Fairfax County BOS Proposes Budget That Guts FCPS

[Anonymous]

More bad news... the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors proposed a budget today that would reduce funding to FCPS, potentially causing the elimination of everything from full-day Kindergarten to band/strings and immersion/FLES. Plus the budget would require adding 1-2 kids to each class. The final budget will be announced by BOS in April.

A couple of groups representing each of these programs is banding together to discuss the situation and actions everyone needs to take in order to try to secure full funding. There will be a meeting tomorrow (Weds.) at 7 p.m. at the Gatehouse Cafe in the 1st floor of the FCPS Administration Bldg. at 8115 Gatehouse Road in Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

When does the state funding amount get finalized? I thought that wasn't until March 13. Isn't any sort of "action" targeting the Board of Supervisors premature?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what you expect the BOS or Fairfax County or the State of Virginia to do ... the revenues are down dramatically at all jurisdiction levels. Even if taxes/fees are raised, there will definitely be educational budget cuts. I'm not suggesting I am overjoyed about that reality, but I don't think it is particularly helpful to flood elected officials with the message that no cuts of any kind are acceptable. I just don't think there are obvious pots of money (or easy low-hanging fruit cuts) sitting around being ignored because they just don't care about education. I think they care a lot, but must make the decisions anyway.

I would prefer to see activist parents band together to identify ways they can provide support via volunteering in the schools, fundraising, etc. rather than just shout and scream that they don't want any cuts at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what you expect the BOS or Fairfax County or the State of Virginia to do ... the revenues are down dramatically at all jurisdiction levels. Even if taxes/fees are raised, there will definitely be educational budget cuts. I'm not suggesting I am overjoyed about that reality, but I don't think it is particularly helpful to flood elected officials with the message that no cuts of any kind are acceptable. I just don't think there are obvious pots of money (or easy low-hanging fruit cuts) sitting around being ignored because they just don't care about education. I think they care a lot, but must make the decisions anyway.

I would prefer to see activist parents band together to identify ways they can provide support via volunteering in the schools, fundraising, etc. rather than just shout and scream that they don't want any cuts at all.

Well said and I am a FCPS teacher. The fact is, times are tough. Cuts are going to be have to made somewhere. Hopefully they will do the best they can and keep as many programs as they can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I would prefer to see activist parents band together to identify ways they can provide support via volunteering in the schools, fundraising, etc. rather than just shout and scream that they don't want any cuts at all.

*\APPLAUSE/*

I watched the February public hearings before the FCPS School Board and those parents that testified ad infinitum about 'band and strings" and "foreign language programs" and then trotted out their kids with their heavily scripted messages were an absolute embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

What those parents want is for County residents to provide their children a private school education for free and really nice housing price values too. And if they think they can't have it ... they threaten to move elsewhere. Not sure just where they are planning to go, however, since every state in the country is going through hard times right now.

[Anonymous]

I would prefer to see activist parents band together to identify ways they can provide support via volunteering in the schools, fundraising, etc. rather than just shout and scream that they don't want any cuts at all.

At our school, the PTA pretty much never STOPS fundraising. Every time I turn around, there's another event, donation, etc. I pay plenty in taxes, but I still give $ to every fundraiser, I buy all the crap my kids come home selling (wrapping paper, raffle tickets, etc.), I send in BoxTops, I register my Giant & Safeway cards for the reward programs, I'm constantly writing checks. I realize my kids are in a great school geting a great education and I'm willing to pay for it in ways other than my taxes. Frankly I'm grateful I can support the school financially b/c I know a lot of families simply can't.

And parents - many, many parents - are in that school every single day, volunteering and giving their time. The parents are the ones who paid for and rebuilt our school playground over the summer.

So I don't agree that parents are just screaming and shouting that they don't want budget cuts but not supporting the schools in other ways. A lot of parents are very involved in the schools. If you are talking about a grassroots effort to save a specific program (eg, band & strings), I agree it would be great if parents were able to fundraise or find a way to start a group that could save that program or some other program - though I'm not entirely sure how that would work on a county-wide basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what you expect the BOS or Fairfax County or the State of Virginia to do ... the revenues are down dramatically at all jurisdiction levels. Even if taxes/fees are raised, there will definitely be educational budget cuts. I'm not suggesting I am overjoyed about that reality, but I don't think it is particularly helpful to flood elected officials with the message that no cuts of any kind are acceptable. I just don't think there are obvious pots of money (or easy low-hanging fruit cuts) sitting around being ignored because they just don't care about education. I think they care a lot, but must make the decisions anyway.

