No. VA parents: Please write Gov. McDonnell ASAP and urge him not to freeze the LCI

[Anonymous]

Why: Gov. Kaine proposed, and Gov. McDonnell may support, freezing the Local Composite Index (LCI) by which school divisions receive state education funds. The LCI was designed to be automatically indexed every 2 years to account for changes in local governments' ability to pay education expenses. Northern VA schools will lose due to LCI freeze (approx.): Fairfax Co. ($61M) Loudoun ($34M) Prince Wm ($23M) Other ($20M) NoVA Total ($138M). If these school districts lose money, their schools suffer, economic development in NoVa suffers, and then the rest of state suffers. All of Virginia needs our schools to remain among the best in the nation.

Here's how:

(1) Sign an online petition against the LCI Freeze: Here is the link: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/do-not-freeze-the-lci

(2) Write the Governor and your legislators regarding the issue directly. Below is a sample letter to the Governor for parents in Fairfax County. It can be adapted for other counties and/or for your legislators. The following link takes you to a page where you can email the Governor if you prefer that to regular mail: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TheAdministration/contactGovernor.cfm

This link provides you with the ability to look up your legislators and provides you with their contact information: http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform







The Honorable Robert McDonnell
Office of the Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Dear Governor McDonnell:

Re: Please do not Freeze the LCI


I write to you today as a very concerned Fairfax County schools parent and resident of the Commonwealth. Specifically, I am writing to urge you to oppose the proposed freeze to the Local Composite Index (or LCI).


An LCI freeze would deeply wound our county’s schools and also harm the economy of the entire Commonwealth. For our schools, the freeze would lead directly to major funding cuts, the loss of key programs, and cause class sizes to increase further. For our economy, an LCI freeze means erosion in the quality of our schools and, therefore, the loss of that which keeps our real estate values strong and makes our county so desirable to businesses seeking to relocate. Further decreases in real estate values and the loss of businesses to Maryland or the District of Columbia deprives the Commonwealth of new sources of revenue. An LCI freeze hurts all of Virginia.


Please protect Fairfax County’s schools and the Commonwealth’s economy. Please oppose the LCI freeze.



Sincerely,

[Anonymous]

OP again. If you are so inclined to write Gov McDonnell I suggest the following letter as a template to Gov McDonnell - not the original one posted as it needed a correction. Thanks.


Post 02/03/2010 22:08 Subject: No. VA parents: Please write Gov. McDonnell ASAP and urge him not to freeze the LCI
Why: Gov. Kaine proposed, and Gov. McDonnell may support, freezing the Local Composite Index (LCI) by which school divisions receive state education funds. The LCI was designed to be automatically indexed every 2 years to account for changes in local governments' ability to pay education expenses. Northern VA schools will lose due to LCI freeze (approx.): Fairfax Co. ($61M) Loudoun ($34M) Prince Wm ($23M) Other ($20M) NoVA Total ($138M). If these school districts lose money, their schools suffer, economic development in NoVa suffers, and then the rest of state suffers. All of Virginia needs our schools to remain among the best in the nation.

Here's how:

(1) Sign an online petition against the LCI Freeze: Here is the link: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/do-not-freeze-the-lci

(2) Write the Governor and your legislators regarding the issue directly. Below is a sample letter to the Governor for parents in Fairfax County. It can be adapted for other counties and/or for your legislators. The following link takes you to a page where you can email the Governor if you prefer that to regular mail: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TheAdministration/contactGovernor.cfm

This link provides you with the ability to look up your legislators and provides you with their contact information: http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform







The Honorable Robert McDonnell
Office of the Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Dear Governor McDonnell:

Re: Please do not Freeze the LCI


I write to you today as a very concerned Fairfax County schools parent and resident of the Commonwealth. Specifically, I am writing to urge you to oppose the proposed freeze to the Local Composite Index (or LCI).


An LCI freeze would deeply wound our county’s schools and also harm the economy of the entire Commonwealth. For our schools, the freeze would lead directly to major funding cuts, the loss of key programs, and cause class sizes to increase further. For our economy, an LCI freeze means erosion in the quality of our schools and, therefore, the loss of that which makes our county desirable to businesses seeking to relocate. The loss of businesses to Maryland or the District of Columbia deprives the Commonwealth of new sources of revenue. An LCI freeze hurts all of Virginia.


Please protect Fairfax County’s schools and the Commonwealth’s economy. Please oppose the LCI freeze.



Sincerely,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting the links. I signed the online petition.

[Anonymous]

I am pleased that you are so interested in seeing all of Virginia benefit by increasing the funding of NOVA schools. How very altruistic of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am pleased that you are so interested in seeing all of Virginia benefit by increasing the funding of NOVA schools. How very altruistic of you.

The real issue is that there is a formula in place that recognizes not just local jurisdiction wealth but at-risk kids - how many title 1 schools are in Fairfax County? How many students in the county qualify for reduced cost or free meals? This money belongs to them.....


