the previous year, and the percentage of area residents between ages 25 and 64 with a bachelor’s degree rose to 39 percent in 2016 from 36 percent in 2014.
About 47 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in the region are enrolled in private or public preschool programs. “This number has increased slightly from our 2016 report, but we are still lagging behind some of our peers,” Hall said. Peer cities with higher pre-school enrollment include Raleigh, N.C., and Hartford, Conn.
Virginia named top state for higher education for the fourth year in a row
ABC 3 (WHSV)
March 8, 2018
Virginia is ranked the number one state for higher education for the fourth year in a row according to the website smartasset.
The rankings are compared by looking at different specifications like student-to-faculty ratio and return on investment
In the Shenandoah Valley, there are many different options for higher education from state school systems, to private colleges and community colleges.
Bridgewater College Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Abbie Parkhurst said Virginia is the fourth state for return on investment when looking at long-term earning after graduation from college.
Germanna math teacher named one of Virginia’s best
The Free-Lance Star
March 10, 2018
Patricia Parker, assistant professor of mathematics at Germanna Community College, was one of 12 Virginia educators recognized last week by the governor as a recipient of the 32nd annual Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, research, and public service.
The annual Outstanding Faculty Award program is administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and sponsored by Dominion Energy.
“These outstanding educators have devoted their lives to research and teaching.” said Gov. Ralph Northam. “Each has a proven track record of academic excellence and giving back to their communities. I am pleased to support these wonderful Virginia teachers and it is my privilege to recognize each of them with the Outstanding Faculty Award.”
Parker’s experience includes 27 years of teaching in Virginia at the middle school, high school and community college levels. She’s taught at Germanna for the past eight years.
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Recent National Education News
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At PTA, Betsy DeVos Talks School Safety, Does '60 Minutes' Damage Control
Education Week
March 13, 2018
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos used a speech at the National Parent Teachers Association conference Tuesday to make a sales pitch for President Donald Trump's school safety plan, which includes helping states to arm teachers. And she did some subtle damage control after her poorly-received "60 Minutes" interview, which aired Sunday and triggered hours of bad headlines and social media outrage.
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School Funding and the updated Local Composite Index
Written by Cassandra Boyd Willis
As the Virginia General Assembly works to come to a consensus on the budget bills, local school boards are finalizing their budgets. One component of the discussion is the adjustment of the composite index of local ability to pay.
School funding is comprised of three funding streams. . . federal, state, and local, with the latter two being the bulk. The composite index, sometimes called LCI for local composite index, determines an area's ability to pay the costs of education related to the Standards of Quality in Virginia or the local division and the state’s portion of expenses related to K-12 education in the commonwealth. The LCI is used to distribute funding equitably. It is comprised of three components that are each weighted differently:
- True value of real property with a weight of 50%
- Adjusted gross income with a weight of 40%
- Taxable retail sales with a weight of 10%.
The average daily membership as well as local population are also a part of the formula.
The index ranges from 0 to above 1.0, however, it is capped at 0.8 so that each locality receives at least 20% of its funding from the state. When an LCI decreases, it reflects that the local division will have a reduced local contribution. In this biennium, approximately 125 divisions saw an adjustment with 47 of them seeing a decrease. (The map below shows those with an increase in green and a decrease in red. Click on the map or
this link to view an interactive version of the map.)
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How does that translate into dollars and cents? Let’s take, for example, Brunswick County Public Schools. The new LCI is .3537 meaning Brunswick County pays for 35.37% of and the state plays 64.63%. The index reflects an increase from the 2016-2018 when the LCI in Brunswick was .2808 which represented an ability to pay 28.08%. This seemingly small adjustment may result in millions of dollars of revenue the locale needs to provide. This adjustment was due to a 10% increase in the average daily membership of schools and a 34.2% increase in the true value of property.
The LCI is not without criticism. One criticism is that it fails to take into account the poverty of a locality. In the instance of Richmond City Public Schools, 78% of the students in Richmond Public Schools, are economically disadvantaged vs. 32% for district neighbors, 64% for peers according to a report from
Bellwether Education Partners 2016 Report. In essence, critics say that the LCI does not take into account poverty and can be misleading on paper. The school board is advocating for the passage of budget amendments that give some cushion to districts where the LCI has increased. Listen to a
short sound byte related to the subject hosted by Community Idea Stations in January.
For more information on Virginia’s composite index of local ability to pay, please visit the
VDOE website.
Editors Notes:
Speaking of funding, see the
Poll Update below for the results of our standard question of whether the public thinks schools have enough resources.
Sincerely,
CEPI
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Poll Spotlight - Two-Thirds Say Funding for Schools is Not Enough
Based on our 2017-18 Winter Wilder School Public Policy Poll, a majority of Virginians (61 percent) feel that current funding for public schools is not enough to meet existing needs. However, this represents a five percentage point decline in the portion of Virginians saying funding for schools is not enough since last year’s poll, while the percentage saying they don’t know or refusing to answer the question increased to 17 percent.
Certain demographic categories were more likely to think that schools don’t currently have enough funding. Minority respondents (73 percent) were more likely to think funding for schools was not enough when compared to white respondents (56 percent).
Likewise there was a difference between women (67 percent) and men (54 percent). Democrats (70 percent) more often said schools did not have enough compared to their independent (65 percent) or Republican (47 percent) counterparts.
Differences based on age and education were also present:
- Respondents in the 35- to 44-year-old cohort (70 percent) were more likely than respondents in the 18- to 34-year-old (60 percent), 45- to 64-year-old (61 percent) and ages 65 and older cohorts (56 percent) to feel funding was insufficient.
- Respondents with a college degree were more likely at 69 percent to feel that schools didn’t have enough. This is compared to 63 percent of those with some college and 51 percent with a high school diploma or less who said the same.
A copy of the full results of the 2017-18 Wilder School's Public Policy Poll conducted by the
Office of Public Policy Outreach) is available
at this link.
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