Bill Text: VA HB1594 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Average teacher salary in the Commonwealth; national average.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 14-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-11 - Assigned Approps sub: Elementary & Secondary Education [HB1594 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2025-HB1594-Introduced.html
2025 SESSION
INTRODUCED
25101635D
HOUSE BILL NO. 1594
Offered January 8, 2025
Prefiled January 3, 2025
A BILL to establish a timeline and process for increasing the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth.
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Patron—Clark
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Committee Referral Pending
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. The Governor's introduced budget bills for the 2026 and 2027 Regular Sessions of the General Assembly shall propose funding for, and state funding shall be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act enacted during any regular or special session of the General Assembly during 2026 or 2027 to fund, the Commonwealth's share of compensation supplement incentives for Standards of Quality-funded instructional and support positions sufficient to increase the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth to at least the national average teacher salary by the end of the 2026–2028 biennium.
§ 2. In order to project the national average salary in fiscal year 2028 for the purpose of calculating the proposed and funded amounts as required pursuant to § 1, the most recent actual or estimated national average teacher salary published from the source used in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission's Virginia Compared to the Other States report shall be utilized but adjusted by the actual and forecasted percentage change in the United States Average Consumer Price Index for all items, all urban consumers (CPI-U).
§ 3. In order to project the current-year average teacher salary in the Commonwealth for the purpose of calculating the proposed and funded amounts as required pursuant to § 1, the most recent actual average teacher salary in the Commonwealth published by the source used in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission's Virginia Compared to the Other States report shall be utilized but adjusted to recognize prior compensation increases from the state, assuming that localities accept and implement a full match for Standards of Quality pay increases.
§ 4. The minimum compensation supplement that shall be proposed in the Governor's introduced budget bills and provided pursuant to the general appropriation act as described in § 1 shall be structured as follows: such supplement for the 2026 session shall provide one-half of the increase required pursuant to § 1 for fiscal year 2027 and such supplement for the 2027 session shall provide the remaining one-half of the increase required pursuant to § 1 for fiscal year 2028.
