“Made the ‘Fund Our Schools’ poster?” Check. “Wearing the requested blue clothing?” Check. “Know where to go? Confirmed the time?” Check. And check. A few dozen Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) parents appear to have worked through this checklist on Tuesday morning. During a heavier-than-expected snowfall, these FCPS parents joined FCPS School Board members in a rally to push for additional funding for public schools in the county. The rally took place ahead of a county Board of Supervisors meeting at which the FY 2015 budget was presented.
With 184,500 students and 23,000 staff, FCPS is the eleventh largest school district in the country and the largest in the state of Virginia. For many, my family included, FCPS’s reputation for quality public education is the draw card in wanting to live here. Student numbers keep swelling—adding an estimated 3,000 new students per annum—as the county continues to attract immigrant and other families wanting their children to attend its vaunted public schools. Enrolment in FCPS schools has increased 8.9 percent, or by about 15,000 students, since 2009. But funding has only increased 5.6 percent. Many of the new enrollees also need additional services from the county, such as English language instruction and/or reduced price or free school meals.
Earlier this year, newly appointed FCPS Superintendent Karen Garza presented the school system’s FY 2015 budget. The $2.5 billion budget called for increased funding, while also incorporating significant cuts. The largest portion of the budget would go toward increasing teachers’ salaries. FCPS teaching salaries no longer compare favourably with those of nearby counties. Teachers’ pay here has been stagnant for five years and take-home pay has even declined due to mandatory contributions to the previously underfunded state pension system. The upshot is that, for example, 70 percent of the teachers at our local high school reportedly need to supplement their income during the school year. For FCPS to retain the best teachers, especially younger teachers, salary hikes are seen as essential.
Simultaneously, Dr. Garza proposed eliminating 731 staff positions, including 469 classroom positions and school support positions such as 12 assistant principal jobs. Reductions in staff positions would have the highly controversial consequence of increasing class sizes yet again, for the third time in recent years. Classes would have to be increased by an average of half a student per elementary and middle school class and by one student per high school class. Many parents complain that FCPS classes are already too full, with over 30 students per class being the norm too often.
Garza stresses that present funding levels do not support taking on both short and long-term problems. In fact, bar receiving additional funding, the only way in which the vital salary hikes could be at least partially implemented would be by making really dramatic cuts in support staff, increasing class sizes yet further, and narrowing the curriculum by perhaps eliminating the elementary-school foreign language program.
So Garza has called for increased funding to the tune of $98 million, or a 5.7 percent increase, in the allotment of taxpayer funding the county transfers to the school system. But, at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, County Executive Ed Long proposed only a two percent increase in funding for FCPS operations, leaving a gap of $63.8 million in FCPS’s advertised budget. Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Sharon Bulova then suggested that, in consultation with her colleagues, she would consider a higher advertised property tax rate to support more funding for schools and other services.
Approximately 51 percent of the county’s budget goes toward the school system. This funding from the county comprises 70 percent of the school system’s income. FCPS receives only 15 percent of its funding from the state. Yet Northern Virginia, including Fairfax County, is the most populous part of Virginia and so contributes most to state coffers. It certainly doesn’t get an equivalent ratio back in spend, especially not for its schools. In terms of the Virginia Department of Education’s Local Composite Index, FCPS received $1,855 per pupil in state aid, whereas the state average was $3,420 per pupil. Public education advocates in the county want separate taxing authority or other streams of income for FCPS that are not subject to the vagaries of the state or county budget processes.
In the main, I have been impressed with the FCPS system. While of course not universally so, there are many phenomenally dedicated, passionate teachers who really look out for their students and care deeply about their progress. As a FCPS parent, I definitely support FCPS teachers getting deserved raises, a measure that would boost morale and commitment. Overall though, I do feel that FCPS is a system under strain, with unquestionable fraying at the edges. Clearly, larger sums of money are needed to address some of the infrastructure issues. Schools are at full capacity and many are beyond capacity. I am still surprised by the widespread use of trailers (euphemistically called “villas” at a local school…) for classrooms.
Universal public primary and secondary school education is a bedrock of American society. It sustains and resupplies America’s middle class. It skills and acculturates newly arrived immigrants—even while it doesn’t do enough to close the achievement gap between poor Americans and those from higher income levels. Ninety percent of American school children are educated in public schools today. If there isn’t the will and support to fund public schools more fully, the future is grim.
Watching in Washington 