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RICHMOND, Va. — As House Republicans stonewall budget negotiations on the final day of Virginia’s fiscal year 2023 over their refusal to meet the Senate budget’s historic $1 billion preK-12 school funding investments, Freedom Virginia today released a video featuring highlights from the organization’s 5-stop “Show Me Your Values” statewide mobile billboard tour. Together with local leaders in all corners of the Commonwealth, General Assembly members urged adoption of the Senate budget to prioritize school funding over the House’s tax giveaway for corporations and the rich.
“The choice in budget negotiations is clear: we can support our kids’ academic growth and achievement, or we can advance a tax scheme that shortchanges our schools and benefits the wealthiest Virginians,” said Freedom Virginia’s Executive Director Rhena Hicks. “Virginians have spoken clearly that they want to use this one-time opportunity to make an historic investment in our schools, not continue tax breaks for the wealthy. It’s time for legislators to stand up and support the full $1 billion increase in school funding in the Senate budget package, which will ensure that we pay our teachers more, and that we give our students across the state more instructional support and counseling.”
The 5-stop tour was a response to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s call for legislators to send him a budget. The Senate budget contains an additional $1 billion in funding for public schools, while the House budget contains $1 billion in tax giveaways for corporations and the rich.
New reports from The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis offer a comparative analysis of the House and Senate budgets’ impact on local school districts for the budget tour stops in Virginia Beach, Loudoun County, the Greater Richmond region, Harrisonburg, and the Peninsula region.
The video can be viewed and shared HERE.
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