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By Marc, April 23, 2010 10:29 pm

The Republican majority on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors sent a clear message on Tuesday evening to county residents and potential new businesses, “They do not value education and would prefer to play politics with our children’s future.”

They voted to underfund Stafford Schools to the tune of $5.6 million, providing a total of $100,693.774 in local money. The original request by the School Board was $106,371,217. This is approximately a 5.5 percent decrease from what was requested; and, it is approximately 3 percent less than the amount of county funds transferred to the schools in FY’10.

When adding in other revenue (state and federal), the Board of Supervisors adopted a total school operating budget for FY’11 of $237,261,940.  This is also a nearly 5 percent decrease in the total operating school budget compared to FY’10. The total budgeted amount in FY’10 was $248,480,087.

I know, I know, Republicans will tell you that the school system only estimates that they will spend $233,434,297 for FY’10, so they will claim to have provided a overall year-over-year increase for FY’11. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Here’s the truth. In formulating the FY’11 budget, the school system projected a severe decline in total expected revenues. This was partly due to FY’10 non-recurring revenue sources (e.g. carryover funds from FY’09 being expended) and declining state and local revenues. The reasons for declining state revenues were mostly due to economic conditions; however, it was Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and Speaker Bill Howell (R-28^th) who chose to cover the majority of the state budget shortfall by slashing education spending.

Local revenue was declining too, but it wasn’t only because of economic conditions. You see, Stafford Republicans decided to exacerbate the county’s budget shortfall by repealing the business tax. This is the same tax that was estimated to generate $3.7 million in FY’10 and projected to generate $120 million over the next 20 years. In order to pay to repeal this tax, they used a portion of a school surplus that was discovered last year – due to a county accounting error. Add in the lost revenue from this tax in FY’11 and you’re staring down a self-inflicted $11.1 million problem created by Stafford Republicans. These funds could have been used to fully fund our schools.

Stafford Schools were dealing with a projected $25 million plus revenue shortfall for FY’11, due to these fiscal realities, so they took aggressive measures to avoid a potentially catastrophic budget situation. These measures included freezing expenditures of FY’10 federal stimulus funds, closely monitoring discretionary spending and instituting a hiring freeze. That is the reason why FY’10 spending is less than what was actually budgeted. This doesn’t mean that the school system doesn’t need these additional funds. They just needed them more in FY’11 to avoid a looming budget cliff, which would have resulted in significant teacher layoffs.

You see the school system did the responsible thing. This is more than what I can say for the county whose expenditures have regularly exceeded revenues in recent years. Due to this fiscal irresponsibility, the school system has had to bail out the county on numerous occasions. These bailouts have come at the expense of our teachers and children.

Also, can anyone remember the last time the county had a “clean” audit? In recent years, they have been repeatedly cited for significant deficiencies in their internal controls that resulted in reconciliations between the Treasurer’s Office and Finance Department not being performed in a timely and consistent manner throughout the year; and, just last year, they were cited for a material weakness in their internal controls that resulted in the discovery of a school surplus.

Here’s how their auditor defines the various deficiencies:

A control deficiency in an entity’s internal control over compliance exists when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent or detect noncompliance with a type of compliance requirement of a federal program on a timely basis. A significant deficiency is a control deficiency, or combination of control deficiencies, that adversely affects the entity’s ability to administer a federal program such that there is more than a remote likelihood that noncompliance with a type of compliance requirement of a federal program that is more than inconsequential will not be prevented or detected by the entity’s internal control.

A material weakness is a significant deficiency, or combination of significant deficiencies, that results in more than a remote likelihood that material noncompliance with a type of compliance requirement of a federal program will not be prevented or detected by the entity’s internal control.

If this doesn’t provide a moment of pause for folks, the fact that the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors decided to take some financial authority away from the School Board by categorically funding the school operating budget this year should. I would think that they would focus on getting their house in order versus micro-managing the School Board.

This same majority on the board claims that by categorically funding the schools that the School Board will be forced to provide step increases for teachers, while denying administrators any raises. This shows how little they understand the school budget and budgets in general. The administrative category doesn’t ONLY contain administrators, but also critical “instructional” support personnel. It contains school nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, speech therapists, social workers, and many other critical positions.

