Three education bills proposed by Del. Atoosa Reaser (D-27) made it to the full House of Delegates for consideration this week after being approved by committees. They concern teacher contracts, English learner funding, and teacher training.
The first, which would change the state funding formula for English learner students, cleared the House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 22.
Reaser, a former Loudoun County School Board member, said HB 2032 is intended to address the below average funding that Virginia gives to support English learner students and bring it up to the standard recommended in a 2023 Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission report.
The report found that funding for English learner students should be set at 40%, instead of the approximately 19% that is happening now. The bill also directs the Department of Education to develop and implement a system for data collection on EL proficiency and expenditures and give a report on the findings by Sept. 1.
“Recent changes that have been proposed and are currently taking place in Virginia’s accountability system significantly raise the expectations for EL students. Virginia is setting some of the highest expectations for EL students in the country, but we are providing below average funding for their education at this point, and the disconnect is unsustainable and unfair, both to the students and to the schools that are working to support them,” Reaser told to the K-12 subcommittee on Jan. 14.
There were concerns from Del. Mike A. Cherry (R-74) that bill would clash with school funding rules established last year. Del. Sam Rasoul(D-38), however, noted that not every EL student is the same, and that the JLARC study said that the new funding would be used to “meet student where they are.”
A substitute bill passed from the Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee that struck the funding adjustment on the bill and kept the initiative to direct the study of English learner expenditures and literacy rates so that the information can be evaluated by a joint subcommittee.
Read the full article: https://www.loudounnow.com/news/reaser-s-education-bills-make-it-to-house/article_bc92db4c-da7b-11ef-80cf-03cf78cd2a86.html