Education in Virginia
The first thing to know is that public education is written into the State Constitution.
Article VIII. Education
Section 1. Public schools of high quality to be maintained.
The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth, and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained.
Meeting this Constitutional Mandate Requires Money
When the banks crashed the economy in 2008-2009 and the federal government stepped in to bail them out, states had to tighten their belts. Virginia changed the formula for calculating state contributions to public schools.
The consequences of reducing state funds for public schools differed based on the capacity of localities to make up the difference.
Some districts raised property taxes to make up the funds.
Other districts cut personnel and services because they didn’t have enough people to spread the tax burden around.
Many districts opted for a combination of raising local taxes and cutting personnel and services.
Local school districts in SD2 reflect the statewide disparities in capacity to make up for the loss of state funds. Populous communities like Rockingham County and Harrisonburg could raise local taxes. Rural areas like Bath and Highland Counties didn’t have the same ability to raise local taxes, and had to make deeper cuts.
Let’s Cut Taxes (for Corporations)!
While schools were being underfunded and struggling to meet the mandate to provide a high quality education for all students in Virgnia, Obenshain introduced SB1403 to eliminate all corporate income taxes. The impact would be a permanent underfunding of education and a host of other state services. You can see the projected impact here.
Opinion: When Obenshain talks about reducing taxes, he doesn’t always mean YOUR taxes. While the tax burden for schools was being moved to your property taxes, he wanted corporations, including publicly regulated electric suppliers and telecommunications companies, to pay nothing.
When SB1403 died in committee, Obenshain proposed a flat tax in 2016 (SB757). At least this proposal was for individual taxpayers and not corporations. However, it also would have significantly reduced state revenues and prevented resuming state support for public education.
Opinion: Pooling our tax money for common good purposes such as high quality public schools is a central part of good governance. How much of the income tax reduction would have been moved to other local taxes to support schools and other public services?
The 2023 Tax Surplus
In 2023, Virginia found itself with a $5 billion tax surplus. During the pandemic, corporations and families had received federal relief funds. Some corporations in Virginia did extremely well during the pandemic. Therefore, they paid more in taxes.
Obenshain joined Governor Youngkin in calling for a rebate to individuals and corporations. And they wanted to permanently reduce the corporate tax rate to 5%.
“Gov. Glenn Youngkin and House Republicans, pointing to the state’s multibillion-dollar surplus, have been arguing for an additional $1 billion in tax cuts beyond the approximately $4 billion Youngkin signed into law last year. Democrats, who control the state Senate, called the Republican-backed cuts that included a proposed corporate tax rate reduction a giveaway to big business at the expense of public schools and other priorities.” 13News
Hanging Out with ALEC
What is ALEC?
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) describes itself as “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” Visit their site here.
Commentary: They don’t see the irony of claiming to be non-partisan when their agenda is clearly partisan. Their funding sources are cloaked in mystery and their claims to represent “nearly one-quarter of the country’s state legislators and stakeholders from across the policy spectrum” are dubious. See here for one effort to uncover their funding sources and membership.
ALEC is a strong supporter of moving state education money from public schools to charter and private schools. An agenda that Obenshain has long carried in the Virginia Senate.
Promoting Charter Schools
Obenshain’s efforts to implement charter schools in Virginia have centered around replacing local control of schools with state control.
He started with a proposal to allow the State Board of Education to locate charter schools that would not be subject to the local school board’s oversight. 2012 SJ17, 2013 SJ302, 2016 SJ6 and SB588.
When those efforts failed, Obenshain changed the focus by proposing constitutional changes that would allow the State Board of Education to create regional charter schools. 2017 SB1283 and 2018 SB516. These efforts to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot have failed.
Teaching Religion in Schools
Obenshain has not made a secret of his commitment to a particular religion in public life. How does that relate to schools? In 2019 he supported a proposed law (SB1502) requiring public schools to offer an elective in Old Testament and New Testament.
SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:
“Public schools; electives on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament and the New Testament. Requires local school boards to offer as an elective in grades nine through 12 with appropriate credits toward graduation a course on the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament of the Bible or the New Testament of the Bible or a combined course on both. The bill requires the Board of Education to develop Standards of Learning and curriculum guidelines for such courses. The bill provides that the purpose of such courses is to introduce students to biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy. The bill prohibits students from being required to use a specific translation of a religious text when taking the courses and provides that such courses shall maintain religious neutrality and shall not endorse, favor, promote, disfavor, or show hostility toward any particular religion or nonreligious perspective.”
Commentary: The City of Harrisonburg is one of the most diverse municipalities in Virginia. It sits in the middle of Obenshain’s district. A comparative religions course would be an excellent addition to the local school curriculum. Singling out Old and New Testament as “prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy” belies the underlying goal of setting one religious tradition above others. Regardless of the claim to religious neutrality.
Real Mark Obenshain 