Winner: Northern Virginia's schools. Education budgets in the Virginia suburbs were spared some severe damage when a proposal that would have frozen funding levels was killed. If the freeze had remained, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties stood to lose $118 million.

It was a rare victory for Northern Virginia in a major struggle with the rest of the state over divvying up school funds. It appeared that McDonnell and the GOP were honoring a campaign commitment to help Northern Virginia get a fair share of the huge flow of tax dollars it sends to Richmond.

Some Democrats played down the whole affair, saying the freeze never should have been proposed in the first place. But it was their own outgoing governor, Tim Kaine, who suggested it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/13/AR2010031301965.html