Let’s also not forget the other line items in the budget. Without bus drivers to get our children to school, how many of us would have to significantly adjust our work schedules to drop our children off? What about custodians who help maintain a clean environment or school security guards who help provide a safe environment for our children to be able to learn? What about technology teachers or computer technicians?

Clearly all of these employees play a critical role in educating our children. The fact is that the Republican majority on the board has neither “fully funded” the instruction line in the budget or any other lines for that matter. This is how they define working with the School Board. At least Supervisor Cord Sterling (R-Rock Hill) was being honest when he called for folks to fire the School Board. You see the Republican majority has no interest in working with the School Board; they simply want to get rid of them.

It’s also easy for them to say that teachers should get a step increase, but any step increase has a recurring annual cost. Part of the money for a step increase approved late last year by the School Board is currently being held in abeyance. Is the Board of Supervisors willing to provide the $3.8 million necessary to fund this step increase annually? I think not. It’s just more lip service for politicians more interested in the next election versus educating our children and providing fair compensation to our educators.

For Republicans, it’s easier to point fingers at the School Board then at themselves. The 12^th richest county in the nation should at least be able to provide fair pay to teachers. Currently, teachers in Stafford County make 10 percent below the national average.

I’d also like to remind folks that even if Republicans provided the same amount of funding to our schools as they did last year, this would still be an overall decrease in funding year-over-year. There are many fixed costs that rise annually, which must be funded. Just this year, health care premiums have risen for employees by 8.2 percent. The school system’s share of this increase equates to $1,807,039. What about mandatory increases for the Virginia Retirement System and retiree health insurance to the tune of $2,600,000.

It’s also not like operational and maintenance costs are decreasing. School buses are a good example. As part of Gov. McDonnell’s school budget cuts, he chose to extend the life of school buses from 12 to 15 years. The cost to maintain these buses past 12 years will be significant.

So simply providing the same amount of funding to the school system year-over-year would actually constitute a funding decrease. As I mentioned above, the Republican majority actually provided 3 percent less local funds than they provided last year.

Our schools are simply not a priority for this Republican majority. You need look no further then Stafford’s new 10-point Economic Development Plan where there is no mention of education.

In fairness, this hasn’t been a priority of any board for many years. Over the years, the Board of Supervisors have whittled away their local contribution to our schools. In the 10 years preceding 2006, based on past county budgets, 69 percent of county expenditures went towards our schools. In the recently approved budget, we are now down to around 54 percent.

Based on the latest data from the Virginia Department of Education, Stafford County now ranks 117 out of 132 districts in per pupil spending.  The local per pupil spending in Stafford County was $4,050. This is 36 percent below the state average of $5,504. Based on the amount of local funds provided to the school system this year, local per pupil spending will equate to $3,766.08. This is 46 percent below the aforementioned state average.

For those of you thinking that we are spending too much locally on education, I’ve got some news for you. Based on the projected number of students in FY’10-11 (26,737) and the number of required instructional days each academic year (180), Stafford County is ONLY paying $21 per day (or $3 per hour – based on current 7hr High School day) to educate our children. This hardly seems like a huge local burden.

Let’s put what Stafford County pays into better context. Last year, Stafford contributed $5,246,158 to the Rappahannock Regional Jail. They essentially share the costs to run the jail with the state, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and King George, based on the percentage of inmates they have currently in the jail. On average, the daily inmate count is somewhere around 950. Based on what we pay, let’s say for arguments sake that one-quarter of the inmates are from Stafford. That means we are paying approximately $60 per day to house our inmates. So are housing our inmates more important than educating our children? I say we ask Stafford County Supervisor Paul Milde (R-Aquia).  After all, he is on the Rappahannock Regional Jail Authority and is a former inmate himself (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

This sustained underfunding of our schools is having an effect and will have a bigger effect in the years to come. Currently, 53 percent of our schools have failed to meet Annual Yearly Progress; we now have the third highest K-7 pupil/teacher ratio in the state; and 80 percent of our Standards of Learning scores are at or below our neighbors or the state average, according to the Chairman of the School Board’s Finance and Budget Advisory Committee. If you seriously think that things are going to get better, based on these very troubling educational measures, you’ve got another thing coming.

The problem is that the funding problems will be even worse next year; and, the funding cliff that was avoided in FY’11 will be even higher in FY’12. The Board of Supervisors will not be able to rely on federal stimulus funds to supplant what should be a greater contribution to our schools by the county. This is because these funds will expire in FY’11.

