Northern Virginia Delegation succeeds in breaking LCI freeze!

Kudos to the entire Northern Virginia delegation for convincing Governor McDonnell to “unfreeze” the formula used to distribute state aid to local school divisions. This change to the proposed budget calculation of the Local Composite Index (LCI) will bring as much as $61 million in new education funding to Fairfax County schools and nearly $150 million to all of Northern Virginia.

The original proposal would have used 2005 data rather than updating the formula with 2007 data, thereby denying Fairfax County Schools and other growing school districts their fair share of funding.

As you know, I have been working to further update the LCI to include cost factors like percent of ESOL students.  Even though the current index does disadvantage some Northern Virginia districts, it is an impartial and predictable method of calculating education funding on an annual basis. This action is an important bipartisan step towards balancing the Commonwealth’s budget.

Our House Democratic caucus has been focused on this issue since the 2010 session began. Governor McDonnell’s proposal, if enacted, provides an improved foundation for educational funding in Northern Virginia during the fiscal downturn.  Now we must look to our local governments to step up and protect our schools.

Kaye