Education
Standards of Quality: SB 490 implements the Virginia Board of Education’s 2021 Standards of Quality to invest in K-12 schools across the Commonwealth. McClellan’s bill would set minimum staffing levels for every school: requiring a full-time principal in every elementary school, 1 assistant principal for every 400 students, 1 school counselor and 1 support personnel for every 250 students, and ratios for English Learner teachers and reading specialists based on need. McClellan’s bill would also address mental health and loss of learning, with increased support staff and an expanded Enhanced At-Risk Add On fund distributed to divisions for instructional interventions based on their concentrations of students in poverty. Del. Jeffrey Bourne (D-Richmond) introduced a companion bill in the House.
School Construction: Senator McClellan introduced four bills recommended by the bipartisan Commission on School Construction and Modernization, which was created by a law she passed in 2020. Senator McClellan chairs the Commission, which recommended several measures to address Virginia’s long overlooked school construction, renovation, and maintenance needs. McClellan’s school construction bills include:
- SB 471 adopts changes to the state Literary Fund to make more money available to local school divisions through loans with lower interest rates than currently allowed by law;
- SB 473 creates The School Construction Fund and Program and strengthening school construction funding through the Literary Fund;
- SB 472 allows all localities in Virginia to impose a 1% increase in their sales tax, subject to voter approval and to be used solely for school construction or renovation. Under current law, such sales tax is only permitted in nine enumerated localities; and
- SB 481 creates incentives for local governing bodies and school boards to collaborate to set aside for the purpose of capital projects any funds appropriated to the school board by the local governing body that are not spent by the school board in any year.
- SB 472 allows all localities in Virginia to impose a 1% increase in their sales tax, subject to voter approval and to be used solely for school construction or renovation. Under current law, such sales tax is only permitted in nine enumerated localities; and