Well, it looks like the many forecasts of doom and budget profligacy on this blog were in vain. According to this morning’s RTD, Governor Northam will be asking for an additional $1.2 billion over two years for K-12. That is about half of the total cost of earlier projections of SOQ benchmarking costs and the additional money the Board of Education recommended. And it includes money for teacher salary increases, which was not included in the earlier estimates. It would seem that the Governor does not feel bound to go along with all the recommendations of his BOE.
The entire budget proposal will be released later today and the details will be available for poring over. Based on the newspaper report, the Governor may be proposing to roll into the SOQ some funding that was previously supplemental. As I have commented earlier, that could be a concern.
— Dick Hall-Sizemore
