Support Strong Secondary Education
Northern Virginia’s public schools are one of its most valuable assets for attracting jobs and creating future talent. In fact, many families move to live along the Potomac River because of our quality schools. Eastern Northern Virginia’s property values are significantly stabilized by having some of the best schools in the County. However, our schools are stressed by the recession’s impact on government.
High Quality & Accessible Preschool
In the early 1940’s, my grandparents helped create one of Fairfax County’s oldest operating preschools – the Tauxemont Cooperative Preschool on Fort Hunt Road. Three generations of my family have thrived at this community institution.
Science tells us that 90 percent of a child’s brain development occurs before age five. We must expand voluntary pre-kindergarten programs for more four-year-olds. Children who get a strong start in life are more likely to have a productive, responsible life. All of Virginia’s children deserve the same opportunities that I was able to enjoy. If families cannot afford private preschool, our local governments should provide it for them.
Better Teacher Salaries & Less Trailers
Virginia has the tenth highest per capita wealth in the United States, but its teacher salaries now rank in the bottom quartile of salaries across the United States. That is unacceptable. In 2020 and 2021, we raised teacher salaries but we are still not where we should be.
Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford County Public Schools are losing the competition for teaching talent to Arlington, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties Schools.
Moreover, the resurgence of families in older neighborhoods and population growth along the I-95 Corridor has created a plague of trailers in schools along U.S. 1. Children should attend school in a brick and mortar building and not a mobile trailer.
Stop Micromanaging Teachers
Teachers are licensed professionals and should be treated as such just as doctors, lawyers, and other licensed professions. The Standards of Learning have straight jacketed teachers and curriculum that fail to allow each student to learn in their own way and to their maximum potential. The Commonwealth should reduce SOL tests to the federally required minimum.
Fair State Funding
State school funding formulas favor rural localities whose elected officials currently control the House of Delegates. The existing formulas give too much weight to income and property values and do not adequately take into consideration the increased cost of running schools due to populations with English language challenges or disabilities. While local funding has lagged the most, state funding lags and has still not recovered completely from the 2009 Recession. Secondary education needs more dollars.
Digital Divide
Finally, Northern Virginia’s localities and others around the Commonwealth continue to design an education that largely prioritizes the students who need the least help – especially when it comes to Digital Learning. Northern Virginia’s localities lag other – even less wealthy – jurisdictions around the Commonwealth in deploying digital devices to all students and still charge tuition for online classes notwithstanding state prohibitions.
Secondary education must be free for everyone. Our school systems must provide digital learning opportunities to all students at no cost and regardless of their circumstances.
I will continue to work for:
- More state and federal funds to provide opportunities for every child to reach his or her full potential.
- Teacher salaries to the top quartile in the Country
- Expanded access to early childhood education – preschool and high-quality childcare
- Smaller class sizes
- Free digital devices for all students
- Rules to require no child should have to pay for online public learning
- Reducing Standards of Learning tests to the federally-required minimum