Unfunded Mandates

Unfunded and under-funded mandates continue to put a severe strain on the city’s budget and local taxpayers. For years, the state and federal governments have adopted mandates without providing sufficient funding to comply with the requirements. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the vital area of education.

The Virginia Beach School Board and the Virginia Beach City Council created a joint task force to address this growing problem. It identified a variety of unfunded and under-funded education mandates.

A potentially costly mandate is the "No Child Left Behind Act," estimated to far exceed federal funding because it does not recognize the extensive administrative, technology, operational, and research costs associated with this far-reaching initiative. For example, if a school receiving federal Title I funding failed to make adequate yearly progress for two years in a row, students could transfer to other schools and the school system would have to pay for transportation, any resulting building improvements, and any additional staffing requirements.

To address this situation the School Board and the City Council passed resolutions requesting the U.S. Congress and the Virginia General Assembly to refrain from passing additional unfunded or under-funded mandates. In addition, they requested that Congress and the General Assembly review existing programs and reduce their financial impact on localities.