Fairfax school budget will be “ugly”
Fairfax County Public Schools is facing another tough year, with deep budget cuts likely to result in staff cuts, program eliminations, larger class sizes, transportation cutbacks, and fees for such things as sports participation and AP and IB exams.
At a meeting of the Superintendent’s Business and Community Advisory Council Sept. 22, Superintendent Jack Dale said the FCPS budget recommendation is still being fine-tined, but it’s an “ugly picture.” He is considering a 5 percent staff cut, which will result in eliminating 1,107 positions, including 687 teachers.
Dale expects enrollment will rise by another 2,000 students by next fall. The district is seeing families doubling up, an exodus from private schools, and people moving to closer-in areas to save on gas. Dale says it will cost $13 to $14 million to deal with that growth.
Meanwhile, sales tax revenue will continue to decline. Contributions to the state, local, and county retirement systems will increase, and health insurance costs are rising. Last year, FCPS froze all employee salaries. This year, Dale says, if employees receive a step increase but no COLA, the school system faces a $100 to $140 million deficit. Personnel costs make up 85 percent of the budget.
Cutting the school budget is going to be painful. No parents want their kids in larger classes or face cuts in such things as music programs or extracurricular activities. Lower-income students would likely be exempt from activity fees, but the fees would be a huge burden for families just above the income limits, particularly if they have more than one student and their kids participate in multiple activities.
Other cost-cutting ideas proposed by business groups and others include such things as more online learning, electronic textbooks, and more sponsorships. There will be plenty of opportunities for public comment. School board members will be coming to PTA meetings to talk about budget. Go to budget hearings and e-mail your ideas to Dale and the school board.
Less high salaried administrators, freeing up more funding where it counts @ the school level.
Fire 75% of Special Ed. and ESL teachers. That's a whole class of bureaucrats and paper-pushers that we don't need (It's not your fault, teachers…) There is no evidence that Special ed. is doing anything good and all students should be learning in English after one year of ESL. Instead of IEP's, which are hence abolished, strictly track all students at all levels, by whatever is the most arbitrary form of assessment at hand, and that will make all classrooms more efficient. (No more one-on-one assistance, or LD home-room "classes" with 3 mediocre-lazy-angry kids and two teachers, one telling chemistry stories and the other filling out forms all day…Yes, I've been there and I wasn't the one filling out forms!) Special Ed. is not necessary and hugely wasteful, except for a very few seriously disturbed students with high IQs.
Multi-level classes are ALL held in the same school, except for only the most violent and disturbed students. They go to T-J. The "gifted" ones come back to the regular schools like the rest of them. "Sorry, Buffy!"
Give the veteran and/or best teachers the option to take on the most difficult, lowest performing students, with the payoff being NO expectations about SOL pass rates. Keep the SOLs to measure student performance, NOT teacher performance.
One teacher/parent conference per year, in the middle of the year, called "Back to School Day". No more scheduled parent meetings in school time. If parents want to drop by and catch teachers in the 4 minutes between classes, that is fine, at any time. No guarantee of a meeting. Take the day off from work if it's such a big deal.
Encourage students who want to to drop out from the age of 15, and give them a literacy and work-readiness test and diploma and a $5,000 cash bonus to compensate them for all the money they are saving the state. It is ludicrous that teenagers be forced to stay in school if they don't want to.
Disband the School Board: With a principal and staff, the PTA, the Superintendent, the governor and the voters, we have all the management and political infrastructure we need. If there is something so important we need to inflict on our kids, then the voters should vote on it.
Stand back and watch education fix itself.
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