(The Center Square) — The Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee recommends legislation to boost teacher pay, following the committee’s first meeting of the 2024 legislative session.
SB 104, sponsored by longtime senator and committee member Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, would deeply impact teachers’ livelihoods in the commonwealth and require an ongoing commitment from the state. It seeks to raise Virginia teachers’ salaries to at or above the national average.
Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, spoke up in favor of the bill.
“I have constituents in my community who are teachers working to sell donuts on the weekend just to make their mortgage. Other teachers who are working at the local car dealership on the weekends and the nights. This is a very welcomed bill,” Boysko said.
Representatives from the Virginia Education Association, The Commonwealth Institute and the Virginia Professional Educators testified briefly in support of the bill.
“We’ve had promises for decades now to get to the national teacher pay average, and we never have…. Inflation has eaten away at average teacher salaries in the state of Virginia and functionally today, teachers’ average salaries go less far than they did pre-pandemic,” said Chad Stewart, a policy analyst with the VEA.
“Unfortunately, when you combine the current relatively low pay for teachers in Virginia with our current relatively high cost of living and relatively good pay for other professionals, you find that Virginia still has the third-worst teacher pay penalty in the country,” said Laura Goren, director of research and education policy with The Commonwealth Institute.
Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, and Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, also voiced their support.
The motion to recommend and rerefer SB 104 to the finance committee passed 14-0.
Another bill introduced by Lucas, SB 105, also represents a significant boost to teachers’ paychecks for those who have obtained or maintained certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, raising the amount granted to them annually from $5,000 in the first year of their certification and $2,500 after that to $7,500 every year. It also proposes grants to help cover the costs of earning such certification.
The VEA, VPE and Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, spoke in favor of the bill, and the same motion passed for SB 105, 15-0.
