The Fairfax County Public Schools are currently among the very best in the nation.  The reputation of our stellar public schools serves as the “economic engine” of our county, drawing corporate relocation and sustaining healthy real estate demand as families seek to enroll their children in our Fairfax County Public School System.  As Fairfax County voters, we are ardent supporters of quality public education and are very concerned that our hard earned reputation of public school excellence is eroding.  Specifically, we demand that the FCPS be funded for the 2010-2011 school year at a rate no lower than the average cost per student contained in the 2009 approved budget.

The facts are these:  Over 85% of the FCPS budget is spent on providing instructional programs and 5.6% is spent on transportation.  The remaining 9% of the budget for non-instructional programs has already received a 15% cut over the past two years and totals only 203.8 Million Dollars in the 2009-2010 budget.   FCPS already has the highest management efficiency rate in our area (less than 1%) and non-school based personnel only account for 7.7% of the personnel employed by FCPS.  Failure to support increasing enrollment with sufficient funding will result in further cuts to instructional programming, which we find totally unacceptable.   

We, voters of Fairfax County, request the Board of Supervisors step up and make the difficult choices required to stop the further degradation of public education in Fairfax County and keep the stellar reputation of our school system intact. The Board of Supervisors must understand that when their actions erode the quality of our schools, they also decrease the quality of life in Fairfax County both now and for many years to come.