Article detailing the decline and fall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t read the article and don’t want to get into a political debate about the author or the merits of FCPS or whatever. However it is true that enrollment overall, I would describe as “flat.” https://schoolquality.virginia.gov/divisions/fairfax-county-public-schools And use the menu to go to Enrollment. The main thing keeping enrollment right around the usual 180k number is an increase in the preschool programs. These aren’t new students, just students they are capturing a year or two earlier vs. when they would have enrolled in K. These students are also needier, because the only ways to get public preschool/pre K are to be lower income or have special needs. But the numbers of 1-12 (not counting K in that as it always tends to be smaller) is about equal each year. But Pre-K has ballooned from 4280 in 2022-23 to almost 5000 in 24-25 - about a 17% increase.

This is how the article sees to weaponize facts. It insinuates, if not outright claims, that the declining enrollment is due to misfeasance or malfeasance on the part of FCPS when in fact it's due to other externalities. That's what makes the article an ideological, agenda-driven piece of bullshit that simply isn't worthy of serious discussion. It's why everyone here is dismissing it out of hand.

Nice spin, but the enrollment decline in FCPS stands out when you compare it to DCPS, APS or LCPS.

Also, next time, try not to refer to yourself as “everyone.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anything about Fairfax schools, but this article is so lazy. Spending 10 minutes looking up stats is useless.

Enrollment is down - is the population shrinking? Aging? Is the enrollment decline consistent across grades? I feel like the writer wants to make the case that enrollment is down because affluent residents are picking private schools, but she doesn't do the legwork to prove it.

"In 2025, Virginia Department of Education’s data show that roughly a quarter of students in Fairfax Schools failed their reading, math, and science Standards of Learning exams, compared with about 20% of students in the neighboring district of Loudoun."

So...Fairfax has 25% kids below proficiency and Loudoun has 20%? Is that a decline? Is it lower than other comparable counties? I would think Loudoun would have really high scores?

YOUR WHOLE JOB IS PERSUASIVE WRITING. This is a hack job. It's not even good click bait.

This could be a really useful forum but it's been taken over by the same out-of-town politicos that fund people like Frisch.

"I don't know anything about Fairfax schools" - my brother, then WTF are you doing here??

[Anonymous]

The article literally provides statistics on how the enrollment decline in FCPS stands out compared to other area jurisdictions that have seen enrollment statistics, and how the number of homeschooled and private school students living in the county has increased substantially.

We can debate the causes or the exact inferences to be drawn, but when posters come on here and suggest no such data was even provided it’s fairly clear they are just knee-jerk defenders of FCPS and its leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article literally provides statistics on how the enrollment decline in FCPS stands out compared to other area jurisdictions that have seen enrollment statistics, and how the number of homeschooled and private school students living in the county has increased substantially.

We can debate the causes or the exact inferences to be drawn, but when posters come on here and suggest no such data was even provided it’s fairly clear they are just knee-jerk defenders of FCPS and its leadership.

Which gets at what the PP said - it's not the FCPS community on these boards so everything should be read with serious skepticism.

Who would knee-jerk support public officials? The officials, their staff and people with something to gain politically. Any real parent would at least be willing to take a critical thinking look at decisions shaping the future of their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article literally provides statistics on how the enrollment decline in FCPS stands out compared to other area jurisdictions that have seen enrollment statistics, and how the number of homeschooled and private school students living in the county has increased substantially.

We can debate the causes or the exact inferences to be drawn, but when posters come on here and suggest no such data was even provided it’s fairly clear they are just knee-jerk defenders of FCPS and its leadership.

Yeah but did the school age population decline? Did enrollment decline across grades?

The only private school stat in the article is by county, which doesn’t seem right for a dense area like ours. But at least it should list the stats for private schools for neighboring counties that had increased public school enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article literally provides statistics on how the enrollment decline in FCPS stands out compared to other area jurisdictions that have seen enrollment statistics, and how the number of homeschooled and private school students living in the county has increased substantially.

We can debate the causes or the exact inferences to be drawn, but when posters come on here and suggest no such data was even provided it’s fairly clear they are just knee-jerk defenders of FCPS and its leadership.

Yeah but did the school age population decline? Did enrollment decline across grades?

The only private school stat in the article is by county, which doesn’t seem right for a dense area like ours. But at least it should list the stats for private schools for neighboring counties that had increased public school enrollment.