I would prefer to see activist parents band together to identify ways they can provide support via volunteering in the schools, fundraising, etc. rather than just shout and scream that they don't want any cuts at all.

Well said.

It is a difficult situation.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We're not flooding the BOS with letters saying "No cuts whatsoever". I agree that's unrealistic. What we are trying to do is suggest ways that the county can enhance its revenue stream for many critical county services -- libraries, parks, etc. and the public school system. This would include reintroducing the car decal (vehicle registration tax) & raising the property tax rate to a level that sufficiently preserves these services.

Ideally, we don't want property owners to bear the brunt of this increase. We've been lobbying the VA State House & Senate to pass legislation that would allow our BOS to approve a meals tax by unanimous vote rather than requiring a referendum. The Senate passed the legislation, but its fate is uncertain in the House because delegates from other counties apparently think that they can dictate how Fairfax County raises revenues.

Believe me, my husband & I are as active as we can possibly be with volunteering and fundraising for our son's school. But the BOS needs to think about the long-term impact of its actions. If our schools are significantly underfunded, classes will continue to get larger while programs get cut, and this erosion will negatively affect our county’s desirability in terms of attracting businesses, residents, and jobs. For that reason, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep our county's schools & other services at a healthy level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We're not flooding the BOS with letters saying "No cuts whatsoever". I agree that's unrealistic. What we are trying to do is suggest ways that the county can enhance its revenue stream for many critical county services -- libraries, parks, etc. and the public school system. This would include reintroducing the car decal (vehicle registration tax) & raising the property tax rate to a level that sufficiently preserves these services.

Ideally, we don't want property owners to bear the brunt of this increase. We've been lobbying the VA State House & Senate to pass legislation that would allow our BOS to approve a meals tax by unanimous vote rather than requiring a referendum. The Senate passed the legislation, but its fate is uncertain in the House because delegates from other counties apparently think that they can dictate how Fairfax County raises revenues.

Believe me, my husband & I are as active as we can possibly be with volunteering and fundraising for our son's school. But the BOS needs to think about the long-term impact of its actions. If our schools are significantly underfunded, classes will continue to get larger while programs get cut, and this erosion will negatively affect our county’s desirability in terms of attracting businesses, residents, and jobs. For that reason, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep our county's schools & other services at a healthy level.

To OP. Schools are not underfunded. Enhancing the revenue stream means others are still paying more. How many music classes are available at your local elementary school? Opinion on boundary changes that would decrease the need for new schools or additions? The BOS needs to think about the long term implications of it's actions.

One good way to raise revenue is special tax districts with defined geographic inter-county boundaries. FX residents outside the tax district and non-residents pay higher user rates for such sites.

The terrible part about the FCPS budget is the fact that class sizes are always on the front-line rather than adjusting SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP funding. The at-large members need to be voted out as do all others who did not provide appropriate representation to citizens in their magisterial districts.

[Anonymous]

To to OP:

The schools are not "significantly underfunded" when the BASIC PROGRAMS are only included in the mix. What the School Board SHOULD be doing is looking at a county-wise boundary shift to (a) save capital and operating costs of building new schools (such as but not limited to South County) and (b) save transportation costs. But there is very little political will to do such a thing.

My husband and I are very active in volunteering and fundraising for both of our kids' schools as well. And I hope that the Board of Supervisors is not subjected to listening to a repeat performance of the band and strings people and the foreign language people. The limited funding we have now should benefit the MOST kids. When times are better (and they will be), then the funding can be expanded once again for the special programs. But not now when EVERYONE is cutting back.

[Anonymous]

OP is all about raising taxes and fees to support nice-to-have school programs paid for by all residents of the jurisdiction. If money was abundant ... I too would love to see all children schooled in music and early foreign language and lacrosse and and and. The car decals are now back in the budget and soon on everyones cars at a proposed $33 a piece (they were $25 when abolished) ... this is a highly regressive tax that hurts lower income families.

If upper income families wish to have their child have every possible educational advantage, they can easily supplement the school curriculum with afterschool extracurriculars OR pay to send their children to private school. FCPS is NOT underfunded for good, basic education.