Working across the aisle is becoming a defining characteristic of Virginia’s work on student-centered education policies, and the legislature’s work in 2024 extended again that bipartisan legacy.
In his State of the State address earlier this year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin praised the state’s comprehensive early literacy policy, proposed the largest education budget in the state’s history and urged action on education-to-workforce pathways.
Virginia lawmakers delivered on many fronts, strengthening the state’s education system in 2024. From literacy instruction and career pathways to teacher pipeline improvements, the Commonwealth remains on a firm and steady path in supporting success for all its students.
Read on to learn more about the education policies Virginia adopted during the 2024 legislative session.
Last year, the Commonwealth built on its comprehensive 2022 Virginia Literacy Act, which passed with unanimous support, by expanding science of reading training for teachers and implementing strategies to identify and provide interventions for struggling readers in grades 4-8.
This session, Gov. Youngkin signed Delegate Carrie Coyner’s HB 647 and Sen. Louise Lucas’s SB 624 into law. These companion bills further improve provisions of the Virginia Literacy Act and include an explicit ban on harmful three-cueing literacy instruction and materials.
“Let’s spend our time on advancing our great workforce,” Gov. Youngkin said in his State of the State address.
Delegate Coyner agreed wholeheartedly, putting forth legislation to strengthen Virginia’s college and career pathways. The Governor signed both of her bills, which accomplish the following:
State leaders have long been exploring policies designed to attract and retain high-quality teachers. Unfortunately, a September 2023 report found that Virginia’s pandemic-era teacher shortages continue to create classroom challenges in many districts.
Gov. Youngkin’s proposed education budget included funding for teacher raises and bonuses. The state’s budget, which was passed by the General Assembly on May 15, includes a 3% raise for teachers in each of the next two fiscal years. In addition, the following two bills—both signed into law—simplify and create alternative pathways for content experts to become teachers.
In 2022, Gov. Youngkin proposed the creation of “laboratory schools,” an innovative concept allowing institutions of higher education to create unique and flexible learning programs for students in grades K-12. During a special session that year, the General Assembly appropriated $100 million to support the program. The first lab school opened its doors in January 2024, with six more schools recently approved by the Virginia Board of Education. Three additional lab schools were on the docket for the Board’s May 21 meeting.
Virginia’s state budget, passed by the legislature on May 15, contains an additional $100 million to support lab schools. The funding will go toward additional planning grants, start-up grants and per-pupil operating grants, all leading to more innovative learning opportunities for students across the Commonwealth.
Work remains for legislators on several additional priorities in the state, including improvements to the outdated school funding formula. Additional policy changes will be needed based on recommendations from work groups examining the state’s data systems and current career and technical education offerings for students. But for now, we can celebrate the positive steps Virginia policymakers took in 2024 to improve education for students across the Commonwealth.