The private high schools are largely not in Fairfax so that ends up impacting the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article literally provides statistics on how the enrollment decline in FCPS stands out compared to other area jurisdictions that have seen enrollment statistics, and how the number of homeschooled and private school students living in the county has increased substantially.

We can debate the causes or the exact inferences to be drawn, but when posters come on here and suggest no such data was even provided it’s fairly clear they are just knee-jerk defenders of FCPS and its leadership.

Yeah but did the school age population decline? Did enrollment decline across grades?

The only private school stat in the article is by county, which doesn’t seem right for a dense area like ours. But at least it should list the stats for private schools for neighboring counties that had increased public school enrollment.

It’s kind of a weak argument to imply the responsibility for declines in FCPS lies more with the county supervisors than with FCPS leadership. All levels of county government are dominated by one party and multiple supervisors are former School Board members (Palchik, Sizemore-Heizer, Smith, Storck).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire premise of this topic, that FCPS is failing, is utterly laughable considering that last night a Democrat crushed a Republican who ran on schools failing.

Will republicans never learn that trashing teachers and kids schools is a losing message?

That’s not a logical conclusion. It’s like saying the Iran war is a success because we elected Trump.

Logic really isn't your strong suit is it?

But didn’t you say someone just got elected so the school system can’t be a failure? Just trying to keep up with you. 🤡

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/03/02/virginias-largest-public-school-district-is-unraveling/

"While neighboring districts such as Loudoun County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools grew by 8,315 students and 3,429 students, respectively, Fairfax Schools saw a decrease of 6,894 students during the same period."

"Virginia Department of Education’s data show that roughly a quarter of students in Fairfax Schools failed their reading, math, and science Standards of Learning exams,"

"20% of the district’s 199 public schools are underperforming."

"66,000 students in the state are homeschooled this academic year, up from 38,000 in 2019."

"Ironically, the district spends $22,644 per student in fiscal year 2026—far more than the average private school tuition—yet its classrooms cram 25 students per teacher while private schools manage just 10:1."

On the plus side, all the the school board members appear to be safe in their positions and the voters continue to approve the bond requests.

I have never heard of The Daily Signal, but this has all sorts of red flags: "Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist, and the Washington Examiner." She's also the disgusting creature who dropped out of the race for Fairfax County School Board in 2022 after laughing at an autistic boy who was singing the national anthem. What kind of monster does that? (https://wjla.com/news/local/stephanie-lundquist-arora-candidate-running-republican-gop-fairfax-county-school-board-race-drops-out-laughing-autistic-student-meeting-singing-national-anthem-controversy-7news-reporting-nick-minock-harry-jackson-youngkin-glenn-fcps)

Those are all ideological right-wing publications with a poor history of following basic tenets of journalism. The International Women's Forum basically was founded in reaction to people trying to block Clarence Thomas's nomination to the SCOTUS, i.e. it was created to DEFEND HIM after he was accused of sexual harassment of Anita Hill (and looked how CT's tenure turned out). The Federalist, as we all know, lacks any credibility. And the Daily Signal was created by the Heritage Foundation, the same people who crafted Project 2025, which is systematically being deployed to destroy our country.

So, you will have to forgive me for rejecting this "article" out of hand as being propaganda bullshit. If Stephanie Lundquist-Arora had anything useful to say, she would have found a more credible platform to say it in. The fact that she was unable to speaks volumes.

It did occur to me that Stephanie herself posted this in a lame effort to self-promote. If OP is Stephanie, I guess I'd just tell her to go back to her hole and let the smart people deal with Fairfax.

You've never heard of the daily signal?

Next you're going to say you've never heard of the heritage foundation.

Thats a failure as a washingtonian...

Um, no. I'd never heard of the Daily Signal. I certainly do know the Heritage Foundation. That was enough to discount the Daily Signal out of hand as not a credible source of anything.

Never said it was reliable, but if you know anything about the Heritage Foundation, then you know that the Daily Signal was founded by...
the Heritage Foundation!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-45376

It's not a source used by serious people.

No one cares about your opinion.

Only the very worst a-holes attack our public schools for political purposes.

Nah, the worst run for School Board for political purposes when they neither have nor care about kids. See, e.g., Karl Frisch.

The SB cares more about the students than MAGA/moms for liberty garbage.

Careful. You’re venturing into the territory that got McAuliffe soundly defeated here.

