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On Nov. 4, Fairfax County voters will be asked one very simple question which will determine the fate of the county school system well into the next century: Will voters approve the selling of a record $232 million in bonds for projects across the county?

More than the fate of the school system is at stake. This is a fundamental question that will strike at the heart of the county's ability to attract and maintain world-class businesses and its ability to remain the economic engine of the Washington area.

The bond package includes the construction of a new high school in the Westfields area to relieve overenrollment at Centreville High School, where there are 32 ``temporary classrooms,'' as well as the overenrollment at Chantilly, Oakton and Herndon high schools. The package will finally provide money to improve the facilities for some of our most vulnerable students, those at the 10 special education centers across the county.

Without this money students at McLean, Annandale, Lee, Stuart and Madison high schools will continue to have substandard science laboratories and outdated computer, art and music facilities. One-quarter of our high schools will not be able to offer curriculum choices available in the newer schools.

Without this bond money, construction of the new elementary school in South Centreville be delayed and the badly needed McNair Farms Elementary School in Herndon will be pushed off into the next century. That will worsen the overenrollment at the rapidly aging Floris Elementary School, whose renovation will be delayed beyond 2002.

Microwaves or computers?

Fairfax County is becoming known as an eastern Silicon Valley, yet many of our schools don't have adequate numbers of electrical plugs to run computers even if the schools have them. At some of our schools it is impossible to run a microwave oven in the teachers' lounge and use a computer in the office at the same time.

How will our own school system be able to prepare workers for the 19,000 technologically oriented jobs the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce estimates are available today, if our schools don't have basic electrical systems to support technology?

While the population growth of the last 20 years has greatly expanded the system, the rate of growth now is faster than we have seen in many years. In September 1996 there were 147,000 students in the system, but this year there are now almost 150,000. That is an astounding 3,000 students added in one year. If that trend continues for five years we will have an enrollment of nearly 166,000.

In a major review done by MGT Inc., an independent management consultant company, the planning, construction and funding practices of the school system and the county were found to be outstanding. Those practices have been adopted by the company as models against which they will measure other school systems.

But in order to stay a model school system, we need to keep a substantial cash flow supporting the facilities program. A break in that funding puts new construction at risk, jeopardizes the maintenance of existing buildings and will require more money eventually to fund renovations and major upkeep.

Package won't raise taxes

This bond package is designed not to raise the taxes. The new bonds will only be issued as the county retires old bonds and as construction needs warrant. The sales will be blended into the debt program of the county, which is limited to 10 percent of operating funds.

By selling bonds and extending their repayment over a long period of time, the county also ensures that people who will move here in the future pay something toward the costs of the buildings. That is fair.

What is the current cost to the average homeowner? About $96 a year of the average 1997 real estate bill of roughly $2,400 goes to pay for school bond debt retirement. That is about $8 a month to maintain facilities worth about $2 billion, and to add more. Voters are being asked to spend less than the cost of pizza to continue to support something that is vital to the county educational program and to the county's economy.

That is a bargain. I urge everyone in Fairfax County to support and recognize that this package is in their best interest.