Speaking of the VA Cost Cutting Blog (see previous post), here’s a topic I wish the contributors would address: Virginia’s Standards of Quality. The little-understood SOQs are so complex they make most peoples’ eyes glaze over. The press writes next to nothing about them, and legislators are apparently terrified to touch them. Yet SOQs are one of the most aggressive drivers of government spending in Virginia — and legislators have little control over them.
In a nutshell: The SOQs set the formula that distributes about 90 percent of all state contributions to local education. This “input” driven model sets the staffing standards for the number, ratio and compensation of teachers, aides, guidance counselors, administrators, etc. in Virginia schools, as well as other educational costs. Not only does this statist, top-down system eliminate any staffing flexibility on the part of local school systems, it “re-benchmarks” the standards every two years, adding huge new costs — more than $1 billion each biennium — that must be borne by the state.
This monstrosity runs on auto-pilot. A handful of bureaucrats who understand the SOQ formula crank out the new standards every two years, and legislators are compelled to find the money to meet them. As a consequence, the Governor of Virginia and the General Assembly have little latitude in launching new educational initiatives because the SOQ standards have the first call on any new educational dollars.
I’ve written about SOQs in my latest column, “The ABCs of SOQs.”
For a detailed critique of the SOQs, readers should consult an excellent report by Lil Tuttle with the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, “Education Funding in Virginia: Aligning Dollars to Achievement Priorities.”
