FCCPTA Message to Fairfax County
Delegation of Va. General Assembly

Diane Brody, January 4, 2003

I am Diane Brody, President of Fairfax County Council of PTAs.  I represent 80,000 members of PTAs and PTSAs across Fairfax County.

As I thought about what I would say to you today, I kept going back to the National PTA tagline…Every Child, One Voice. That’s what I would like you to remember in behalf of the 165,000 + students that you represent from our public schools.

 Then I thought about what FCCPTA parents and guardians would want me to say. I feel that I can speak for our membership when I say:

• We know these are difficult fiscal times in Virginia.
• We know the political climate in Virginia is not favorable for sympathy for the children of Fairfax County.
• We know that there will be no windfall of funds for anything from this General Assembly.

But we also know that these ARE the times that our children are growing up and being educated. Six or seven years is half of our children’s K-12 education.  Yet for at least the past six or seven years has brought, dare I say nothing?? from Richmond in support of our schools, except mottos decorating the walls.  What it HAS brought our children is:

• Years and years of classroom life in trailers, closets, and deteriorating buildings.
• Their classrooms have gotten more crowded and their teachers have less and less time for them individually, and less and less time for any type of enrichment activity.  Field trips are pretty much a thing of the past.
• They eat lunch as early as 10 a.m. or as late as 2 p.m.
• Courses and programs that they have looked forward to are cancelled due to budget cuts.
• Maintenance on schools, grounds, and buses have been curtailed.
• Their teachers cannot afford to live in the areas that they teach in, or decide to teach in the area the DO live in.
• They have been guinea pigs for the era of ever increasing, ever changing, standardized tests as the gateway to their future; All the while these tests are sapping precious resources, creating more and more un-funded mandates, and take them further away from being taught as individuals. 

Parents would want to say that we are weary.

• We are tired of our children always coming in second to many other political priorities. 
• We are tired of hearing how “wealthy” we all are in Fairfax County.  We are personal witness to the changing demographics of this county…there are also dire needs here.
• We dread the annual battle of the school budget, where we feel forced to beg for funding from the Board of Supervisors, and plead with our School Board to save programs and initiatives that are vital to the future of our highly regarded and highly touted school system.
• We are tired of seeing our school officials, county officials, state level officials accusing each other of fanning the fires of the political circus that occurs every year at budget times.

So what are we, as parents looking for from you, as our elected officials?

• We are looking for a unified “front” as you march into Richmond. YOU represent Fairfax County’s public school students.
• We are looking for our elected leaders to stand up for our most precious commodity…our children.
• We expect the fiscal picture to improve sometime, and when it does we expect our Commonwealth to finally put ‘children first’.  But, EVERY year we expect our leaders to proclaim that cry loud and clear.
• We expect the General Assembly to heed the warning from it’s own JLARC report and step up to the plate for education in Virginia.

Specifically

• We beg you, to hold K-12 education harmless in the inevitable budget cuts. And
• We want you to lay a foundation for real change in funding for our schools, and our region.  Our needs are not being met by the commonwealth…something must be done to alleviate this crisis.

I leave you with this thought.

Quality education is the cornerstone of life in Fairfax County.  Fairfax County is a cornerstone of the financial stability of Virginia.  Please speak with one voice for every child.
 

Last Updated 01/27/2005 20:22:32