Keeping a lid on funding for school janitors, nurses, therapists and secretaries would save Virginia $754 million through fiscal 2012 at a time when stimulus dollars are drying up and shortfalls are growing, education officials said Thursday.
The Virginia Department of Education report gives a clearer picture of one of the key upcoming funding disputes as legislators prepare for another grueling budget season early next year, one that will be dominated by rooting out spending cuts.
During the 2009 session, legislators implemented a cap on state funding for jobs like janitors, nurses and secretaries, but were able to use a late infusion of federal stimulus money help local districts cover the loss. About 13,000 jobs were threatened at the time.
Maintaining that cap, which was backed by Gov. Tim Kaine but opposed by education advocates, will save $376 million in fiscal 2011, which begins next July, and $378 million the following year, according to the report.
That money will be increasingly valuable as stimulus funds dry up and shortfalls continue to grow. Virginia ended the fiscal year last month with a $300 million hole in its budget, a figure that most expect will grow as the recession wears on.
“Three hundred million dollars would be a piece of cake [to close], I think it’s going to continue to grow throughout the fall,” said Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
The General Assembly and governor are “clearly going to have to revisit” funding for school support, he said.
Lawmakers will have less of a federal windfall when they begin designing the two-year budget next year, according to Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle. About $293 million in stimulus will be available to cover support positions for fiscal 2011, about $70 million less than the current year, Pyle said.
Keeping the cap in place would be “a huge step backward,” said Virginia Education Association President Kitty Boitnott. She said cutting janitors would lead to unclean schools that jeopardize the health of students, for example, and cutting physical and occupation therapists would increase caseloads.