What’s worse is that the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors strongly believes that our schools are overfunded, not underfunded. If Supervisors Paul Milde (R-Aquia) and Susan Stimpson (R-Falmouth) had their way, they would have even slashed more from the school budget this year.

Stafford Republicans need to get their priorities straight and fully fund our schools. They constantly talk about bringing businesses to Stafford. I can assure you that businesses are taking notice of the complete lack of support the county is providing to its schools, when making decisions on whether to relocate.

Also ask yourself, what is the first thing someone asks a real estate agent when deciding on whether to relocate to a specific area? They want to know how strong the school system is there.

It’s time for Stafford Republicans to make education a priority again!

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By Marc, April 20, 2010 11:26 pm

A little over a week ago, Stafford County Supervisor Cord Sterling (R-Rock Hill) appeared at a Tea Party rally in Stafford and did his very best to appeal to this fringe crowd. Regardless of our political differences, I used to have a level of respect for Mr. Sterling; however, after his despicable behavior at this rally, it’s hard for me to ever view him the same way again.

Recall, this is the same rally where Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13th) suggested that it was ok to shoot people over taxes and Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart compared the Obama administration to the Nazi’s. I guess Sterling agrees with these statements.

He chose to respond to my post describing his statements (on video) at this rally by leaving a comment on this blog. It contained so many accusations and, what I believed to be, false information that I decided to do a little fact checking on it, prior to posting it. He focused most of his attacks on our school system and presented certain data as fact, which couldn’t be further from the truth. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone by now.

Here’s the comments addressed directly to me:

Marc

Had you but asked, I would speak to your group as well.

Nothing Shed. I am, and have always been a fiscal conservative. I believe that one’s books, and budgets, should be balanced. I believe debts should be paid and not passed on to the next generation. I believe in providing the maximum service at the lowest cost to the taxpayers.

I would seriously call into question Sterling’s claim of being a “fiscal conservative.” We will explore this momentarily.

Regarding healthcare package–Sen. Schumer and I disagree. I think the previous practice of “until graduation” was appropriate. I believe strongly in personal responsibility. Now, taxpayers at all levels (federal, state, and local) will have to pay for health care for adults dependents (who are no longer dependents by any other definition).

So, is Sterling now distancing himself from the story that he told the crowd? If he wanted to voice his opposition to health care reform that’s fine, but to makeup a story about Sen. Schumer to fire up the crowd against this common-sense reform is outrageous.

Sterling says that he agrees with “the previous practice of ‘until graduation’ [in allowing parents to cover their children].” In order to compete in the global economy, many children are staying in school to attain advanced degrees. This new law will allow parents to continue covering their children, if they choose. If parents like Sterling want to throw their children off of their health insurance, he is still free to do so. The many health care reforms present in this bill will actually be a net positive for taxpayers (helping to save money) and will ultimately decrease the deficit by over $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That seems like a bill that a responsible “fiscal conservative” would support.

Regarding the courts–I believe that the priorities of the voters who pay the taxes should come before the interests of others. That is why I will continue to support the parks and rec bond package and the transportation bond package approved by the voters and will not support additions to the courts complex. By the way, there are two new courts planned, not just the J&DR.

How can Sterling claim to be a “fiscal conservative” and support borrowing money for transportation and parks and recreation? One of the ways that this was going to be paid back was via revenue collected from the business tax, which Sterling and his fellow Republicans nixed at the beginning of the year. Voters approved this bond with the notion that this revenue stream would be there. Homeowners will now bear the brunt of this bait and switch by the Republican-led board through higher taxes, in the years to come.

What makes this worse is that Sterling spent a county surplus to pay for repealing the business tax – this, at a time, when our county was already facing significant budget shortfalls for FY ’11 and ’12. This only further compounds the problem. This is the height of hypocrisy and, worse, fiscally irresponsible.

Regarding the school budget–I sat down with them and they were unable to answer the questions. Before the session, when questiosn were asked of the Superintendent, he dismissed the questions and told me the budget was passed and i could find the information there. I did and that is where the facts you say i distorted come from. Here is the text of an email i sent the school board chair and her colleagues after our joint budget work session. My frustration is with the school central office staff though i recognize it did not come across as clearly when i spoke as to whom i was referring. And yes, there are central office administrators i am in favor of replacing.

