Culpeper schools could take at least $3.6M hit

What education administrators, teachers and advocates have feared has become official, as Gov. Bob McDonnell says he plans to cut $731 million in state support to local public school divisions.

That’s only part of his proposal, which includes deep, unprecedented cuts to public schools, the state government work force and health and welfare safety net programs in a $2.1 billion bid to balance a critically troubled state budget.

Culpeper County School Board Chairman George Dasher said that means between $3.6 and $4.4 million in state cuts for Culpeper, depending on whether the local composite index remains frozen for the next two years or is updated to reflect current assessments.

“We are in a wait-and-see mode right now. Any way we look at it, the magnitude of cuts we’re hearing is going to have a dramatic impact on our K-12 education system in Culpeper,” said Dasher, who’s traveling to Richmond today with two other board members to lobby legislators. “Reality is that we are going to see less revenue from the state. It’s a question of how much. Add either of these numbers to a local shortfall of $2.3 million and the picture is bleak.”

McDonnell recently recommended unfreezing the state’s local composite index that would possibly bring in $872,429 for Culpeper County Public Schools during fiscal year 2011.

The LCI formula, which is updated every two years, determines state and local education funding using complex indicators of a locality’s ability to pay. They are: property value, adjusted gross income, taxable retail sales, population and enrollment.

The amount announced Wednesday is about 35 percent of the $2.1 billion McDonnell plans to trim overall to help reconcile a $4 billion, two-year budget gap. It comes on top of more than $1.2 billion in K-12 education cuts proposed by former Gov. Tim Kaine.

Virginia School Boards Association executive director Frank Barham said the cuts would further place the burden of paying for public education on local school divisions, which are facing their own revenue shortfalls. Barham repeated previous warnings that schools would have to lay off tens of thousands of teachers, raise class sizes and cut programs.

Other cuts include five unpaid days off annually for state workers, closing five state parks and slashing programs that aid the homeless and prevent teen pregnancies.

“All the cuts gave me heartburn. All of them were difficult because I know that behind every cut there is a Virginian — somebody in this room or somebody out of the 7.8 million people we have — that might be affected by that,” McDonnell said after outlining his cuts at a news conference.

After weeks of private talks with senior legislators and the staffs of the House and Senate budget-writing committees, McDonnell detailed what he has recommended to them for reconciling a $4 billion shortfall in revenue the state projects through 2012.

The General Fund budget for fiscal 2010 is about $14 billion. House and Senate money committees report their new budgets for fiscal 2011 and 2012 on Sunday.