House budget could take millions from rural schools

[TexasTowelie]

BRISTOL — The proposed Virginia House of Delegates budget would pull nearly $5 million from impoverished rural school districts and redistribute the funds to mostly wealthier areas, according to the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia.

Lawmakers in Richmond presently have three spending plans: a governor’s budget that puts more money into the At-Risk Add On program aiding divisions with higher poverty rates, a House plan that would strip many of those funds away and apportion more lottery funds for education and a Senate version that also reduces total funding.

“In the House budget, they increase the lottery funding at the expense of the At-Risk Add On,” said Bristol Virginia Superintendent Keith Perrigan, who also serves as president of the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia.

Lottery funds are allocated on a per-pupil basis, so divisions with more students receive more money.

Read more: https://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/general_assembly/house-budget-could-take-millions-from-rural-schools/article_664d72c1-5ea1-5bd1-a022-6ba9c2ffabf9.html

[bottomofthehill]

1. Rural schools with few students

This is not a transfer of wealth for the sake of just taking the money. There is tremendous growth in the numbers of students in Northern Virginia. Fairfax County alone has about 170,000 students in the school system. The rural school student population is getting smaller both in real numbers and as a percentage of the state student population. The money is going to where the students are.