Bill aims to replace Charlottesville school funding

RICHMOND – Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, has introduced two budget amendments that seek to protect $2.6 million worth of state funding for Charlottesville schools that is at risk of being sent instead to Albemarle County’s school system.
Toscano’s measures, he said, are meant to be an alternative to an earlier budget amendment proposed by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, that would alter Virginia’s school funding formula to increase funding to Albemarle by $2.6 million and reduce Charlottesville’s allocation by an equivalent amount.
Bell’s measure aims to account for Charlottesville and Albemarle’s revenue-sharing agreement enacted in 1982 that resulted in Albemarle transferring money to the city annually in exchange for a promise that Charlottesville would annex no additional part of the county.
The problem, as Bell sees it, is that the state’s school funding formula – known as the composite index – is shorting Albemarle County because the formula does not take into account the amount that Albemarle must pay the city.
“With the change, the composite index would more accurately reflect the county’s ‘ability to pay,’” Bell said. “I’m hopeful that committee members will see it the same way.”

Toscano’s two budget amendments, however, would change the funding formula in such a way that Albemarle receives more funding for schools but that does not penalize Charlottesville.
“My bill gets the help to Albemarle without hurting Charlottesville,” Toscano said.
One of Toscano’s proposals would adjust the composite index calculation for Albemarle County such that the county’s school system would receive an additional $2.6 million in the second year of the state’s two-year budget being considered now by lawmakers.
Toscano’s other budget amendment would change the composite index calculation so Albemarle would receive an additional $2 million.
Toscano said his measures face an uphill battle, as they carry a cost and the state is facing deep cuts to close a $4 billion revenue shortfall.
“They’re not going to mess with the composite index within this budget, at least I don’t think so,” Toscano said.

Bell agreed that Toscano’s budget amendments are longshots.
“The problem with both of them is that they both have a fiscal impact,” Bell said. “Given the state’s budget difficulties, the chance of any bill passing with such a large price tag is very low.”
Toscano lamented that the issue is driving a wedge between the city and the county.
“We’re all in this together,” he said. “What we need to be doing in this challenging budget is to stick together, not pull each other apart.”
Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said the city has hired a lobbyist to argue against slashing the city’s school funding in favor of Albemarle County. Charlottesville normally relies on legislative liaison David Blount from the regional Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commis-sion to represent the city’s interests before the General Assembly. On this issue, however, a lobbyist who represents all localities in the Charlottesville region wouldn’t work because the city and county have been pitted against one another, Norris said.

“We’d obviously be very disappointed to see the General Assembly approve a measure that would cut funding from our schools,” Norris said. “We’d much rather be talking about ways to work with the county rather than working against them.”
Norris pointed out that roughly half of students in Charlottesville’s school system are from families with incomes so low that they qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In Albemarle, on the other hand, 20 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
“You’d be taking money out of a high-needs school district and giving it over to a lower-needs school district,” Norris said.
Albemarle County School Board Chairman Ronnie Price did not return a call for comment Wednesday. When the School Board voted 4-3 in December to ask Bell to carry the legislation, however, several members argued that the revenue-sharing agreement is cheating Albemarle out of its money and wrongly giving it to the city.
“They have our money,” School Board member Jon Stokes said at the meeting. “We need money.”

Albemarle School Board member Brian Wheeler did not support asking Bell to introduce the budget amendment.
“Del. Bell’s approach takes the money directly from the city of Charlottesville. Del. Toscano’s approach takes the money from the rest of the state,” Wheeler said. “The rest of the state is probably not likely to help us out. … In the climate of county/city cooperation, David Toscano’s approach is more attractive. Unfortunately, I don’t think it has much of a chance.”