Take Action:
Fund our public schools in the final budget!
Budgets are where lawmakers show their true priorities, and this year they have an opportunity to make a huge difference in our students’ lives by investing strongly in our public schools in this year’s budget. More funding for our public schools would mean updated school buildings, more support staff, smaller class sizes, and an all-around better education for our young people.
To pay for some of this support for our students, lawmakers should let the tax break for data centers expire in 2027. It’s time for the wealthy corporations that own those data centers to pay their fair share, and letting their tax breaks expire would bring in over $1 billion in total revenue and more than $100 million in revenue that would go towards public school funding.
Contact your legislators below to urge them to make sure public school funding is a priority in this year’s final budget. In the box provided, please share any details on why you personally care about this issue – sharing your own story is a great way to persuade legislators to take your side. Feel free to customize the subject line and message however feels right to you!
Stop blocking local communities from using sales tax for school construction!
When the heat doesn’t work, the ceiling drips, or there’s not any nearby outlets to charge the school laptops, children can’t focus on learning and thriving. And without adequate revenue, we cannot provide adequate school funding. Currently Virginia law bans communities across our state from having the freedom to raise the revenue needed to support their neighborhood schools.
Many Virginia schools desperately need infrastructure investments. More than half of our school buildings are over 50 years old and back in 2021 JLARC estimated that our schools needed at least $25 billion in facilities maintenance and upgrades – a number that has increased with inflation and facility deterioration.
Currently only 9 localities are authorized to ask their voters if they want to have a tax – which isn’t fair. We need to authorize all counties and cities to ask their voters, through referendum, if they want to have an additional local sales and use tax at a rate not to exceed 1 percent, with the revenue used only for capital projects for the construction or renovation of schools. Legislation to accomplish this passed last year on a very broad bipartisan basis but was vetoed by Governor Youngkin, so it’s important that we pass it again this year and actually get it enacted.
Fund Our Schools is a statewide coalition of parents, students, teachers, and organizations who believe that every child in every zip code across the Commonwealth of Virginia should have access to a high-quality public education. The campaign officially launched in December 2019, and our advocates quickly began mobilizing and organizing across the state at budget hearings and throughout the General Assembly legislative session.
We are calling on lawmakers to fully and fairly fund public schools across the Commonwealth. The Virginia General Assembly has failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to adequately fund its public schools. Our campaign utilizes and values all of the advocacy tools that our organizational members and individual supporters bring to the coalition work. Our priorities are grounded in racial equity and and center the voices of students, parents, teachers, and those most impacted by underfunded schools.
1) Where to Start
One of the most powerful advocacy strategies is to share your own experiences and to express your support for public education with your elected officials. Find out who your lawmakers are and their contact information here.
2) Next Step
Email and ask for a brief meeting to express your priorities for school funding and ask them where they stand. In your message, you can also include a statement of your support for school resource equity in Virginia.
3) What to Bring Up
The need to adequately staff and fund our schools is an ongoing issue in the state. Click here to learn more about school funding topics. Don’t be afraid to print and bring the fact sheets with you to the meeting!