School divisions across the Commonwealth are rushing to complete applications for hundreds of millions in legislatively approved funding to address learning loss.

Governor Glenn Youngkin is distributing the funds as part of his All In program. The legislature and Youngkin put the details of how it was to be used in the budget signed last month. It asks localities to spend 70% of the funds on high impact tutoring and the rest to address literacy and absenteeism.

This story was reported and written by Radio IQ

“Our educators have put extra effort and time into helping students re-acclimate after the pandemic and support diverse learning loss through a variety of interventions throughout the state,” reads a playbook issued by the Virginia Department of Education to aid school systems in crafting their plan. “Despite these efforts, it is time for an intensive statewide focus on learning recovery.”

Each school division is responsible for developing its own plan, and that plan is then submitted to the DOE for approval. So far 35 divisions have submitted their plans. Of those, 26 have been approved and another handful are working with the department to get approval.

Of the approved plans, some of the biggest differences between school systems is the proposed pay rate.

The Alleghany Highlands division is offering $25 per hour. In Chesterfield County, teachers will get $5-7K a year via stipend. The highest offering lies in Surry County in the southeast part of the state. That school system is offering $50 an hour for contracted teachers and less to those outside the education system.

In a statement, a Department of Education spokesperson said the decision is up to the localities, and the flexibility in pay was part of the plan.

"Each division will know best what the details of their program need to look like to be successful," they said. "These include decisions such as pay rates, taking into account their local needs and the job market in their community."

In Orange County, superintendent Daniel Hornick set the pay rate for current teachers who pick up tutoring shifts at $40 dollars an hour.

“40 dollars an hour is our new reality,” said Hornick, who submitted his county’s plan with the goal of receiving about $1.7 million. The plan has yet to be approved, but that’s expected to change this week.

He also noted the job is probably among the highest pay rates in his region, and matches the rate of a newly hired teacher.

“That’s helped us level up across the board and be more competitive in the marketplace,” Hornick said.

In Fairfax County, they’re offering over $48 an hour for tutors. Superintendent Michelle Reid said she worked with her administration to develop a plan to spend the over $28 million given to them by the legislature. They were among the first school systems to have their plan approved.

“We wanted to be able to hire the best academic tutors here and this was our best attempt to meet that market scale for pay for tutoring by the hour,” said Reid.

Notably Fairfax’s plan will supplement existing learning loss plans the county said they started in the last year. They’ll spend about $18 million of their total grant to hire 176 tutors for about 8,000 students. But they say there’s a total of over 63,000 students in need.

For counties who have not yet submitted, and there are plenty, there are still some basic details to work out. According to one Department of Education official, the most common issue is staffing.

That’s the case for the combined districts of James City County and Williamsburg City.

“It’s absolutely a bus driver shortage,” said superintendent Olwen Herron. “We have a long county and three tiers of buses and we are managing right now to get students there on time. We’re unable to provide a lot of transportation for tutoring.”

They’re aiming to offer about $45 an hour for experienced teachers once the plan is submitted, but they’re still working with bus drivers and other local sources before submitting the plan.

And as counties look towards teachers as the main source of tutoring, those in the profession worry any added work could burden the already overly taxed staff.

A report from the state showed teacher shortages were already a problem in the state, and workloads were among the reasons for educators’ departures.

In a statement, Virginia Education Association president James Fedderman warned using teachers for tutors could lead to more burnout.

“With schools already struggling to find teachers and other staff, and with current staff members remaining underpaid and overworked, where were the resources for intensive tutoring programs supposed to come from?” he asked.

But Henrico County teacher and House of Delegates member Schuyler VanValkenburg said he would leave it up to the localities and the teachers themselves to decide to get involved.

“It doesn’t give me anxiety that smaller systems are using people closest to the system, but each locality is going to be incumbent on getting that balance right,” Vanvalkenburg said.

Meanwhile, back in Surry County, where the tutoring rate is the current highest in the state, superintendent Serbrenia Sims said the rate was influenced by the difficulty someone can encounter just getting to their school locations.

“I have to take the ferry to get to work,” Sims said. “I don't think I could ever recruit tutors. So, I had to think outside the box to figure out a way to use the professional staff.”

To that end, the funding scheme is based on the highest paid teacher’s estimated hourly rate, and Sims is asking those who participate to give up their state-mandated daily planning period.

“The final salary will be a range dependent on years of service, but I still anticipate it will be close to $50, it won't be much less,” she said. “Our teachers stay with us for many years.”