Last week Forbes released a list of the top 25 richest counties in the nation. Stafford County was ranked as the 12^th richest county in the nation, with the median household income at $89,536.00 and the percentage of residents 25 or older with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher at 36%.

An extremely good measure of how much a county actually invests in education is how much they spend per student (per pupil). What you will find is startling. How can the 12^th richest county in the entire nation rank near the bottom of Virginia and the nation in per pupil spending? To put that in further context, Virginia is ranked only 37^th in the nation in per pupil spending. So, we rank at the bottom of a state that ranks only 37^th in the nation in per pupil spending. This would be almost laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.

According to the latest available data from the National Center for Education and Statistics (NCES, 2006-2007), Stafford County spends $8,900 per pupil. That ranks them 86^th (out of the 132 districts that NCES had data for) in Virginia for per pupil spending. Stafford County, the 12^th richest county in the nation, ranks 87^th in Virginia in per pupil spending. Again, Virginia ranks in the bottom of the nation in per pupil spending and Stafford County ranks in the bottom of Virginia for per pupil spending. If you don’t see anything wrong with this, you should!

Based on per pupil spending, it should also be no wonder that Stafford County’s average teacher’s salary (per the Stafford Superintendent’s FY’11 Budget) is below the state and national averages. An average teacher in Stafford County makes $51,341. This is $808 below the state average and $4,734 below the national average. That’s right, a teacher in the 12^th richest county in the nation makes 10 percent less than the national average.

What our elected officials fail to realize is that investing in education is one of the best investments that you can make. This is further evidenced by Bill Howell’s (R-28^th) recent attempt to mislead constituents on the subject.

Last week the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors, including Howell disciple Supervisor Susan Stimpson (R-Falmouth), made things even worse for Stafford County schools in FY’11 by failing to appropriate $3.6 million in debt service savings to them that that they planned on using to offset the $26 million deficit (soon to be more thanks to Howell) they are facing. Combine this with the fact that the Republicans on the Board of Supervisors voted to repeal BPOL and covered it in the FY’10 budget by spending part of a school surplus, impacting our schools negatively to the tune of $7.4 million, it should be no surprise to folks that our local and statewide elected officials don’t have their priorities straight.

The 12^th richest county in the nation currently has 53 percent of our schools failing to meet Annual Yearly Progress requirements. Enough is enough already. We need leaders who understand the clear correlation between future economic growth and well-educated children. Howell and his Republican counterparts on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors are out of touch with reality.

The 12^th richest county shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom in our schools, but a race to the top!