Terry McAuliffe was 100% right. And elections since his loss have proven that. This notion parents seem to have that they are in charge of schools or should micromanage what happens in their child's classroom has backfired completely. All McAuliffe said is there already exist outlets for parental input into the schools -- PTAs, school boards, etc. Otherwise, they should stay in their lanes. They were right. The nutters who continue to harp on failure messages are on quite the losing streak.

Exactly.



100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire premise of this topic, that FCPS is failing, is utterly laughable considering that last night a Democrat crushed a Republican who ran on schools failing.

Will republicans never learn that trashing teachers and kids schools is a losing message?

That’s not a logical conclusion. It’s like saying the Iran war is a success because we elected Trump.

Logic really isn't your strong suit is it?

But didn’t you say someone just got elected so the school system can’t be a failure? Just trying to keep up with you. 🤡

It’s called a referendum. Keep up. I know it’s hard sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/03/02/virginias-largest-public-school-district-is-unraveling/

"While neighboring districts such as Loudoun County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools grew by 8,315 students and 3,429 students, respectively, Fairfax Schools saw a decrease of 6,894 students during the same period."

"Virginia Department of Education’s data show that roughly a quarter of students in Fairfax Schools failed their reading, math, and science Standards of Learning exams,"

"20% of the district’s 199 public schools are underperforming."

"66,000 students in the state are homeschooled this academic year, up from 38,000 in 2019."

"Ironically, the district spends $22,644 per student in fiscal year 2026—far more than the average private school tuition—yet its classrooms cram 25 students per teacher while private schools manage just 10:1."

On the plus side, all the the school board members appear to be safe in their positions and the voters continue to approve the bond requests.

I have never heard of The Daily Signal, but this has all sorts of red flags: "Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist, and the Washington Examiner." She's also the disgusting creature who dropped out of the race for Fairfax County School Board in 2022 after laughing at an autistic boy who was singing the national anthem. What kind of monster does that? (https://wjla.com/news/local/stephanie-lundquist-arora-candidate-running-republican-gop-fairfax-county-school-board-race-drops-out-laughing-autistic-student-meeting-singing-national-anthem-controversy-7news-reporting-nick-minock-harry-jackson-youngkin-glenn-fcps)

Those are all ideological right-wing publications with a poor history of following basic tenets of journalism. The International Women's Forum basically was founded in reaction to people trying to block Clarence Thomas's nomination to the SCOTUS, i.e. it was created to DEFEND HIM after he was accused of sexual harassment of Anita Hill (and looked how CT's tenure turned out). The Federalist, as we all know, lacks any credibility. And the Daily Signal was created by the Heritage Foundation, the same people who crafted Project 2025, which is systematically being deployed to destroy our country.

So, you will have to forgive me for rejecting this "article" out of hand as being propaganda bullshit. If Stephanie Lundquist-Arora had anything useful to say, she would have found a more credible platform to say it in. The fact that she was unable to speaks volumes.

It did occur to me that Stephanie herself posted this in a lame effort to self-promote. If OP is Stephanie, I guess I'd just tell her to go back to her hole and let the smart people deal with Fairfax.

You've never heard of the daily signal?

Next you're going to say you've never heard of the heritage foundation.

Thats a failure as a washingtonian...

Um, no. I'd never heard of the Daily Signal. I certainly do know the Heritage Foundation. That was enough to discount the Daily Signal out of hand as not a credible source of anything.

Never said it was reliable, but if you know anything about the Heritage Foundation, then you know that the Daily Signal was founded by...
the Heritage Foundation!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-45376

It's not a source used by serious people.

No one cares about your opinion.

Only the very worst a-holes attack our public schools for political purposes.

Nah, the worst run for School Board for political purposes when they neither have nor care about kids. See, e.g., Karl Frisch.

The SB cares more about the students than MAGA/moms for liberty garbage.

Careful. You’re venturing into the territory that got McAuliffe soundly defeated here.

Terry McAuliffe was 100% right. And elections since his loss have proven that. This notion parents seem to have that they are in charge of schools or should micromanage what happens in their child's classroom has backfired completely. All McAuliffe said is there already exist outlets for parental input into the schools -- PTAs, school boards, etc. Otherwise, they should stay in their lanes. They were right. The nutters who continue to harp on failure messages are on quite the losing streak.