Listen, Sterling could have easily chosen to meet with school central office staff to get whatever questions he needed answered on any number of occasions. This is like a child waiting the night before to do his homework and then wondering why they didn’t have enough time to understand it. He simply could care less about the school system budget and only began to care when he thought that he could make political hay out of it.

How Sterling can also claim that he is simply stating facts about the budget and not distorting it is comical. What’s clear is that he is making statements and assertions about things that are simply not true, even after he has been proven wrong.

Also, Sterling claims that he was calling for school central office staff to be fired; however, that claim is ridiculous. All one has to do is watch the video. He was clearly calling on folks to fire the school board – not the way I would choose to work with another elected body. So what central office administrators would Sterling like fired? And, for what reasons? It sounds to me that Sterling is simply putting
his political agenda above our children.

As for the letter that Sterling mentions, containing his made up “facts,” it was broken apart and answered by the school system here.

In the letter, I particularly love when Sterling says, “I agree that our teachers should have salaries competitive with the other school systems. I can also see from the budget that those funds were there, but the schools system administration diverted them.” I love the disingenuous sentiment from Sterling and his total lack of understanding of the budget.

The School system responded by noting, “In order for our teachers to have salaries competitive with the other school systems, increases in the magnitude of triple to quadruple what has been requested are necessary.” They went on to say that these funds (SFSF) were not diverted and that they are still being used for instruction. As they also noted in their response, “A more complete understanding of both the FY2010 and FY2011 budget will make this quite evident.” If these funds were used to provide raises to our teachers, the school system would require an additional $11 million to meet the projected recurring costs of them. Is Sterling offering additional funds to provide these much deserved raises? I think not. Stafford schools is pretty much playing defense, doing everything they can to protect against laying off teachers.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, Sterling’s letter clearly shows someone that is trying to twist the facts and cast aspersions on folks’ characters and motivations. For him, this is just a political game.

Those details are from the Superintendents budget request, not mine. The budget request he sent me to when I asked questions. I recognize that we may disagree on these and other items. I accept that. I do hope we can keep that disagreement civil.
Thank you
Cord Sterling

It should be clear by now that Sterling does not understand anything about budgeting and has not done his homework well enough to understand the school budget; however, he has no problem presenting certain information as “fact” to further his political agenda.

I too agree that we must keep our disagreements civil. Attacking our school board and central office staff, based on a political agenda, is not what I call being civil. Nor is distorting certain data as “fact” to score political points.

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By Marc, April 18, 2010 5:49 pm

1. PWC Chairman Corey Stewart Compares Obama Administration to Nazi Regime, On Eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day

2. Stewart Offers No Apologies for Nazi Comparison, Reaffirms Using Tax Dollars to Break the Law
3. Delegate Bob Marshall Suggests Shooting Lawmakers Over Policy Differences is OK
4. Cuccinelli Has Mandate to Continue Wasting Our Tax Dollars
5. Cord Sterling Sheds Moderate Myth, Comes Out of Closet as Tea
6. Federal Income Taxes at Historically Low Levels for Middle-Income Families
7. Obama: Tea Partiers Should Thank Me for Cutting Taxes

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By Marc, April 13, 2010 7:34 pm

On April 10, 2010, Supervisor Cord Sterling (R-Rock Hill) addressed his fellow tea baggers at a Tea Party rally in Stafford, VA.

Sterling is the worst type of politician: one who will say or do anything to further his political ambitions by distorting the truth. He loves to portray himself as a moderate Republican, but pretty much shattered this self-created myth when he came out of the closet as a tea bagger this past weekend.

Sterling railed against the recently signed health care reform law. In trying to get the crowd pumped up against this, he described how Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) daughter was so happy that she didn’t need to work and could now be added to his health care plan. He claimed that this epitomized everything that was wrong with this bill. Only one problem for Sterling, this couldn’t be further from the TRUTH!

Here are Sterling’s exact words:

[Sen. Chuck Schumer’s] daughter had just called him, she was graduating or graduated from college, she said, “Good news dad, I don’t have to get a job now I can be on your health care bill.” He thought that was great, she gets health care I get the bill.

Here’s Sen. Chuck Schumer on March 28, 2010 on Meet the Press:

If you’re up to 26 years old you can stay on your parents’ health coverage. My daughter is graduating from law school. We told her the day after she graduates she’s on her own. She has a job in September, but she was fretting what does she do for the four months? Does she buy health insurance for $1200 a month? Well, she called me up at midnight after the bill passed and said, “Dad, I’m covered.”

