We support:
- Open schools for in-person education, 5 days a week
- School choice and vouchers so that tax dollars follow the student, and give parents control
- Merit-based admission standards for Governor’s Schools (TJ High School) and academic programs
- High academic standards, such as advanced math & science, so students can compete in a global economy
- Focus on academics not critical race theory (CRT)
Fairfax County Public Schools By the Numbers:
- 10th largest school system
- ~75% of Fairfax County’s 1.1 million residents do not currently have children in FCPS
- 198 schools and centers
- 800+ trailers
- 27.5 million square feet of covered infrastructure facilities, plus another 1+ million square feet in temporary facilities (trailers)
- 1,630 buses, the largest school bus fleet in the United States
- 18.5 million bus miles traveled annually transporting 130,000 students daily
- 15,287 teacher positions
- 24,121 total full-time positions (includes teacher positions)
- ~14,000 additional part-time positions
FCPS School Board
- 12 Board Members – nine by Magisterial District, three at-Large – all serve 4 year terms
- 4 total number of Board Members each voter may cast a ballot for; , 1 for the voter’s Magisterial District and three at-Large.
FCPS Budget
- $2,870,278,776 Billion operational budget – primarily funded by Fairfax County residents (70.1 percent). The balance of the funding is from the Commonwealth of Virginia (23.1 percent), other sources (6.8 percent) and the federal government (1.6 percent)
- ~53% of the entire Fairfax County budget is transferred by the Board of Supervisors to the School Board for the FCPS Budget
- $404,874,411 of the $2.9 Billion budget is for retirement
- $155 Million in additional funds is for the Capital Improvement Plan Budget
- $15,318 average cost per student
KEY LINKS:
- Budget Documents: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/budget/budget-documents
- Budget Questions and Responses: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/budget/budget-question-responses
- Capital Improvement Program: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/facilities-planning-future/capital-improvement-program
- School Board: https://www.fcps.edu/school-board
- Cox Channel 21 – Televised School Board Meetings
- School Board Meetings: https://www.fcps.edu/school-board/school-board-meetings
- School Board Meeting agendas, minutes, videos and photos: https://www.fcps.edu/school-board/agenda_minutes_photos
- FCPS Livestream: https://www.fcps.edu/tv
- School Board Meetings on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSz76NCRDYQF3hPS2qS2SGEcoO4__Yd7Z
- Archived School Board Meeting Videos: https://www.fcps.edu/node/32692
- School Board Standing Committees: https://www.fcps.edu/school-board/school-board-committees
- About FCPS: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps
- One Fairfax: https://www.fcps.edu/onefairfax
Judicial Watch Challenges TJ’s Race-Based Admissions Scheme
Judicial Watch announced today that it filed an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief along with the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) in support of the Coalition for Thomas Jefferson High School’s challenge to race-based admissions policies for the nationally-known public high school that were put in place at in Fairfax County, Virginia (Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board et al.).
Youngkin Names Reformers to State Education Boards
Governor Glenn Youngkin announced he has chosen additional key administration appointments. “I’m delighted to appoint this group of proven leaders in their respective fields to help ensure every student has a best-in-class education,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “I have tasked these innovators to bring their expertise as parents, industry leaders, educators, and policymakers to ensure our classrooms and our campuses prepare students for success in life. This includes providing equal access to educational opportunities regardless of background or zip code, protecting and promoting free speech, restoring the ability to have civil discourse, keeping tuition affordable, and ensuring that all Virginians have access to in-demand career pathways.”
WATCH: Luke Rosiak on the Failures of Public Education
On Friday, the Fairfax GOP’s Srilekha Palle interviewed Daily Wire investigative journalist Luke Rosiak on the crisis of American K-12 education. Rosiak is the author of Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying Public Education, a book that Chris Rufo calls “a road map for returning to sanity in our schools.”
Friday’s interview covered a wide range of timely educational issues, including those in Fairfax County Public Schools. “Stay focused on these test scores,” Rosiak said.
TJ Math Teachers Note ‘Lowering of Standards’
On May 31, the public relations team at Fairfax County Public Schools scored a big “hit,” as it’s called in PR, getting the stories of four hand-selected students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology featured in a Washington Post article by education reporter Hannah Natanson, headlined: “Hear from four TJ freshmen admitted under controversial circumstances.”
In the article, Natanson disparaged a “a group of disgruntled parents” that filed a lawsuit against new race-based admissions changes to the school, even though a federal judge, Claude Hilton, ruled earlier this year that the changes are illegal, “patently unconstitutional” and anti-Asian.
County Schools Seek to Eradicate Viewpoint Diversity
In September 2020 the Fairfax County School Board initiated a process to revise its Controversial Issues Policy. Now, two years later, the revision is nearing completion. On June 23, the Board’s Governance Committee approved a new version, which is being sent to the full Board for review and approval. It is scheduled to be reviewed by the full Board at a work session on July 12 and will probably come up for final Board approval in late August or in September.
If adopted, the proposal will substantially change long-standing policy that has required teachers to be neutral when addressing controversial issues.
The June 16 School Board Meeting: A Small Turning Point?
Several proposals to amend the student conduct handbook were on the agenda for the June 16 meeting of the Fairfax County School Board. What mostly drew the attention of parents was a provision making it an offense for any student, from the 4th grade on, to maliciously “deadname” or “misgender” another student, with punishment ranging up to suspension from school.
It’s hard to keep up with all the new definitions in today’s gender dictionary. For those of you who aren’t in the know, “deadnaming” refers to using a previous name for a person who has decided to use a new name.
BOMBSHELL ALLEGATION: School Health Aide Stole Kids’ Drugs
On Friday, May 27, local father Brett Byrnes, a former military officer, dashed over to his second grade daughter’s elementary school, Greenbriar East Elementary School. The school nurse had just called to say she was out of his second-grade daughter’s dosage of Adderall, a prescription drug used to treat ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Weeks earlier, he had counted out the pills with the school health aide, Jennifer Carpenter, to make sure there was enough medicine to last through the last day of the school year, Friday, June 10.
RALLY: Focus Schools on Academics, Not Sexual Politics
Fairfax County’s woke, leftist school board is mulling revisions to the district’s student handbook that would codify elements of highly controversial, divisive gender ideology. In addition, the board is considering the merit of co-ed sex education classes.
Concerned moms and dads rallied in opposition to the draft revisions ahead of the May 26 county school board meeting. The well-attended, spirited rally drew the attention of local and national media, including Fox News.