McDaniel on FCPS budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm for it. Will tax more undocumented individuals.

Tax those tacos.

Far better for the illegals to leave.

Wishful thinking.

[Anonymous]

We don't eat out much at all. Ever since the tipping culture has exploded and you are made to feel bad to not tip on a pizza carryout 20 percent. For instance, I took my kids to sweet frog which is expensive already, you take a cup and fill it yourself with ice cream and put your own toppings. Then you go pay and they ask for 20 percent tip. Tip for what? I stopped going and avoid eating out. I make our own food and buy our own ice cream. Take out is only a seldom occurance for our family. I don't care about this meals tax personally because I will probably eat out even less than now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m convinced Fairfax County Schools is broke. They are looking for cash wherever they can.

They have over 3 BILLION dollar budget.

It is a money management issue, not a lack of funds issue.

They need to be audited.

100 percent. I think companies like crate & barrel total revenue is $3 billion ish. That’s the same size as fcps now?

I’m not sure about how you’d be able to accurately compare a commercial retail chain and a school district, but Crate and Barrel is smaller, with about 7,500 employees and 150 stores based on what I gathered from a quick search.

Plenty of other companies make that with more efficiency. Prob bc they don’t pay a pension. Fcps has to contribute to the pension.


Still $3 bills is a lot of waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m convinced Fairfax County Schools is broke. They are looking for cash wherever they can.

They have over 3 BILLION dollar budget.

It is a money management issue, not a lack of funds issue.

They need to be audited.

Absolutely. They don't need more money. They need to spend less.

But the trend is to get more money to support more programs. We need more programs.

And more programs.


And more programs.


And more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m convinced Fairfax County Schools is broke. They are looking for cash wherever they can.

They have over 3 BILLION dollar budget.

It is a money management issue, not a lack of funds issue.

They need to be audited.

Absolutely. They don't need more money. They need to spend less.

But the trend is to get more money to support more programs. We need more programs.

And more programs.


And more programs.


And more.

It’s because the test scores suck and they would probably see the most improvement by paying the highest and getting the best teachers but they go for another program instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.ffxnow.com/2024/08/01/fairfax-county-school-boards-new-budget-chair-suggests-change-in-approach-to-funding-challenges/

Just saw this and had to laugh. They must be smoking something if they think they’re going to have the public on their side for the meals tax or increased budget after detrimentally pressing reset on the boundaries.

If anything, the FCPS SB is doing everything that it can to get vouchers in Virginia.

Who wants to be taxed more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes to the meals tax. It's paid predominantly by visitors from outside the county who are here on business or leisure.

And cut all the positions for teachers who aren't teaching: "specialists" and "coordinators" or similar at Gatehouse, instructional coaches, AART, etc. Interlopers who just add to everybody's workload to justify their pointless jobs.

It also hurts small business restaurants in the area. We don’t eat out that much, but I could see where this would put a lot of restaurants out of business. But the local democrats are so far left that they no longer care about trivialities like that.

So many neighboring places have meals taxes and t doesn’t hurt their restaurants. Restaurants have jacked up prices and are demanding tips for everything and they are still packed. Demand is strong.

I definitely support the meals tax for the county and the schools so that the on,y source of revenue isn’t property tax. Or let’s lobby the state to allow localities to enact an income tax like most places can in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They just raised home taxes by a significant margin this summer.

Where is that money going?

FCPS needs an independent audit.

The money is going to offset the losses from taxes on commercial real estate, which resulted from COVID and changes in work culture (remote work, telework, etc.). It’s clear from FCPS’s budget where the money goes. The overwhelming majority (85%) is teacher and teacher assistant salaries/benefits, and then you have transportation, facilities management and maintenance, and administration. IMO, administration seems like it could be cut some, but that doesn’t move the needle, so something has to be done about transportation and facilities management and maintenance. Yes, FCPS is large and spread out, but FCPS’s transportation costs are around triple the per student cost of neighboring counties.

Which counties are you comparing it to and where did you pull the info? Are you comparing the cost to the individual counties or the counties averaged together?