I love how Sterling just makes shit up. This has become a disturbing pattern with him.

Sterling then pivoted from health care to judicial activism. Sterling rallied his fellow tea baggers, when he alleged that judges were displaying judicial activism by advocating the need for additional courtrooms within Stafford County, Virginia. Nothing fires up tea baggers more than evil judges.

Here’s what Sterling actually said:

The judges that occupy this building, they want to tell us that we need to spend an additional $30 million to build them a new courthouse…we have six judges, seven courtrooms and they think we need more courtrooms…it is essentially a 7 or 8 percent tax increase that they want to force upon us.

This is a convenient argument for Sterling. Only problem, if you’ve already guessed it, it isn’t completely true. I’m sure that you’re shocked by now.

The need for additional courtroom space has been many years in the making. In fact, Stafford Supervisor Paul Milde (R-Aquia) was on the original committee, I believe back in 2006 or so, that was tasked with the responsibility of coming up with cost-effective designs for new courtrooms. The total cost of their proposal was around $36 or $37 million.

The Board of Supervisors actually decided that this was too costly and voted to defer it until a later date. They decided to eventually revisit this issue and setup a citizens committee that they hoped would develop a more cost-effective proposal. They ended up proposing to refurbish the existing courthouse to the tune of between $23 and $25 million, which would have added two additional courtrooms.

I’ve spoken to several folks associated with Stafford County. They all noted that the current facilities are incredibly crowded and more space is needed. The courts are facing significant caseloads and are becoming overwhelmed, due to the facility constraints.

I know someone who recently served on a jury who said that the current facilities were a mess. Folks were strongly complaining about the overcrowding and the incredibly high temperature, due to so many people packing themselves into the facility. The Board of Supervisors have clearly identified the need for additional courtrooms; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been trying to find a cost-effective solution all of these years. The reality is the problem has only gotten worse.

The judges have simply identified a need and haven’t dictated a $30 million solution. It is folks like Milde and a citizens committee that have come up with these estimates.

There is no doubt in my mind that a real need exists. Sterling can ignore a county need, which he is really good at doing, or directly address it by coming up with a cost-effective solution. It’s clear to me that he would rather use this for political theater versus directly addressing it. If I were him, I wouldn’t get pulled over in Stafford County for any speeding tickets.

After his judicial activism bit, he wasn’t done with misleading his fellow tea baggers.

He praised himself for ridding the county of its Department of Transportation (DOT). He did rightfully note, in my opinion, that this department was completely unnecessary. I noted this in a prior blog post. However, his claim that he got rid of this department and saved money is a bit of a stretch. Stafford’s DOT employees were simply moved to another department. I’m by no means advocating that they should have fired these employees. What I am saying is that his claim that he is shrinking the size of government is a complete stretch. Plus this was the first time I’ve ever heard him speak out about this issue, so it’s interesting that he is claiming credit for it now.

Sterling wasn’t done with his distortions and attacks. He saved the best for last. He launched into a blistering attack of the school board. He claimed that the school system was asking for a $7.5 million increase in their school budget from last year, of which only $126 thousand would be used for education and the rest would go towards school administration. This is another flat out distortion of the facts by Sterling.

I’ve written quite a bit about our schools, so I won’t reiterate everything I’ve said before here (you can check out posts here, here and here). The short of it is that the school board requested the same level of funding that they received last year, which is actually a decrease when you take into account rising costs and cuts by the state.

I’ve spoken to folks associated with the school board and it appears that Sterling is simply adding up increases to various line items in the school budget without taking into account all of the line items that have been cut. He is simply cherry picking numbers that further his political agenda, which is defunding and crippling our public school system.  This was a popular theme throughout the Tea Party rally.

Sterling’s additional assertions on how money is being spent couldn’t be further from the truth. He simply doesn’t understand the school budget.

If he were so concerned about how money was being spent, you would think that he would sit down with school administrators or school board members to ask questions and work with them? You see that would make too much sense. He would rather scream, yell and distort the facts for his own political gain. His re-election slogan next year should be, “Putting Politics Ahead of Our Children.”