McAuliffe’s loss speaks for itself, and it was so awful for Democrats that, even now years later, many in the party are begging Dorothy McAuliffe not to challenge Dan Helmer for the new congressional seat because any association with his anti-parent rhetoric is toxic.

So the folks you’re calling nutters include a lot of rank-and-file Democrats. Some of the same folks concerned about trends in FCPS, in fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire premise of this topic, that FCPS is failing, is utterly laughable considering that last night a Democrat crushed a Republican who ran on schools failing.

Will republicans never learn that trashing teachers and kids schools is a losing message?

That’s not a logical conclusion. It’s like saying the Iran war is a success because we elected Trump.

Logic really isn't your strong suit is it?

But didn’t you say someone just got elected so the school system can’t be a failure? Just trying to keep up with you. 🤡

It’s called a referendum. Keep up. I know it’s hard sometimes.

I’m going to press you on this because I still don’t understand your logic. I think you’re implying that a school system can’t be failing because a member of the same party was elected to the term, but that’s pretty pathetic logic.

If you were to say that voters in that district don’t see the system as failing, that gets you closer, but your broad assertions are just too broad.

We can tell you’re cooked because you just stamp your foot without actually trying to address the actual argument. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/03/02/virginias-largest-public-school-district-is-unraveling/

"While neighboring districts such as Loudoun County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools grew by 8,315 students and 3,429 students, respectively, Fairfax Schools saw a decrease of 6,894 students during the same period."

"Virginia Department of Education’s data show that roughly a quarter of students in Fairfax Schools failed their reading, math, and science Standards of Learning exams,"

"20% of the district’s 199 public schools are underperforming."

"66,000 students in the state are homeschooled this academic year, up from 38,000 in 2019."

"Ironically, the district spends $22,644 per student in fiscal year 2026—far more than the average private school tuition—yet its classrooms cram 25 students per teacher while private schools manage just 10:1."

On the plus side, all the the school board members appear to be safe in their positions and the voters continue to approve the bond requests.

I have never heard of The Daily Signal, but this has all sorts of red flags: "Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist, and the Washington Examiner." She's also the disgusting creature who dropped out of the race for Fairfax County School Board in 2022 after laughing at an autistic boy who was singing the national anthem. What kind of monster does that? (https://wjla.com/news/local/stephanie-lundquist-arora-candidate-running-republican-gop-fairfax-county-school-board-race-drops-out-laughing-autistic-student-meeting-singing-national-anthem-controversy-7news-reporting-nick-minock-harry-jackson-youngkin-glenn-fcps)

Those are all ideological right-wing publications with a poor history of following basic tenets of journalism. The International Women's Forum basically was founded in reaction to people trying to block Clarence Thomas's nomination to the SCOTUS, i.e. it was created to DEFEND HIM after he was accused of sexual harassment of Anita Hill (and looked how CT's tenure turned out). The Federalist, as we all know, lacks any credibility. And the Daily Signal was created by the Heritage Foundation, the same people who crafted Project 2025, which is systematically being deployed to destroy our country.

So, you will have to forgive me for rejecting this "article" out of hand as being propaganda bullshit. If Stephanie Lundquist-Arora had anything useful to say, she would have found a more credible platform to say it in. The fact that she was unable to speaks volumes.

It did occur to me that Stephanie herself posted this in a lame effort to self-promote. If OP is Stephanie, I guess I'd just tell her to go back to her hole and let the smart people deal with Fairfax.

You've never heard of the daily signal?

Next you're going to say you've never heard of the heritage foundation.

Thats a failure as a washingtonian...

Um, no. I'd never heard of the Daily Signal. I certainly do know the Heritage Foundation. That was enough to discount the Daily Signal out of hand as not a credible source of anything.

Never said it was reliable, but if you know anything about the Heritage Foundation, then you know that the Daily Signal was founded by...
the Heritage Foundation!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-45376

Yes, dipshit. I said that on the first page of this thread. Do try to keep up.

You said you had never heard of the Daily Signal, but you knew it was created by the Heritage Foundation?

at what point did you learn that fact. your post on page 1 is logically inconsistant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/03/02/virginias-largest-public-school-district-is-unraveling/

"While neighboring districts such as Loudoun County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools grew by 8,315 students and 3,429 students, respectively, Fairfax Schools saw a decrease of 6,894 students during the same period."

