Tracking Public Education and Workers’ Rights

Virginia General Assembly 2022 | January 12th — March 11th

Homeroom

Published in

HomeroomVa

6 min readJan 12, 2022

Created by Richmond For All’s Public Education Campaign Committee

Progressive forces need to balance defensive and offensive strategy when dealing with elections, elected officials, and legislative bodies. Offensive strategies allow us to get wins and advance the terrain for future fights. Defensive strategies prevent wins by corporate or reactionary forces, preventing them from advancing terrain that weakens the interests of the multiracial working class. The emergence of a coalition between reactionary right-wing forces and corporate interests in Virginia calls for a predominantly defensive strategy in 2022.

Following sweeping losses for the Democratic Party in the 2021 election cycle, Democrats now control only the Senate — easily the most conservative body in statewide governance, even during periods of Democratic majorities. This means that Democrats as a bloc will be on the defensive in 2022, and corporate democrats are likely to use Republican control as an excuse not to take on corporate interests and as an opening to weaken progressive voices within the Democratic Party coalition to re-establish corporate control following McAuliffe’s defeat. Working people can expect to see three major trends this session.

First, a coordinated attack on civil rights, particularly on the rights of trans students, people with disabilities, and censorship of progressive issues in public school curriculum. This assault is backlash against three years of Democratic control in the state, and will primarily mobilize reactionary and white supremacist interests who have shifted further right following the 2020 uprising and state supreme court and legislative wins protecting trans students.

Second, a coordinated attack on workers, especially the due process rights of educators. This attack will be led by corporations seeking to crack down on workers in the wake of the pandemic who seek to leverage backlash from parents who struggled during virtual learning early in the pandemic. Anti-teacher and anti-worker rhetoric will galvanize these forces to push for anti-worker policies statewide.

Third, a loss of community-driven democratic control of schools and mass privatization, including bills designed to override local authority regarding expansion of charterization, school safety, and public health initiatives. This campaign will deploy backlash against the Defund the Police movement to weaken community control in districts that have ended their MOU with local police and bolster corporate encroachment on community governance through forced charterization and voucher expansion. We expect a campaign aimed at mass privatization of public school infrastructure, including voucher expansion to siphon public funding into private schools and the establishment of state bodies to forcibly expand charterization into districts where locally-controlled boards have resisted it.

When our communities are on the defensive, progressive social movements have two roles: 1. supporting Democrats in defending progress made in areas like trans student rights and expanded labor rights for educators, and 2. tracking the votes of corporate Democrats and holding them accountable to stand up to right-wing and reactionary political campaigns.

Strategies for a Youngkin Adminstration

Key Concerns:

Loss of public education funding, particularly through vouchers and tax cuts
Expanded charterization, forcing schools to compete in lieu of fully-funding whole districts
Criminalization of students, particularly students of color, trans students, and students with disabilities
Attacking educator advocacy through weakened teacher unions
Classroom censorship
Erosion of community-driven democratic governance and parental engagement
Corporate assault on progressive social movements

Allies to support in 2022: As always we expect to see strong pushes on behalf of working-class families from the labor movement and progressive coalitions that support statewide campaigns on labor and education. On the labor union front this includes the Virginia Education Association and United Campus Workers of Virginia. Progressive coalitions to check in with include Green New Deal Virginia and Fund Our Schools. Progressive champions elected to the House and the Senate will need support as they fend off attacks on hard-won progress while advancing the terrain for future wins. Elected officials who are already positioning themselves as strong advocates for labor and education in 2022 include Jeion Ward, Elizabeth Guzman, and Sam Rasoul in the House and Jennifer McClellan and Ghazala Hashmi in the Senate.

Accountability in 2022: Assaults on public education have unfortunately been a bipartisan effort. Corporate lobbyists will run astroturf campaigns to advance charterization and privatization campaigns that mimic grassroots efforts. Attacks on working-class power and labor unions will be significant. Organizations that present themselves as people-first while advancing a corporate education reform platform include Teach For America, Allies for Education Equity, and the Virginia Growth and Opportunity Foundation, as well as regional employers who seek to exert undue influence over curriculum, like Amazon.com. Democrats who have failed in the past to stand up for labor unions and fully-funded high quality education include Dick Saslaw in the Senate.

The 2022 Budget

2022 State Budget hearings have already closed, but budget season continues! You can find the 2022 Executive Budget Document here and the full budget for Virginia’s Office of Education here. 2022 budgetary priorities to watch out for include full funding for the revised Standards of Quality, elimination of the state’s cap on school support staff, and opposing vouchers and educational savings accounts. The former two are offensive priorities (meaning we are fighting to advance that terrain), the last a defensive priority (meaning we’re defending against cuts we oppose).

Bills to watch

We support:

SB 1 Paid family and medical leave program — If passed this would require the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administer a paid family and medical leave program with benefits beginning January 1, 2025.

SB 126 ELL Staffing Ratios — Requires state funding to be provided to support new divisionwide ratios of English learner students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions.

SB 157 Competitive Teacher Compensation — Declares it the goal of the Commonwealth that its public school teachers and all other individuals employed in Standards of Quality-funded positions be compensated at a rate that is competitive, defined as at or above the national average salary for the position, in order to attract and keep highly qualified individuals in such positions.

SB 159 Prohibits Higher Ed Debt Collection for Transcript & Diplomas — Prohibits public institutions of higher education from in any way using transcript or diploma issuance as a tool for debt collection.

We oppose:

SB 2 School principal incident reports — If passed this would increase criminalization of students by expanding mandated in-school referrals to law enforcement from felonies to felonies and misdemeanors

SB 36 School Incident Reports — Duplicate SB 2

SB 20 Treatment of transgender students — If passed this would eliminate the requirement for school district to adopt policies protecting the rights of trans and gender-nonconforming students.

SB 125 Regional charter school divisions — if passed this would supercede local authority to approve and deny chartization of school districts, making charterization possible at the state level.

HB 9 Probation and due process rights of educators — If passed this would weaken employment rights and due process for educators by expanding their probationary periods and reducing their rights and notice in disciplinary and termination hearings.

HB 12 Public school entry points & screenings — If passed this would increase criminalization of students and militarization of schools by mandating all schools reduce entry points, install metal detectors, and subject students to personal searches.

HB 37 School Police Mandate — If passed this bill would increase student criminalization by mandating School Resources officers in every district, including those that have already ended their MOU with local police.

Want to get more involved?

Track our bills in committee using the guide below! With this guide you can live stream committee meetings, check bill statuses in real time, and email committee members to advocate in favor or in opposition to the relevant legislation.