I also especially love Sterling’s call for the school to find efficiencies, which I think they have done an admirable job of thus far. This from the Board of Supervisors who haven’t had a clean audit in years! In the name of saving money, the school board refinanced some debt that saved the school system and county around $3.6 million. Sterling rewarded the school board by robbing them of this savings and using it to fund some of his other priorities. After all, getting re-elected is paramount.

I especially love the tea baggers from the crowd that screamed, “Fire them.” Referring to the school board, which Sterling responded, “I’m all for it, that’s in your hands. It’s in my hands too as a voter. I can’t fire them as a Supervisor.” Naturally, for Sterling, publicly insulting the school board and calling for their firing is a great way to build a strong working relationship.

I have a message for Sterling. The only person getting fired next year is you!

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By Marc, March 12, 2010 6:00 pm

In an op-ed today in the Free Lance-Star, Loretta Lynn Miller urges Stafford County to put education first. Loretta is an English Teacher at Brooke Point High School. Here is the op-ed:

VIRGINIA IS NOT a poor state! The Census Bureau ranks Virginia ninth nationally in household income. And, according to Forbes magazine’s recently published list of the 25 richest localities in the U.S., Stafford County ranks No. 12. However, it ranks 87th within the state of Virginia in per-pupil spending. Teacher pay in Stafford averages approximately $800 less the state average, and 10 percent less than the national average.

What these statistics reveal is that for taxpayers in Stafford, education is not a priority. If we need to balance the budget, we need to pay for the important things like teacher experience, and check line items for areas to cut. If I’m short $500 from my monthly budget, I don’t cut it all from my grocery budget, I look to spread the burden across monthly expenditures, starting with nonessential items.

We, the teachers of Stafford County, are not asking for a raise. We are asking the School Board and the taxpayers to value education by rewarding and retaining experienced teachers. In reality, teachers are paid what they are worth in surrounding counties. Teachers are passionate about this issue, not out of greed but out of a desire to continue to provide quality educational service for your children.

What is education worth to you? Experience may not always equate to quality, but an experienced employee usually demonstrates a level of commitment and awareness that is unsurpassed in tough situations. The problem is that Stafford County does not want to reward experience.

In the corporate world, the foundation of success lies in the hiring and retention of well-qualified employees. While the cost of living continues to grow, teachers have careers that promise nothing more than a reward for experience. The demands on educators have increased exponentially in the areas of technology, student diversity, and student development, yet Stafford County shamefully ignores the hard work and expertise that it takes to meet these growing challenges.

Many of us have second and third jobs just so we can afford to live one to two counties away from the district in which we teach. Is it possible for a teacher to give students the quality of education they deserve when that teacher’s energy is split among two or three jobs?

We pay top dollar these days for the things we value–designer labels, entertainment, automobiles. Isn’t it time to value education, and start paying what it is worth? Why not reinstate the steps?

We all benefit from a quality education. Up to this point, the School Board and the residents of Stafford County have relied on teachers who continue to break their backs for sub-par pay because teachers value education above all else. However, when a community repeatedly demonstrates that it does not value education, that community should be prepared to receive only what it is willing to pay for. Teachers have been working in good faith for a long time, and it is time to compensate their loyalty.

Again, we are not asking for pay raises. We are asking that our experience be recognized. Unlike other professions, educators are not paid bonuses, nor can they negotiate their raises, but we used to be paid for our experience. Teachers, staff, and building administrators should not bear the brunt of this budget on their backs yet again. Our fear is that if you don’t find the money in the budget to pay us what we are worth, then you won’t find it at any time in the near future, either.

Do the hard work now by paying teachers what is owed to them and finding other areas to cut, even if you have to look at several categories, cutting a line here and there. It’s just too easy to take all of the budget difference from salaries. It is true that the intrinsic rewards of this profession are great. However, the demands for a quality education rise each year. In order to continue to meet these demands, the decision-makers need to face up to what they know to be the right thing–to value education, value Stafford students, and value loyalty.

Educators, notice the vote. Actively voice your concerns. No teacher wants less for any student, but many of us are now questioning why we continue to make sacrifices for someone else’s child. It is as much our responsibility to educate the public about the value of education as it is their responsibility to promise a quality education to their own children.

How can students respect teachers or administrators who are not respected within their community? What do you value? Experienced educators? We’re listening.

