During the 2023 Virginia Legislative Session, an important piece of legislation came before the Virginia House of Delegates Education Committee. The bill, HB1508, would have provided parents the ability to give their child the specialized education they need.
Then-Delegate Suhas Subramanyan, as a member of the House Education Committee, voted no on this legislation twice, ultimately preventing it from passing the House of Delegates. After a successful first pass through the Education Committee despite Suhas’s efforts to stop it, the legislation stalled when returned to the committee for a procedural move, preventing passage before the end of the legislative calendar.
The Virginia Education Success Account Program, the intended result of HB1508, would have allowed parents to fund a savings account to pay for educational expenses outside of Virginia public schools with a portion of the state funding appropriated to a school division per pupil. The legislation placed a number of restrictions on the eligibility of students, including the requirement to be starting school for the first time or having attended a public school in the immediately preceding semester, as well as the use of the funding.
From the 2018-2019 school year to the 2021-2022 school year, passing rates on Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests in reading dropped five percentage points for Black students and six percentage points for Hispanic students, with an even more dramatic drop of 21 percent in math passing rates for both groups. Organizations like Black Minds Matter have demonstrated that educational choice helps Black children to succeed and thrive.
With a no vote, Suhas banded with his colleagues, like Richmond-area progressive Schuyler
VanValkenburg, who claimed that the bill would take money out of public schools. The Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance, a non-partisan non-profit coalition to promote parental rights and education opportunities, demonstrated that is not the case with similar programs in other states.
The Virginia Education Success Account Program would have allowed parents in Loudoun, and across Virginia, to seek the education their child needs, whether they have special needs, are looking for a specialized education, or want a school that matches their values. Subramanyam denied parents and students that ability. We must deny Subramanyam the opportunity to take his anti-parent, anti-choice agenda to Congress.
