BOS' Short-Sightedness Regarding LCPS

Much has been said recently about the exuberant cost of our schools in Loudoun County and the burden they have become to the average tax payer.

Take a moment and hear what several of our Presidents-two of whom are Virginians-had to say about the value of public education

“The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.” Thomas Jefferson

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” Thomas Jefferson

“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” James Madison

“Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.” James A. Garfield, July 12, 1880

Only the public schools are legally required to accept and retain all students, no matter their race, no matter their religion, no matter their educational attainment, social class, family income, special needs, or personal characteristics. Only the public schools must guarantee that—within a legally enforceable range— the amount spent on each student will be equal from school to school within the communities in which those students reside.

Private schools, by contrast, are not legally bound to provide equality in admitting or retaining students. Nor are there legal remedies for the wide financial disparity that distinguishes high- and low-spending private schools from each other. Not only do public schools enroll all students, but they are more likely than their private counterparts to provide services designed to meet the special needs of particular students. Indeed, it is only the public schools that have the legal obligation to accept many students with special needs. Under federal civil rights laws, public schools must provide educational and related services to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Likewise, they must meet the educational needs of students who do not speak English or whose proficiency in English is limited. 

In addition, many public schools operate programs for educationally disadvantaged students. They also provide or coordinate a wide range of support programs essential to the education or overall wellbeing of these children, many of whom might not otherwise receive such services. These support services include school meals, health screening and referrals, before- and after-school programs, and free transportation to and from school, to name just a few. 

Given the diversity of students with special needs, the costs in some schools will naturally be higher compared to the costs in schools that do not enroll these students or do not provide as wide a range of services or those that educate a more homogeneous group of students in a particular way. 

By providing public schools, each student is guaranteed the right to attend a school that operates in conformity with academic standards and other legally required protections relating to the quality of education students are provided and their well-being during the school day. Furthermore, within that school, public school students must be offered a curriculum and an environment that are free from the inculcation or primacy of any specific religion, social class, or ethnic group.

Recent the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors provided the following preliminary fiscal guidance to the Loudoun County Administrator as he begins to prepare his FY2015 budget. That preliminary fiscal guidance was based upon an equalized tax rate of $1.16/$100 of assessed value and an equalized tax rate of $1.16/$100 of assessed value minus $0.02 or $1.14/$100 of assessed value. Based upon recent housing sales prices for October 2013 from Real Estate Business Intelligence an MRIS Company (www.rbintel.com) going to the $1.16 tax rate “saves” the average taxpayer $197.45 annually or approximately $16.20 per month, while going to the $1.14 tax rate would “save” the average taxpayer $285.21 annually or approximately $23.77 per month. I am not certain that decimating the public school system for the price of the average meal for a family of four at McDonald's is worth it.

So whenever you hear Republicans say that they are the party of traditional values, bear in mind that they have actually made a radical break with America’s tradition of valuing education. And they have made this break because they believe that what you don’t know can’t hurt them.

William Brown

Sterling, Virginia