Funding Formula Debate Can Wait

Virginia budget negotiators are still hard at work in Richmond – crafting a two-year spending plan and taking jabs at each other.

Much of the bickering revolves around teacher pay and an expansion of public preschool programs for poor children. In both instances, the Senate budget is preferable to the House version.

We urge Sen. William Wampler, the region’s lone representative on the negotiating team, to fight for a compromise that is closer to the Senate proposal.

Of most concern, the House budget would alter the school funding formula in a way that shifts the burden of teacher salaries from the state to local governments. Since payroll is the biggest expense for area school systems, this change would impact local taxpayers for years to come. If approved, it would likely lead to property tax increases.

Wampler, R-Bristol, is one of two Senate Republicans on the conference committee. He’s in an unusual position – ostensibly being asked to fight for a budget that reflects the priorities of Senate Democrats, who hold the majority, but which had little support among Senate Republicans. Wampler actually voted against the Senate budget.

But the Senate conflict was centered on plans to tap the state’s Rainy Day fund to help ease the budget crunch and on funding for the preschool expansion, one of Gov. Tim Kaine’s signature priorities. It didn’t involve a wholesale revision of the state’s method of funding schools – a complicated formula referred to as the Standards of Quality.

The funding formula discussion ought to be separate from the budget talks. House Republicans were wrong to slip the formula revisions into their version of the budget without giving the public an opportunity to evaluate the changes or lodge a protest.

The formula change could cost local school districts millions of dollars – not just this year but for the foreseeable future. Such a seismic shift in education policy deserves a more thorough debate than it has received.

House Republicans contend the present funding formula causes the state’s financial obligation to schools to increase each year. Tax-averse House members find this situation unacceptable. Some in the public will agree.

However, House Republicans owe it to the state to handle this matter in more transparent fashion. The funding formula debate should be delayed until 2009.

There were signs of progress Thursday. House Republican budget negotiators signaled that they were not going to press the funding formula alteration. However, they insist that without the funding change there will be no money for teacher pay raises this year. Senate negotiators, meanwhile, have found a way to fund small pay raises without changing the formula.

More work remains. It is not clear if a compromise spending plan will be done before the session is scheduled to end on Saturday. Lawmakers could be looking at a few days of overtime, but that’s a small price to pay to get the details right.

Finish the spending plan and save the school funding formula debate for next year.