Fairfax— 406.57 square miles
Arlington- 26 square miles
Loudoun-521.24
Prince William -348.26

Fairfax is drastically bigger than Arlington and significantly larger than Prince William. Certainly it is smaller than Loudoun County; but I don’t know how the population is distribution across the county, what programs they may be running or what traffic patterns may cause them to be able to spend less (assuming you compared them directly to FCPS).
Arlington may have their schools located in such a way that more students can walk or bike to school. Housing density would be a large part of that. If the residences closer to the schools are a higher percentage of apartments, townhomes or sfh on .2 acre lots vs fewer apts/townhomes and more 1 acre lots, that makes a difference.
As much as I think FCPS wastes money, it isn’t as simple as “doh nearby counties spend less.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes to the meals tax. It's paid predominantly by visitors from outside the county who are here on business or leisure.

And cut all the positions for teachers who aren't teaching: "specialists" and "coordinators" or similar at Gatehouse, instructional coaches, AART, etc. Interlopers who just add to everybody's workload to justify their pointless jobs.

It also hurts small business restaurants in the area. We don’t eat out that much, but I could see where this would put a lot of restaurants out of business. But the local democrats are so far left that they no longer care about trivialities like that.

So many neighboring places have meals taxes and t doesn’t hurt their restaurants. Restaurants have jacked up prices and are demanding tips for everything and they are still packed. Demand is strong.

I definitely support the meals tax for the county and the schools so that the on,y source of revenue isn’t property tax. Or let’s lobby the state to allow localities to enact an income tax like most places can in the country.

That’s like saying pesticide doesn’t hurt bees because you still see bees around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes to the meals tax. It's paid predominantly by visitors from outside the county who are here on business or leisure.

And cut all the positions for teachers who aren't teaching: "specialists" and "coordinators" or similar at Gatehouse, instructional coaches, AART, etc. Interlopers who just add to everybody's workload to justify their pointless jobs.

It also hurts small business restaurants in the area. We don’t eat out that much, but I could see where this would put a lot of restaurants out of business. But the local democrats are so far left that they no longer care about trivialities like that.

So many neighboring places have meals taxes and t doesn’t hurt their restaurants. Restaurants have jacked up prices and are demanding tips for everything and they are still packed. Demand is strong.

I definitely support the meals tax for the county and the schools so that the on,y source of revenue isn’t property tax. Or let’s lobby the state to allow localities to enact an income tax like most places can in the country.

I would rather have a meals tax than increasing personal property tax, but why target meals instead of something else? Also, why not do an audit of their current spending? Maybe not spend 20k on talking to Ib.ramK.endi for an hour? Perhaps not spend $$ on changing name of schools and give the teachers retention bonuses instead? Maybe don't pay the superintendent and her chief of staff more than the president and secretary of defense? Just my 2 cents..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m convinced Fairfax County Schools is broke. They are looking for cash wherever they can.

They have over 3 BILLION dollar budget.

It is a money management issue, not a lack of funds issue.

They need to be audited.

Absolutely. They don't need more money. They need to spend less.

But the trend is to get more money to support more programs. We need more programs.

And more programs.


And more programs.


And more.

It’s because the test scores suck and they would probably see the most improvement by paying the highest and getting the best teachers but they go for another program instead.

Learning is not just a school responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes to the meals tax. It's paid predominantly by visitors from outside the county who are here on business or leisure.

And cut all the positions for teachers who aren't teaching: "specialists" and "coordinators" or similar at Gatehouse, instructional coaches, AART, etc. Interlopers who just add to everybody's workload to justify their pointless jobs.

It also hurts small business restaurants in the area. We don’t eat out that much, but I could see where this would put a lot of restaurants out of business. But the local democrats are so far left that they no longer care about trivialities like that.

So many neighboring places have meals taxes and t doesn’t hurt their restaurants. Restaurants have jacked up prices and are demanding tips for everything and they are still packed. Demand is strong.

