Where does the $3.8 billion go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the link that shows they spend about $300 less on special education students vs bob special ed students.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/study-analyzes-virginias-k-12-education-funding

I’m afraid you don’t understand the data presented on that page. The 19k plus includes SPED, if you remove SPED money, then they’ll spend a lot less per child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the link that shows they spend about $300 less on special education students vs bob special ed students.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/study-analyzes-virginias-k-12-education-funding

I’m afraid you don’t understand the data presented on that page. The 19k plus includes SPED, if you remove SPED money, then they’ll spend a lot less per child.

+1
Obviously it costs a lot more for special education. 19k per student is the average overall. The breakdown for special education is about cost for their services, with 22,851 receiving a total of 47,773 services and the average service costing 18,421. Which by my calculation means a little over 880 million is spent on special education services for nearly 23,000 children.

I fully support special education, but I believe given that it's a federal mandate, there should be federal funds that allocate services and that they should be considered and managed outside county/district school budgets. It's too easy to have varying standards across and within districts on who gets access to what services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special education is expensive, and FCPS families are more likely than families in most places to pursue services for their children if they might qualify, and to push for the most support they can get. This is not to say that those families shouldn’t get those services— but it does have a huge impact.

FCPS spends less money on special education students than regular students. Stop blaming the special ed kids.

DP: This is not true in the least. FCPS spends 38k average on special education services per child receiving services (which doesn't include any general educational costs for those students that are not deemed special education services). The average cost for child overall (including children receiving special education services) is 19k. I would never blame special ed kids, but we do need to be accurate in counting how much it costs to provide appropriate, mandated services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in grad school (in education) in 2003, we looked at the budget of our respective school systems (it was a class of educators from many counties--Arlington, FCPS, DC, Montgomery, PG, Loudoun). At that time FCPS's was appx $2.2B. I am stunned that less than 20 years later, it is almost $4B. That is a staggering amount of money. PP is correct re: the amount which goes to the people that make the system run. In 2003, it was 85%. I am pleasantly surprised that that total has risen to almost 90%.

I would like to see a citation for the claim "for every 2 people in the classroom, there is 1 that isn't".

This is an average increase of 2.7% per year over that time period. Inflation has averaged 2.6% since 2003. Sure it is a stager ring amount of money but context helps here.

Good context. I didn't do the math (should have!)--it does put the increase in perspective. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in grad school (in education) in 2003, we looked at the budget of our respective school systems (it was a class of educators from many counties--Arlington, FCPS, DC, Montgomery, PG, Loudoun). At that time FCPS's was appx $2.2B. I am stunned that less than 20 years later, it is almost $4B. That is a staggering amount of money. PP is correct re: the amount which goes to the people that make the system run. In 2003, it was 85%. I am pleasantly surprised that that total has risen to almost 90%.

I would like to see a citation for the claim "for every 2 people in the classroom, there is 1 that isn't".

This is an average increase of 2.7% per year over that time period. Inflation has averaged 2.6% since 2003. Sure it is a stager ring amount of money but context helps here.

I would like to add that since poverty has more than doubled in Fairfax during this time period, middle class and upper families have been forced to foot a larger share of this burden in increased taxes, while getting their resources redistributed in the name of “equity”. Many of the Langley and Madison pyramid schools have seen their teacher to student ratio increase while those in Mount Vernon and Justice have seen their ratios decrease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in grad school (in education) in 2003, we looked at the budget of our respective school systems (it was a class of educators from many counties--Arlington, FCPS, DC, Montgomery, PG, Loudoun). At that time FCPS's was appx $2.2B. I am stunned that less than 20 years later, it is almost $4B. That is a staggering amount of money. PP is correct re: the amount which goes to the people that make the system run. In 2003, it was 85%. I am pleasantly surprised that that total has risen to almost 90%.

I would like to see a citation for the claim "for every 2 people in the classroom, there is 1 that isn't".

This is an average increase of 2.7% per year over that time period. Inflation has averaged 2.6% since 2003. Sure it is a stager ring amount of money but context helps here.

I would like to add that since poverty has more than doubled in Fairfax during this time period, middle class and upper families have been forced to foot a larger share of this burden in increased taxes, while getting their resources redistributed in the name of “equity”. Many of the Langley and Madison pyramid schools have seen their teacher to student ratio increase while those in Mount Vernon and Justice have seen their ratios decrease.

Interestingly, 30 years ago the only higher (not even that high) poverty school in all of FCPS was Justice HS (then called J-b Stuart HS) at under 40%. Annandale was well under 25% reduced lunch and the subject of a film on successful and diverse high schools when its football team was winning VHSL state championships year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special education is expensive, and FCPS families are more likely than families in most places to pursue services for their children if they might qualify, and to push for the most support they can get. This is not to say that those families shouldn’t get those services— but it does have a huge impact.

