To the Editor:
I attended one of State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli's town hall meetings that he held this past Saturday. The senator's quote in The Washington Post Metro section — "If you can't educate a kid for [$10,000] a year, the problem is not enough money ... the ‘need' for more money is insatiable among the edu-crats" — struck many of us as arrogant and derogatory. When pressed to define "edu-crats," the Senator declared them to be "all lobbyists for education." Therefore, the term "edu-crats," as defined by the Senator, would include all the parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, college deans, administrators and students, members of our school boards and boards of supervisors, delegates, senators and bipartisan foundations comprised of businessmen and women, educators and regular citizens, who recognize that the key to a strong educational system is adequate funding. Are our requests "insatiable" or are they realistic given that this state has consistently failed to adequately fund our schools? And if the Senator is such a "strong advocate of education", why isn't he advocating for better funding?
The senator's quote and Web site reveals a notable distrust of administrators and our schools. Indeed, the tension in the room was between homeowners feeling overburdened and questioning their ability to remain in the county and the schools' increasing demand for more monies. I gave the Senator a fact sheet gleaned from the Washington Area Board Guide but a member of his staff tossed it aside with contempt, an act noted by a member of the audience. For the Senator's benefit and for those who question the increasing costs of educating a child in Fairfax County public schools, I offer these facts: Fairfax is the largest jurisdiction in the metropolitan area and the 12th largest in the country. It has the largest enrollment of students, including self-contained special education students and English as a Second Language students. The latter two categories, in particular, impose a huge burden on the schools — for example, sometimes the inclusion of special education students in the general education classroom requires two full-time teachers. Remember public schools are mandated to educate ALL children.
Yet, despite its size and increasing demands for special services, Fairfax only ranks fifth for total cost per pupil spending, between third and fifth for teacher salaries and has the highest student-to-teacher ratio in Northern Virginia. Notably, 92.1 percent of FCPS-funded positions are school-based, the highest in the metropolitan areas; 88 percent of the budget goes directly to schools compared to 82 percent for comparable school systems. Its successes are many: Fairfax ranks second to Falls Church (which has only one high school) in SAT scores and the number of graduates going on to postsecondary education. It is also the only large school system in the country to have every eligible high school rank in the Newsweek challenge index and six in the top 100.
What also is unseen by the Senator and many who rail against the costs of educating our students are the hidden costs of unfunded mandates by the federal and state governments. The increasing demand for accountability (translated tests and more tests) absorbs huge amounts of staff's time and energy. Westfield High School, alone, will administer over 9,000 SOL tests this spring. Multiply those tests, along with remedial and practice tests, at all our high, middle and elementary schools and one better understands the burden on the schools. Note that only public school students take such "accountability" tests. Lastly, the Senator continues to ignore the fact that most of the schools in his district are overcrowded. Trailers are part of life here but hey, these are just public school kids. My guess is the Senator would just like all of us edu-crats to go home, sign on to his no tax Web site and let the schools go to ... you get the gist.
Lu Ann Maciulla McNabb
Starry Night Lane
Centreville