The money should go to Fairfax County - the formula has been in place for something like 40 years and now, when it benefits Northern VA a little bit, we change it? Northern VA schools will see an increase in student enrollment by about 11,000 students; non-NoVA schools will see a decrease. There are 32 Title I elementary schools in FCPS. 19% of FCPS students receive free/reduced price lunch. This money IS for them - for us.

[Anonymous]

Here's a really informative letter from area Chambers of Commerce about this issue.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/businesses.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am pleased that you are so interested in seeing all of Virginia benefit by increasing the funding of NOVA schools. How very altruistic of you.

I'm as altruistic as the next guy, but it does seem unfair that NoVa funds schools in the rest of the state during the good times, but when our property values dip and we lose revenue, while gaining students, we're expected to fund the school districts that have not lost as much in property values and have lost students. The rest of the state has benefitted from our high property values (and the taxes they bring in) for years. How about a little payback when we need it? Not to mention, if they underfund NoVa schools now, the property values may continue to decline as a lot of people live there for the good schools. If the values continue to decline, that means less money for the state overall kind of self-defeating for the parts of the state that depend on NoVa for funding.

[Anonymous]

Last time I checked, DC metro area real estate is suffering the least in the country. In addition, Fairfax schools are not only scholastically ranked as some of the best in the country, they are also the most highly funded. I am sure Bob has some bigger issues on his plate and would be better served by us letting him accomplish those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am pleased that you are so interested in seeing all of Virginia benefit by increasing the funding of NOVA schools. How very altruistic of you.

I'm as altruistic as the next guy, but it does seem unfair that NoVa funds schools in the rest of the state during the good times, but when our property values dip and we lose revenue, while gaining students, we're expected to fund the school districts that have not lost as much in property values and have lost students. The rest of the state has benefitted from our high property values (and the taxes they bring in) for years. How about a little payback when we need it? Not to mention, if they underfund NoVa schools now, the property values may continue to decline as a lot of people live there for the good schools. If the values continue to decline, that means less money for the state overall kind of self-defeating for the parts of the state that depend on NoVa for funding.

*\APPLAUSE/*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a really informative letter from area Chambers of Commerce about this issue.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/businesses.pdf

Thanks for posting this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last time I checked, DC metro area real estate is suffering the least in the country. In addition, Fairfax schools are not only scholastically ranked as some of the best in the country, they are also the most highly funded. I am sure Bob has some bigger issues on his plate and would be better served by us letting him accomplish those.

So you don't care about Prince William County?

[Anonymous]

It already costs a child (generally) twice that to educate him or her in a public school then a Catholic school. I have witnessed several schools in my area use their funding to remodel brick facades because they appeared dated, reseed fields that were perfectly adequate, etc. If this extra money was actually going to help my child score better on the SAT then maybe I could support funding the cause. However, I know that these state tax dollars in part buy appetizers during diversity day. Let's use our time and effort to write to the new Governor requesting tax cuts, which will benefit everyone.

[Anonymous]

quote=Anonymous]Last time I checked, DC metro area real estate is suffering the least in the country. In addition, Fairfax schools are not only scholastically ranked as some of the best in the country, they are also the most highly funded. I am sure Bob has some bigger issues on his plate and would be better served by us letting him accomplish those.


NoVa real estate values is suffering more than that in other parts of the state, which is the relevant comparison here. Fairfax schools are among the most poorly funded in the NoVa region, spending thosands of dollars less per student than Arlington, Falls Church, Alexandria, and Montgomery County. They can't maintain that quality of education with these continual budget cuts and salary freezes for teachers. Our property values will suffer even more as people choose to move somewhere other than Fairfax, where educational quality is falling. This is a fundamental issue of fairness. We've been living with this formula for years. Now it's time for the rest of Virginia to live with the consequences of it, and not cheat by changing the rules as soon as they stop liking them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It already costs a child (generally) twice that to educate him or her in a public school then a Catholic school. I have witnessed several schools in my area use their funding to remodel brick facades because they appeared dated, reseed fields that were perfectly adequate, etc. If this extra money was actually going to help my child score better on the SAT then maybe I could support funding the cause. However, I know that these state tax dollars in part buy appetizers during diversity day. Let's use our time and effort to write to the new Governor requesting tax cuts, which will benefit everyone.

ANd you think the associated cuts in services will benefit everybody, too? It sure would be nice to get something for nothing, but that's not the way the world works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It already costs a child (generally) twice that to educate him or her in a public school then a Catholic school. I have witnessed several schools in my area use their funding to remodel brick facades because they appeared dated, reseed fields that were perfectly adequate, etc. If this extra money was actually going to help my child score better on the SAT then maybe I could support funding the cause. However, I know that these state tax dollars in part buy appetizers during diversity day. Let's use our time and effort to write to the new Governor requesting tax cuts, which will benefit everyone.

ANd you think the associated cuts in services will benefit everybody, too? It sure would be nice to get something for nothing, but that's not the way the world works.

Actually, it DOES work that way if you live in the "real Virginia" and not Northern Virginia. They get Northern Virginia's tax dollars, allowing them to get far more in services than they pay for in taxes.