FCPS spends less money on special education students than regular students. Stop blaming the special ed kids.

This is one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever read.

Multiple disabilities students cost a fortune. 4 adults in a room with 5 or 6 kids? Special buses? Special equipment? And we have A LOT of these children in FCPS. All special needs kids don’t “just” need an hour a day of math support. They all deserve the support but it is a lot of money. That’s why the “per pupil” cost is so high.

[Anonymous]

Some interesting numbers:

“As Fairfax County Public Schools increases its budget to $3.8 billion, up 8.6% from fiscal 2024, taxpayers have been put on notice that they will be hit with more property tax increases. Fairfax County residents’ property tax bills are expected to increase again by an average of $524 per household in 2025.

Meanwhile, district administrators are gaslighting taxpayers about per-pupil spending. On March 6, they sent an email to parents complaining that Virginia’s public school districts receive less state funding than public schools in other states. That might be intended to distract us from the fact that per-pupil spending in Fairfax County is substantially higher than the national average. In the 2024 budget, the annual cost per K-12 public school pupil in Fairfax County was $19,795. The national per-pupil average the same year was $12,612.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/2918802/fcps-deceives-taxpayers-per-pupil-spending-legal-expenses/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some interesting numbers:

“As Fairfax County Public Schools increases its budget to $3.8 billion, up 8.6% from fiscal 2024, taxpayers have been put on notice that they will be hit with more property tax increases. Fairfax County residents’ property tax bills are expected to increase again by an average of $524 per household in 2025.

Meanwhile, district administrators are gaslighting taxpayers about per-pupil spending. On March 6, they sent an email to parents complaining that Virginia’s public school districts receive less state funding than public schools in other states. That might be intended to distract us from the fact that per-pupil spending in Fairfax County is substantially higher than the national average. In the 2024 budget, the annual cost per K-12 public school pupil in Fairfax County was $19,795. The national per-pupil average the same year was $12,612.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/2918802/fcps-deceives-taxpayers-per-pupil-spending-legal-expenses/

And how does fairfax county compare in terms of cost of living to the national average? Are teachers, principals, custodians, bus drivers, etc supposed to be paid the average when they live in a high cost of living area? Dumbest argument ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some interesting numbers:

“As Fairfax County Public Schools increases its budget to $3.8 billion, up 8.6% from fiscal 2024, taxpayers have been put on notice that they will be hit with more property tax increases. Fairfax County residents’ property tax bills are expected to increase again by an average of $524 per household in 2025.

Meanwhile, district administrators are gaslighting taxpayers about per-pupil spending. On March 6, they sent an email to parents complaining that Virginia’s public school districts receive less state funding than public schools in other states. That might be intended to distract us from the fact that per-pupil spending in Fairfax County is substantially higher than the national average. In the 2024 budget, the annual cost per K-12 public school pupil in Fairfax County was $19,795. The national per-pupil average the same year was $12,612.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/2918802/fcps-deceives-taxpayers-per-pupil-spending-legal-expenses/

And how does fairfax county compare in terms of cost of living to the national average? Are teachers, principals, custodians, bus drivers, etc supposed to be paid the average when they live in a high cost of living area? Dumbest argument ever.

+1

[Anonymous]

Damn up 8.6%, those 3 letter programs like DEI and SBG sure are expensive.

[Anonymous]

Special education is going to break FCPS. The cost is huge and the feds do not pay their share, there are major staffing challenges, and parents are always complaining and some are suing which costs us even more money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Special education is going to break FCPS. The cost is huge and the feds do not pay their share, there are major staffing challenges, and parents are always complaining and some are suing which costs us even more money.

Youngkin is also trying to **cut funding** for k-12 this year. WTF?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special education is expensive, and FCPS families are more likely than families in most places to pursue services for their children if they might qualify, and to push for the most support they can get. This is not to say that those families shouldn’t get those services— but it does have a huge impact.

FCPS spends less money on special education students than regular students. Stop blaming the special ed kids.

Budget say about 2x on special education.

Intersting point. it say Middle school time is cheapest per student cost

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP who asked for the citation. Thanks for the #s from the budget. And said citation is what I was expecting--including custodians, caf staff, bus drivers, etc. You must have those positions to run a school system.

I guess what I'm really curious about is the ratio of classroom teachers with assigned students to coaches, ed specialists and instructional support jobs (by region & at administrative sites like Willow Oaks).

PAge 110 excluding the bus driver. They no include the hourly person on that page.

"onschool-based authorized positions in the School Operating Fund by position type. FCPS budgets for hourly personnel (e.g., hourly family liaisons, substitutes, bus drivers, and bus attendants)
that are not reflected in the charts below."

"FCPS does not include contracted hourly family liaisons, substitutes, bus drivers and attendants in position counts."