RPS News Details

Following the release of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s FY24-26 budgets yesterday, RPS is dismayed to be facing a $5 million reduction in our current fiscal year’s budget and an almost-$21 million decrease in state funding for our next school year. 

These losses are formula-driven — they are partly a result of the rise in our Local Composite Index (LCI) calculation. The remaining losses are driven by technical updates to the funding formula, including the removal of a ‘hold harmless’ following the loss of sales-tax revenue from grocery sales. 

At the same time, however, the Governor’s budget fails to include any substantive new funding supporting the real needs of students across the Commonwealth and especially in places like Richmond where we have a diverse community of learners. We are doing them a disservice by not funding the infrastructure and services they need and deserve, like mental health staff supports, school construction and modernization, and additional English Learner teachers.

Overall, it does not provide the investment in public education that school divisions across the Commonwealth know and understand is desperately needed to recover from the pandemic and set all students — regardless of ZIP code — for success in the twenty-first century. 

We call on the General Assembly to amend the budget to ensure that high-need school divisions are supported and at a minimum, receive no less funding in FY24, 25, and 26 than what they approved in fall 2023.