Policy Wins

Since the Fund Our Schools coalition launched in 2019, our coalition has secured a number of wins to increase adequacy and equity in school funding, to fairly compensate educators, to ensure sufficient staffing in all public schools, and to ensure racial and ethnic justice in Virginia public education.

Here are some of the policy wins we have been able to secure:

• In 2025 we secured an additional $223 million to lift the Great Recession-era arbitrary cap (known as the “Support Cap”) that limited funding for essential support staff such as instructional aides, nurses, and custodians. This had been one of our goals since our founding in 2019 and many of our member orgs had been advocating to lift the cap for over a decade. 
• $53 million for a new state add-on for students with disabilities in 2025.
• Repeatedly blocking private school voucher programs proposed by Governor Youngkin.
• In 2024 we won a $370 million investment in the At-Risk Add On, which will supplement funding at high-poverty schools. Over the past several legislative sessions, FOS has fought to make increased funding for high-poverty schools a top priority.
• An additional $72 million in the 2024 budget to increase staff support for English Language Learners.
• We secured funding to lower the ratio of school counselors to students to 1:325, bringing Virginia closer to the nationally-recommended standard of 1:250.
• After the COVID-19 pandemic caused a statewide public school closure and dramatically decreased public school enrollment for the 2020-21 school year, we secured “no loss” protections that maintained current levels of state funding for schools, rather than penalize schools for pandemic-related drops in enrollment.
• We secured a 5% raise for teachers in both 2021 and 2022 as well as a 3% yearly raise for school staff in the 2024-2026 budget.
• We won passage of the School Equity and Staffing Act, which brought about $50 million each year in new state funding to hire school psychologists, school nurses, school social workers, and other specialized student support personnel.