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Tough decisions
In an online survey conducted by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission earlier this month, most respondents cited "excellent schools" as the top reason for settling here.
Was the survey scientific? No. Was it instructive? Absolutely.
Given the excruciating budget decisions facing Fairfax County, the task of separating "needs" from "wants" has never been more difficult.
When county officials sit down to make those decisions, they'll have to ask themselves some pretty tough questions.
Student resource officer or school psychologist? New school bus or new fire engine? Cut back on park hours or library hours?
Unfortunately, those are the kinds of decisions a county faces when trying to address $4 billion in needs with a $3 billion check.
Given that the school system currently gobbles up nearly 60 percent of the county's budget pie, it's inevitable that every budget-cutting scenario begins with teachers and textbooks.
Fortunately, most taxpayers seem to understand that a strong school system means more than getting their children into Princeton or William & Mary. It also plays a critical role in stabilizing home values, attracting high-profile businesses to Northern Virginia and maintaining a certain quality of life.
All of that will be tested in 2009.
That's what happens when a 170,000-student school system is tasked with cutting $200 million from its bottom line. Never mind that enrollment is expected to increase by nearly 5,000 students next year. Never mind that virtually every cost associated with running a large suburban school system is expected to rise exponentially.
Over the next several months, Fairfax County's school budget will be poked and prodded from every angle. School salaries will likely be frozen, bus routes will likely be cut, and some longstanding academic programs are all but certain to disappear.
Much of that is inevitable.
What we don't want is to see a healthy belt-tightening process turn into an all-out assault on the school system. At the moment, Fairfax County schools are among the most admired in the country. That won't continue if student-teacher ratios begin climbing, extracurricular activities are slashed, and access to Advance Placement courses begin dwindling.
Yes, money is tight and likely to get tighter, but a first-class school system should be a top priority for all Fairfax residents.
This must me a school employee..but remeber, as you will continue to take from peter to pay paul..which means taking more money from other county agencies..police, fire, and others, you will have a top notch school system but no one will move here because they will have a higer crime rate and fewer fire services. As is, the school system is not playing fairly with this budget. All county employees will be furloed on 1-2-09 unless you are part of 24 / 7 emergency personnel. That means all fire and police and county employees will be furloed unless they work patrol or work there scheduled day to work at the fire house. The school system will not be furloing there employees. Also as the economic issue worsens, crime does go up. Fairfax County had 5 homicides alone last week. Robberies and burglaries are up ten fold this year alone and will increase. So, let your dear schools have 60 percent of the budget, the rest of us...we will survive, but the days of doing more with less are over. Teachers can start directing traffic at school crossings and school security guards can stay in the schools, not SRO's but when the school needs and officer, there call will set in line with the rest of the calls and will get handled in turn.
Posted by dorsea03
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Schools a top priority: agree.
Schools get every dime they ask for with no question: disagree.
This school system's budget has grown in per-student expenditure from $9k in 2001 to over $13k in 2008, an increase of almost 50%. If FairfaxTimes is suggesting that there is no fat to be cut away here, you're way off base.
Let's start with the staff time to prepare for purchasing the debacle known as Gatehouse II, continue into the fact that Gatehouse I is not bearing up to the promised ROI or cost savings, the blatant thumbing of noses at Dept of Ed requirements, and move on from there.
An increase in class size, while not desired, is not necessarily the death knell of schools reputation. But before we start impacting class size, let's look at how the schools use the budget they have and make intelligent choices.
"Schools are our top priority" sounds nice but that doesn't mean uncontrolled growth and spending. How about a little reality in the mix?
Posted by FairfaxTaxpayer
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