Thousands of Virginians will gain free access to community college through the state budget adopted by this year’s General Assembly. The career training they receive could help them recover from the financial beating they took in the coronavirus pandemic, and also could help Virginia’s economy to rebound.
Lawmakers approved Governor Northam’s plan to provide free tuition and additional financial support for students who seek community college training in the fields of healthcare, information technology and computer science, manufacturing and skilled trades, early childhood education, and public safety.
The initiative will be open for low and moderate income Virginians. In rough terms, someone could qualify coming from a family of four making about $100,000 per year.
Virginia’s Community Colleges will receive an additional $36 million to fund the free college initiative in the budget year that begins July 1.
Lawmakers also allocated an additional $5 million in the upcoming budget year to hire 60 badly-needed new community college advisors to help enroll new students and help them successfully navigate the world of higher education.
The legislature also approved money to give state classified workers and college faculty (full time and adjunct) five percent pay raises, effective July 1. VCCS leadership said it will work to ensure that P-14 part-time employees also receive the pay raises.
“Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve been through probably the toughest year in our lives,” said VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois during a virtual town hall meeting with system office employees on Monday. “But this budget means good things will happen for our community college system, and for the people that we that we serve, and for the communities that we try to help.”
Governor Northam will consider the legislature’s handiwork in the coming weeks and will decide whether to recommend changes.
Lawmakers are due back in session April 7.
