<bt>Two years ago, the voters of the 37th District held a successful recall election.
That recall ended a legislative era in Fairfax. Gone was empty
boasting about "record amounts" of education funding, when it merely reflected record taxes being paid by Fairfax residents. Gone was the condescending response towards Fairfax parents and PTAs who inquired about state policy. Gone was the fiction that Richmond's anti-Fairfax school funding formula was "required by law" and couldn't be touched.
Barely two months after the election, the new Assembly faced a recession budget. The choices were stark. To make matters worse, the Republican majority continued the pattern of transferring funds from urban Fairfax County to rural districts. They even exacerbated the problem by eliminating state incentives for numerous programs that our public schools use, e.g. the ESOL class for non-English speaking children.
While others watched from the sidelines, Fairfax Democrats like myself fought that troubling transfer both in the media and on the floor of the Assembly. I personally offered amendments to benefit our students and taxpayers by increasing our state allocation in Fairfax to reflect our higher costs. We lost that battle in 2002 but never stopped fighting. Suddenly, Fairfax delegates showed they were willing to speak for their own community. Other delegates began to sit up and notice.
While fighting for our fair share in state funding was paramount, we also needed to strengthen our local revenue base. When the legislature reconvened this year, I sponsored bipartisan legislation with Del. Jim Dillard (R-41st) to increase the "lowest in the nation" cigarette tax from 5 to 50 cents per pack with the ensuing revenue dedicated to schools. That legislation failed in committee, although recent media reports make it a candidate for passage next year. It makes sense. It needs to be law.
It was not all bad news for our schools. In 2003, the Assembly did put more money into K-12 education, even while state agencies were being uniformly downsized. Every school system benefited from that bipartisan action.
In summary, it was inevitable that the state budget would be impacted by the recession. Gov. Warner and the new Assembly had inherited an awful mess. Together, we were able to succeed in 2003.
To those recycled Richmond Republicans who now pose as being "concerned about education": where were you when Fairfax schools needed you? Where was your voice during the budget cuts of 2002?
If they were silent in 2002, then you know what they really stand for: just politics as usual.