I definitely support the meals tax for the county and the schools so that the on,y source of revenue isn’t property tax. Or let’s lobby the state to allow localities to enact an income tax like most places can in the country.

I would rather have a meals tax than increasing personal property tax, but why target meals instead of something else? Also, why not do an audit of their current spending? Maybe not spend 20k on talking to Ib.ramK.endi for an hour? Perhaps not spend $$ on changing name of schools and give the teachers retention bonuses instead? Maybe don't pay the superintendent and her chief of staff more than the president and secretary of defense? Just my 2 cents..

No tax increase is the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes to the meals tax. It's paid predominantly by visitors from outside the county who are here on business or leisure.

And cut all the positions for teachers who aren't teaching: "specialists" and "coordinators" or similar at Gatehouse, instructional coaches, AART, etc. Interlopers who just add to everybody's workload to justify their pointless jobs.

It also hurts small business restaurants in the area. We don’t eat out that much, but I could see where this would put a lot of restaurants out of business. But the local democrats are so far left that they no longer care about trivialities like that.

So many neighboring places have meals taxes and t doesn’t hurt their restaurants. Restaurants have jacked up prices and are demanding tips for everything and they are still packed. Demand is strong.

I definitely support the meals tax for the county and the schools so that the on,y source of revenue isn’t property tax. Or let’s lobby the state to allow localities to enact an income tax like most places can in the country.

Sounds socialist or borderline you know what

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is definitely a bit of fat in FCPS, but the vast majority is salaries for underpaid instructional staff. Simple supply and demand economics dictates that wages for teachers need to rise, or this shortage is only going to get worse. The division is already hundreds of teachers in the hole going into this school year, with ever-decreasing enrollments at teacher colleges.

Would love to hear OP’s strategies for recruiting a workforce when most of our staff aren’t currently paid a wage that allows them to even rent in Fairfax.

OP here. I voted for the meals tax the last go round. I was a supporter of public schools until the spring 2024 “great boundary reset” exercise. So, at this point, I just can’t support a school district that is running itself into the ground because of equity. They’ve done nothing to garner my support and everything to lose it. Maybe they don’t need my support, but I don’t think I’m the only one thoroughly disgusted with the 8130 push over the objection of constituents.

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t have a strategy and it’s more of a protest vote, unfortunately. Though, I’m not the one making the decisions and they aren’t listening to people like me anyway.

The 8130 push is one of the few options to get school transportation and facility costs under control. Roughly 85% of the FFX County school system budget is spent on teachers and teaching assistants. The remainder of the budget is where there is potential for savings, namely transportation costs (5.4% or $207 million), facilities management (3.8% or $145 million), and general support and administration (5% or $190 million). School board members have seen staff estimates showing that annual transportation costs could be cut by 10% to 20% and facilities management costs could be cut by 5% to 10% through more efficient district boundaries and better utilization of county-wide capacity. That’s potential for up to $50 million in annual savings that could be put toward more teachers and reducing classroom sizes. But opposition to 8130 and similar measures makes it very difficult for the administrator and board to make changes to realize those savings.

The current school system budget is unsustainable, as teachers are underpaid (relative to the surrounding counties) and attrition is excessive (leading to severe understaffing and many classes led by assistants and subs), so significantly more funding is needed, and, if it’s not going to come through more efficient district boundaries and better utilization of county-wide capacity, then it needs to come from the state (which the county has no control over) or through local taxes (property taxes or meal taxes). Realistically, if Richmond won’t provide more funding, then it will likely require an all-of-the-above approach of more efficient school boundaries and new/higher taxes.

Within the context of the overall budget, $50M reallocated away from transportation and facilities is not worth it, especially if it’s only realized by changing school boundaries and disrupting family and community ties to existing pyramids. It seems almost like an exercise in blackmail, whereby the School Board will engage in a highly disruptive exercise in order to focus attention on the additional money it wants from both the state and county taxpayers.

FCPS lost 10K kids due to its response to COVID and could lose another 10K kids if it implements widely unpopular boundary changes. The current School Board seems to have no clue as to how fragile the system is right now, and their apparent insistence on county-wide boundary changes may just push it over the edge.

