RICHMOND, Va. (WCYB) — With Virginia lawmakers returning to Richmond this week, education has remained a big topic for both parties.

According to recent projections from the Virginia Department of Education, state schools will need about $1.2 billion over the next two years to simply operate.

With this hurdle to overcome, lawmakers are also planning an improved public school funding formula.

A step in the right direction according to Lieutenant Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi.

“This is an opportunity to do it in a very thoughtful way, to make sure that we are positioning Virginia to support those localities that have students with the highest needs. Those include our students with special needs, students that are English language learners and students coming from lower economic situations,” Hashmi said.

On the topic of school funding there is also the School Construction and Modernization Fund.

Developed by Delegate Israel O’Quinn back in 2022, the fund is set aside for localities to invest in school construction projects putting a portion of funding in, while the state matches the rest.

Bristol, Virginia Public Schools were the first to utilize these funds, building the Virginia Intermediate School in 2024.

“Being able to have a school building with the latest technology and students not having to sit beside a rain barrel in the middle of their classroom really changes the student experience. There’s been a lot of really good upgrades done around Southwest Virginia and really across the whole Commonwealth,” O’Quinn said.

With the expense of some major projects, O’Quinn says some localities have found it difficult to match their portion of the funding. This paved the way for bill O’Quinn filed this year which would allow counties and school districts to finance these projects by borrowing from the state, receiving the state’s low interest rate.

“This would allow localities to be able to build up on those efforts and hopefully get to the point where they can fix those problems faster,” O’Quinn said.