Forum Index
»
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
FCPS Budget Cuts
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/07/AR2010010703945.html?sub=AR
"In addition to proposing steep cuts, the 2011 spending plan, the first released by a school system in Northern Virginia, asks county supervisors for a $58 million increase in funding. The Fairfax school system's increased spending is tied to enrollment growth and rising costs for retirement benefits, utilities and health insurance. School officials estimate that an additional $176 million is needed to fully fund existing programs" What am I missing? How does about 2000 more students, retirement, utilites and health insurance get to over $200m? |
Anonymous
Teacher's Unions. |
Anonymous
Hmmm.. well presumably those 2,000 more students will need some teachers to teach them. So say you keep class sizes at 25 students per teacher. That'd be about 80 new teachers. Teachers need to be highly qualified these days, and certified. Salary plus benefits I have been told can mean the school district needs to pay $100,000 per year, per teacher. The teacher doesn't earn that much of course, but that's what they cost the school district. 80 new teachers x $100,000 = $80,000,000 And the school district operating budget is something like 2 billion each year. I imagine rising cost of heating and cooling buildings could take up 1/200th of that easily enough, for another $1,000,000. |
Anonymous
| Blaming the unions is such a knee-jerk response. Virginia Teacher's Unions simply do not have the influence that unions in other states (like New York). |
Anonymous
| Really? So why does Fairfax County still have half-day Mondays? |