"Virginia Department of Education’s data show that roughly a quarter of students in Fairfax Schools failed their reading, math, and science Standards of Learning exams,"

"20% of the district’s 199 public schools are underperforming."

"66,000 students in the state are homeschooled this academic year, up from 38,000 in 2019."

"Ironically, the district spends $22,644 per student in fiscal year 2026—far more than the average private school tuition—yet its classrooms cram 25 students per teacher while private schools manage just 10:1."

On the plus side, all the the school board members appear to be safe in their positions and the voters continue to approve the bond requests.

I have never heard of The Daily Signal, but this has all sorts of red flags: "Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist, and the Washington Examiner." She's also the disgusting creature who dropped out of the race for Fairfax County School Board in 2022 after laughing at an autistic boy who was singing the national anthem. What kind of monster does that? (https://wjla.com/news/local/stephanie-lundquist-arora-candidate-running-republican-gop-fairfax-county-school-board-race-drops-out-laughing-autistic-student-meeting-singing-national-anthem-controversy-7news-reporting-nick-minock-harry-jackson-youngkin-glenn-fcps)

Those are all ideological right-wing publications with a poor history of following basic tenets of journalism. The International Women's Forum basically was founded in reaction to people trying to block Clarence Thomas's nomination to the SCOTUS, i.e. it was created to DEFEND HIM after he was accused of sexual harassment of Anita Hill (and looked how CT's tenure turned out). The Federalist, as we all know, lacks any credibility. And the Daily Signal was created by the Heritage Foundation, the same people who crafted Project 2025, which is systematically being deployed to destroy our country.

So, you will have to forgive me for rejecting this "article" out of hand as being propaganda bullshit. If Stephanie Lundquist-Arora had anything useful to say, she would have found a more credible platform to say it in. The fact that she was unable to speaks volumes.

It did occur to me that Stephanie herself posted this in a lame effort to self-promote. If OP is Stephanie, I guess I'd just tell her to go back to her hole and let the smart people deal with Fairfax.

You've never heard of the daily signal?

Next you're going to say you've never heard of the heritage foundation.

Thats a failure as a washingtonian...

Um, no. I'd never heard of the Daily Signal. I certainly do know the Heritage Foundation. That was enough to discount the Daily Signal out of hand as not a credible source of anything.

Never said it was reliable, but if you know anything about the Heritage Foundation, then you know that the Daily Signal was founded by...
the Heritage Foundation!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-45376

It's not a source used by serious people.

No one cares about your opinion.

Only the very worst a-holes attack our public schools for political purposes.

Nah, the worst run for School Board for political purposes when they neither have nor care about kids. See, e.g., Karl Frisch.

The SB cares more about the students than MAGA/moms for liberty garbage.

Careful. You’re venturing into the territory that got McAuliffe soundly defeated here.

Terry McAuliffe was 100% right. And elections since his loss have proven that. This notion parents seem to have that they are in charge of schools or should micromanage what happens in their child's classroom has backfired completely. All McAuliffe said is there already exist outlets for parental input into the schools -- PTAs, school boards, etc. Otherwise, they should stay in their lanes. They were right. The nutters who continue to harp on failure messages are on quite the losing streak.

Strawman.

Parents disagreed on a number of issues and one particularly contentious one caused the arrest of parents when they were using said existing outlets. That's bad optics. Not here to debate that issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t read the article and don’t want to get into a political debate about the author or the merits of FCPS or whatever. However it is true that enrollment overall, I would describe as “flat.” https://schoolquality.virginia.gov/divisions/fairfax-county-public-schools And use the menu to go to Enrollment. The main thing keeping enrollment right around the usual 180k number is an increase in the preschool programs. These aren’t new students, just students they are capturing a year or two earlier vs. when they would have enrolled in K. These students are also needier, because the only ways to get public preschool/pre K are to be lower income or have special needs. But the numbers of 1-12 (not counting K in that as it always tends to be smaller) is about equal each year. But Pre-K has ballooned from 4280 in 2022-23 to almost 5000 in 24-25 - about a 17% increase.

This is how the article sees to weaponize facts. It insinuates, if not outright claims, that the declining enrollment is due to misfeasance or malfeasance on the part of FCPS when in fact it's due to other externalities. That's what makes the article an ideological, agenda-driven piece of bullshit that simply isn't worthy of serious discussion. It's why everyone here is dismissing it out of hand.

+1