FCPS needs another $100M for staff (new staff/backfills and benefits) to get attrition under control, so, if you aren’t supportive of the County pursuing $50M in savings through more efficient bussing and facilities utilization, then I hope you are supportive of increased property taxes and a meal tax. Because if we don’t get those taxes, it will force the school board to make more draconian changes than they would otherwise to to keep class sizes at current levels.

I don’t accept that your number justifies system-wide changes that will send more families fleeing out of FCPS.

Enjoy your self-inflicted death spiral.

The money has to come from somewhere. If residents won’t support taxes, what choice do they have?

Have the school manage its budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is definitely a bit of fat in FCPS, but the vast majority is salaries for underpaid instructional staff. Simple supply and demand economics dictates that wages for teachers need to rise, or this shortage is only going to get worse. The division is already hundreds of teachers in the hole going into this school year, with ever-decreasing enrollments at teacher colleges.

Would love to hear OP’s strategies for recruiting a workforce when most of our staff aren’t currently paid a wage that allows them to even rent in Fairfax.

OP here. I voted for the meals tax the last go round. I was a supporter of public schools until the spring 2024 “great boundary reset” exercise. So, at this point, I just can’t support a school district that is running itself into the ground because of equity. They’ve done nothing to garner my support and everything to lose it. Maybe they don’t need my support, but I don’t think I’m the only one thoroughly disgusted with the 8130 push over the objection of constituents.

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t have a strategy and it’s more of a protest vote, unfortunately. Though, I’m not the one making the decisions and they aren’t listening to people like me anyway.

The 8130 push is one of the few options to get school transportation and facility costs under control. Roughly 85% of the FFX County school system budget is spent on teachers and teaching assistants. The remainder of the budget is where there is potential for savings, namely transportation costs (5.4% or $207 million), facilities management (3.8% or $145 million), and general support and administration (5% or $190 million). School board members have seen staff estimates showing that annual transportation costs could be cut by 10% to 20% and facilities management costs could be cut by 5% to 10% through more efficient district boundaries and better utilization of county-wide capacity. That’s potential for up to $50 million in annual savings that could be put toward more teachers and reducing classroom sizes. But opposition to 8130 and similar measures makes it very difficult for the administrator and board to make changes to realize those savings.

The current school system budget is unsustainable, as teachers are underpaid (relative to the surrounding counties) and attrition is excessive (leading to severe understaffing and many classes led by assistants and subs), so significantly more funding is needed, and, if it’s not going to come through more efficient district boundaries and better utilization of county-wide capacity, then it needs to come from the state (which the county has no control over) or through local taxes (property taxes or meal taxes). Realistically, if Richmond won’t provide more funding, then it will likely require an all-of-the-above approach of more efficient school boundaries and new/higher taxes.

Within the context of the overall budget, $50M reallocated away from transportation and facilities is not worth it, especially if it’s only realized by changing school boundaries and disrupting family and community ties to existing pyramids. It seems almost like an exercise in blackmail, whereby the School Board will engage in a highly disruptive exercise in order to focus attention on the additional money it wants from both the state and county taxpayers.

FCPS lost 10K kids due to its response to COVID and could lose another 10K kids if it implements widely unpopular boundary changes. The current School Board seems to have no clue as to how fragile the system is right now, and their apparent insistence on county-wide boundary changes may just push it over the edge.

FCPS needs another $100M for staff (new staff/backfills and benefits) to get attrition under control, so, if you aren’t supportive of the County pursuing $50M in savings through more efficient bussing and facilities utilization, then I hope you are supportive of increased property taxes and a meal tax. Because if we don’t get those taxes, it will force the school board to make more draconian changes than they would otherwise to to keep class sizes at current levels.

I don’t accept that your number justifies system-wide changes that will send more families fleeing out of FCPS.

Enjoy your self-inflicted death spiral.

The money has to come from somewhere. If residents won’t support taxes, what choice do they have?

Have the school manage its budget.

Common sense