That budget must be approved by the legislature, which last year signed off on a Northam proposal to give teachers a 5% raise and provide $12 million for more school counselors.

House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, said earlier this week that lawmakers should have been involved in crafting the proposals. A spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

“If even a portion of this gets funded, I think we’ll have made a significant difference in the lives of our children,” said Diane Atkinson, the vice president of the board.

State spending per student is currently down 8% compared with before the Great Recession, according to the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a Richmond-based research organization. An average of $5,749 is spent on every student, compared with $6,225 in the 2008-09 school year, after adjusting for inflation.

Among the changes approved Thursday is the creation of a statewide “equity fund,” which would combine $233 million in existing state money with an additional $131 million.