WASHINGTON — Parents of Fairfax County, Virginia, public school students are being asked for ideas on what programs to cut as the school system faces a possible budget shortfall next academic year of up to $70 million.
The system has “more students, needier students than we had 10 years ago. We have less money, in real dollars, than we had 10 years ago,” says school board member and Fairfax County Board Supervisor-elect Dan Storck.
Storck told a meeting of parents at Sandburg Middle School, in the Mt. Vernon area of Alexandria, that if the school system’s finances are going to improve, the state must provide the county more money for education.
“We send a lot of money down the state and we get very little of it back,” Storck says.
School administrators want the state to change its funding formula, which now provides Fairfax with about 23 percent of its annual funding, while the state provides most counties — including Prince William — with about 45 percent.
The lion’s share of the burden for funding public education in Fairfax falls on county taxpayers, who provide about 72 percent of the school’s annual $2.6 billion operating budget.
Fairfax school leaders are warning that the school system is required to have a balanced budget, and without additional funding, cuts must be made to school programs.
At Wednesday night’s forum, parents expressed hope that the school system’s highly-regarded language-immersion program and music program be spared the budget ax.
