Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a new education plan Thursday that he said would help tackle the ongoing problem of pandemic-related learning loss among students across the state.
“Learning loss is incredibly hard to recover,” Youngkin said.
A budget that was just approved by state lawmakers Wednesday included nearly $420 million to combat learning loss.
Youngkin encouraged school districts to use 70% of the funding they receive from that chunk of money to establish targeted tutoring programs.
“That’s what that money is for, and it needs to be put to work quickly,” Youngkin said.
The programs would be specifically geared toward students in grades three through eight who have been struggling academically, and they would include small groups with a low tutor-to-student ratio of one-to-10.
“This will be for those students who are at risk of failing or who have failed,” Youngkin said. “They will receive three to five hours a week of intensive tutoring in math and in reading.”
“Grade three through eight Virginia students are still struggling to recover the learning loss from the pandemic and are not performing as well as their pre-pandemic peers,” said Lisa Coons, the state’s superintendent of public instruction.
Youngkin said he would like school districts to have the programs up and running by Oct. 16.
“We know what works, and Virginia’s students will benefit with high-intensity tutoring,” said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, the state’s education secretary. “Our students deserve nothing less.”
Youngkin said he would like school districts to spend 20% of the money they receive on reading specialists, expanding their ability to ensure that all students are proficient in reading.
The remaining 10% of funding should go toward studying ways to track attendance and eliminate chronic absenteeism, according to Youngkin.
“The learning loss that our kids suffered will not go away through hope,” Youngkin said. “It’s going to require work.”
