Courtesy of David Hicks
Courtesy of David Hicks
Appendix 14
Public Education
The delivery of public education (K-12) has a unique structure in the Commonwealth of Virginia. While the Constitution of Virginia mandates a system of public education in the state, local governments are responsible for the delivery of this service.
| Public school Courtesy of David Hicks |
School bus Courtesy of David Hicks |
Although the primary responsibility of managing the academic programs lies with a local school board (most are now elected), the programs must adhere to a variety of federal and state requirements and, most importantly, local school divisions do not have their own taxing authority. Thus, they must receive funding from the federal, state, and local governments for any monies above a small amount of fees and service charges.
Local governments are by far the largest funding source for local public school systems, and public school needs must compete with all the other demands for services funded by local governments. There is no statewide formula for how local governments allocate tax monies for education, but there is a formula that sets how Virginia distributes state funds to localities. Some local governments do negotiate methods of sharing local revenues with school districts but the funding decision often creates tensions among the various stakeholders.