Virginia Democrats are looking to raise the funding caps of school maintenance staff – WVTF

Already in 2008, when the country entered a recession, countries such as Virginia took measures for strict savings to help balance their books. But some of these cost saving measures live today, even when Commonwealth raises billions in excess money.

Monica Hatchenson, the parent of Henriko County, said the children he sees at their school need help – more help than they get at the moment.

“As a parent, I worry about the safety of my children every day. We need the support staff to help mental health, resolve conflicts in trauma, recovery practices, and more, “Hutchson said at a press conference on Thursday.” The same society writes up most of those who need maintenance staff. ”

School maintenance staff include porters, advisers, security and other gap filling positions. The localities have covered the costs so far, but have long asked the state to pay more than the burden.

The Senator Mami Locke was in the House when the cap was put in place, and she was waiting for a day when she could finally apply it.

“It had to be temporary, temporary,” Locke said. “But here we are 16 years later, and we finally removed this temporary cap.”

In particular, the change increases the number of maintenance staff to about 28 per 1000 students, compared to 24. The estimated price? Over $ 200 million a year.

Republicans worry that the price may be too high, especially since the state works to repeat its entire formula for financing education. Here is a delegate Mike Cherry at a recent meeting of the Home Education Committee.

“There are at least two commissions that are there working on the school financing model to improve it, and I think it can be a little premature in this case,” Cherry said.

The Virginia Ministry of Education also spoke against the efforts of the meeting of this committee. Like Cherry, they first support the change of the funding formula. This may not be good for removing the cap, although the funding provided both in the budget of the chamber and in the Senate, but one version of the bill received bilateral support for the house floor last week. Now I’m heading to Shete.

This report provided by Virginia’s public radiobecame possible with the support of Virginia Education AssociationS