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Virginia says error led to shortage in local school funding

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Department of Education is acknowledging it made a mistake in calculating state aid for K-12 schools, an error that is leaving divisions with less funding than expected.

The error stemmed from a failure to reflect last year’s decision to hold localities harmless from the elimination of the state’s portion of the sales tax on groceries, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. It means local school divisions will receive $201 million less than expected, including $58 million less for the current school year, according to the newspaper.

“It was human error on our part,” said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Department of Education. “We regret that it was not identified until December.”

State Superintendent Jillian Balow notified superintendents by email Friday, according to the newspaper, and House Appropriations Chairman Barry Knight said he was blindsided by the news Monday.

“I didn’t know anything about it at all until this afternoon,” Knight said. “I’m not very happy. They did not bother to tell Appropriations that the numbers had changed.”

“We need to have some open communication here,” he told the Times-Dispatch. “Now it’s on me, what do we do?”

Howard University president says more than 200 students readmitted after mass unenrollment

WASHINGTON (AP) — The interim president of Howard University said over 200 of the more than 500 first-year incoming students who were unenrolled for the fall semester have been readmitted to the Washington, D.C. school. In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Wayne A. I. Frederick defended the way the historically Black university handled the initial unenrollment, saying many students and their families apparently misunderstood the communicated financial obligations they were expected to meet before the start of instruction in August. “There were no issues as far as what we communicated," Frederick said, adding that the school had been clear since March about unpaid balances for tuition that were due by mid-July. Students who were unenrolled for financial reasons had outstanding tuition balances after their financial aid and scholarships were applied, he said. Others were unenrolled because of unreported immunizations.
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