Today, Governor McDonnell announced that he intended to support a budget amendment reversing Governor Kaine's proposal to freeze the Local Composite Index ("LCI"). This decision had the effect of denying Fairfax County $61 million of new education funding and nearly $150 million for all of Northern Virginia. I previously blogged about this in the following articles:
Governor McDonnell should be commended. While the LCI disadvantages Northern Virginia, it is an arrangement that Virginia's jurisdictions agreed upon after negotiations, litigation, and hours of work by hundreds of people. It is at least an impartial and predictable method of determining education funding on an annual basis.
When the Former Governor proposed to use old historically inaccurate data to calculate Fairfax County's school transfer, it harkened back to the days before Baker v. Carr when Fairfax County was denied fair representation in the General Assembly and Congress due to the Assembly's refusal to apportion representation based on actual population.
Governor McDonnell's decision signals to all jurisdictions in the Commonwealth that the existing formula will not be manipulated to benefit regional preferences. I am certain that given that many Hampton Roads jurisdictions and other parts of the Commonwealth will not stand to benefit from reversing Former Governor Kaine's decision, it was a difficult decision for the Governor. I applaud Governor McDonnell for doing the right thing.
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Thank you so much for your advocacy efforts - we NoVA parents really appreciate it.
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