FCTA in the Press

FCTA in the press

Appeared in The Times Community Newspapers, February 19, 1999

Fund Capital Needs from Operating Budget, Not Bonds

By Arthur G. Purves - President of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance

Since 1975, per-student spending from the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) operating budget has increased by over $3000 (70%) after inflation. This increase costs the taxpayers $550 million per year. Since 1975, FCPS has spent $6 billion more than was required to keep up with enrollment and inflation. How has the extra $6 billion benefitted students, teachers, and taxpayers?

In a December 17, 1998, statement School Board Chairman, Dr. Mark H. Emery, offered four reasons why FCPS "..has an international reputation for academic excellence." First, FCPS SAT scores are above the national average. Mr. Emery neglected to say that the average FCPS SAT score is at the 65th percentile. Second, 75% of FCPS graduates go on to four-year colleges. He neglected to say how many graduate from those colleges. Statewide, only 55% of freshmen at four-year colleges graduate, and FCPS has never provided any data to indicate that its students do better than the statewide average. Third, Expansion Management magazine rated FCPS as a Gold Medal school district. However, the magazine bases academic quality only on SAT scores and graduation rates. Do graduation rates reflect the schools or the educational level of parents? Fairfax County is one of the top-ranking counties in the nation for percentage of adults with college degrees. Fourth, a 1997 management review of FCPS by MGT of America stated that FCPS was "one of the best managed school systems in the nation.” MGT based its conclusion on SAT scores and the fact that 87% of administrators, principals, and teachers rated the superintendent as a "strong educational leader." However, MGT misrepresented its own findings . While, 89% of principals and administrators rated the superintendent as good or excellent, only 40% of the teachers did. In fact, a plurality of teachers (47%) rated the superintendent as poor or fair.

FCPS does not systematically test the reading ability of graduates. It is therefore possible for a graduate to read below the high school level.

A traditional, phonics-based, elementary school curriculum, (e.g. E. D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Sequence, Marva Collins schools, Saxon math, Reading Reflex, etc.) would raise academic achievement above the 65th percentile. The Abell Foundation of Baltimore funded in an inner-city public school the implementation of a traditional phonics-based curriculum developed by the Calvert School of Baltimore, whose students typically score above the 90th percentile on standardized tests. The result? Test scores for inner-city students increased by 30 to 50 points and the number of children identified as learning disabled decreased by 75%.

Each year since 1995, Fairfax County has been selling all the bonds it could without lowering its credit rating. Since 1995 the annual cost of debt service has exceeded the amount raised from bond sales by $90 million, enough to build a new high school and a new middle school.

By eliminating ineffective programs from its $1.2 billion operating budget, FCPS can save $200 million without increasing class size, reducing salaries, or cutting band. Of the $200 million, $125 million can be used for school construction while $75 million should be returned to the county for its capital projects, thus eliminating the need to sell bonds. This provides $25 million per year more for school construction than is now available from bond sales, given that debt service must be less than 10% of the county's operating budget.

Ineffective school programs include the following: The Department of Instructional Services constantly changes the curriculum without increasing achievement. The Department of Information Technology has neither increased achievement nor cut administrative costs. The Department of Special Education and Student Services should have prescribed phonics-based instruction in the regular classroom to reduce the demand for special education. Guidance counselors, social workers, and psychologists have neither improved student behavior nor increased achievement. To raise achievement, the seven-period day should be dropped so students can work harder in fewer courses. Reading resource teachers would not be needed if there were phonics-based reading. With a traditional curriculum, regular classes would be as productive as gifted and talented classrooms today, and would eliminate the costs of extensive busing with its adverse impact on school schedules. Teacher evaluations and school plans for computers, new schedules, biennial plans, etc., have increased clerical requirements but not achievement.