Reply to Concerned about lower spending on Regular Kids in FCPS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Over the past ten years FY08 - FY18 (note fiscal years end/begin June 30)

Spending on General Education students (this includes ESOL) has[b] declined[/b] by 7% in real (inflation adjusted) dollars.  In FY08 FCPS spent $11,400 on a GenEd student - in real terms today that is $10,600.

Spending on Special Education students has[b] increased[/b] by 9% in real (inflation adjusted) dollars.  In FY08, FCPS spent $20,200 on a SpecEd student - in real terms today that is $21,800.

There were 4,015 unaccompanied children resettled in Fairfax County over the past 4 years (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/unaccompanied-children-released-to-sponsors-by-county).  At an average cost of $16,390 - ($12,640 avg cost/GenEd student + $3,750 ESOL expense) that is an incremental cost to FCPS of at least $66M every year.

Fairfax County is very generous to Special Needs children and to refugees and immigrants - and I am proud of that generosity.

Is there a point at which spending differences on various groups becomes inequitable or inappropriate and/or unsustainable?  Are people leaving FCPS (and Fairfax County) to go to Loudoun, Arlington, Montgomery Counties seeking more money spent on Regular Kids?  Loudoun population grew 3% last year by 11,386 residents - Fairfax added zero.

Can FCPS become ever more efficient, to help ensure that the money that is available is effectively spent?  If people move out and businesses don't relocate here (or move away), the 'burden' of paying for school falls on fewer and fewer households.   House values in McLean, Great Falls and Vienna are declining - in much of the rest of the County, house values are stagnating.

How can we, as a community, balance the needs of various groups and remain an attractive option for people looking for good schools for their kids, reasonable taxes, good services, safe neighborhoods and a place they might be able to retire?  What choices must be made - especially when the economists and budget analysts look forward and estimate future growth at 2% per year?

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There is a lot of gloom and doom in this post, all trying to support the hypothesis that more money should be spent on "regular kids" and less on special needs and ESOL students.

However, FCPS test scores (SATs) are still the highest in the region - higher than Arlington, Montgomery, and Loudoun.  Property values have been rising in McLean and Vienna, not falling.  Arlington has a higher percentage of FARMS students than Fairfax, and lower SAT scores.  Loudoun has a lower percentage of FARMS students than Fairfax, and lower SAT scores.

If you think more rapid growth will help, you have to think about who is moving in and what demands they will make on the system.  A typical "regular" family with multiple kids in the public schools will make heavier demands than a single taxpayer without kids.  Arlington hasn't been able to keep up with growing enrollment and has a crisis on its hands in terms of dealing with high school capacity.  Kids there very well could be attending a 4,000 student high school in a few years, or going to school in morning and evening shifts.  Loudoun spends enormous resources opening new schools to keep up with the growing enrollment, but has fairly vanilla academic programs with few of the special programs available in Fairfax.  [/quote]

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