Fact Check: Democrats on McDonnell's education spending

By: Jay Warren | WSLS 10
Published: January 31, 2012

The Democrats in Richmond continue to take aim at Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget plan.

Following McDonnell’s State of the Commonwealth address, State Senator Donald McEachin said, “Overall in this, his first budget, the governor is cutting pre-K and K-through-12 education by hundreds of millions of dollars."

The math on this one gets complicated, but let me break it down for you.

First off, PolitiFact Virginia reports that the governor's budget actually increases spending for education by $497-million. The Democrats go through some hoops to say that the bulk of that money actually goes to teacher pensions and not the classroom. Still, the researchers say that if you take the pension contribution out, McDonnell's budget would raise education spending by $155-million.

The Democrats contend that that increase would be consumed by a McDonnell proposal for the localities to make larger investments in teacher retirement as well. But, PolitiFact Virginia points out that there’s a catch here. There's no guarantee that the localities will cut classroom spending. They could shift priorities in the budget or raise taxes.

As such, PolitiFact Virginia's rating: False. Sen. McEachin and the Democrats make a definitive claim that there will hundreds of millions cut from education and the numbers simply don't add up to that.