Loretta has made some extremely good points in this op-ed. I would add that teacher pay in Stafford is potentially must worse when compared to the state and national averages, when taking into account regional cost differences. I come from a family of educators and I can tell you that teachers will never ever get paid what they are worth. It isn’t all about money, but certainly the 12^th richest county in the nation should be able to provide a fair wage that is at least at the national average.

I understand that times are tough and teachers have made enormous sacrifices for our children and our community. How many more sacrifices must we expect from them? Many of our “experienced” teachers have not received pay raises, have experienced tremendous rises in health care premiums and now the Republicans want them to take it on the chin again by reducing teachers take-home pay by as much as 5% to pay for steep cuts to the Virginia Retirement System. These steep cuts will result in severe future budget woes and potentially have to be paid for through future tax increases.

It’s time to show our teachers that we care and understand the huge sacrifices that they are making on behalf of our children.  It is equally important that we elect folks that understand how important educators are in providing a quality education to our children!

[IMAGE via JOE AMON/FLS]

  Comments (4)

By Marc, February 1, 2010 5:31 pm

Unless you have been living under a political rock, everyone should be no doubt aware of a pubic hearing scheduled for tomorrow to reinstitute the merchants’ capital tax and nix the BPOL tax. Republicans made BPOL a key issue during the last campaign and pledged to kill it. They ended up winning a majority on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors (5-2) and are poised to follow through on their pledge tomorrow (this is actually a forgone conclusion).

How do Republicans plan on paying to repeal BPOL (since the money was already included in the FY ’10 budget)? As I predicted back in December (here and here), they plan on using the remaining $4.8 million surplus. That’s right, the $4.8 million (It was actually $6.2 million, but some of the money was already spent) that was discovered late last year because of an accounting error between the school board and the county two years ago. When Democrats proposed spending the surplus in December, Republican outrage boiled over. Supervisor Cord Sterling (R-Rock Hill) had the following to say when Democrats proposed spending the surplus,

We have a bleak financial outlook…It’s not a responsible way to govern. We need to put governance ahead of politics. Let’s wait and figure this out during the normal budget process.

And Supervisor Paul Milde (R-Aquia) added,

This amounts to a $6.2 million raid of Stafford’s accounts…I see Democrats trying to give away $6.2 million.

I would ask Sterling and Milde what has changed since December? Could it be that they are now in the majority and want to use the funds for other purposes? To Sterling, how is it good governance to repeal BPOL and cover the revenue loss with the surplus? I guess the financial outlook isn’t as bleak as it was in December or the outrage a month ago was more about wanting to save the money so that it could be used to repeal BPOL. It sounds to me that politics is being put ahead of good governance.

To Milde, I guess the Republicans are now trying to give away the remaining surplus. The only difference is that Democrats were giving the money to teachers and deputies, plus funding a required trust setup for post-employment benefits of school and county employees; and Republicans are choosing to give money to local businesses by repealing BPOL. This is not to say that one group deserves the money over another, but these are just simple facts.

Like I said back in December, both Republicans and Democrats wanted to spend the money in different ways. That is what made the Republican outrage so disingenuous. I was against spending the surplus until the budget picture became clearer. It is now clear that things are continuing to deteriorate and the FY ’11 budget already contains a $6.9 million revenue shortfall. Given declining state revenues, the picture will surely get worse. Repealing BPOL will only compound and exacerbate the already precarious budget situation.

It is no secret that I have been highly critical of the way in which BPOL was passed in the first place and have some serious issues with the structure of it. The reality is that localities are limited in the number of tools at their disposal to generate revenue. Unfortunately for homeowners, when additional revenue is needed that usually equates to higher property taxes. What we need is an equitable tax structure for homeowners and businesses. That doesn’t mean that businesses should be punished, but we need to understand that everyone has a stake in our communities and work towards some compromise.

Del. Mark Cole (R-Spotsylvania) recently introduced a bill to prevent any localities that have not enacted BPOL by January 1, 2010 from doing so in the future.  This doesn’t seem like much of a compromise to me, but politics at its’ worst. It is important to note that BPOL is a tool provided by the state to the localities and any changes to it must be introduced and passed in the state legislature.

Whether you are for or against BPOL is beside the point right now. The reality is that a bi-partisan group of supervisors, including Sterling and Dudenhefer (R-Garrisonville) approved the FY ’10 budget, which clearly included BPOL as a revenue stream. It seems fiscally irresponsible to me to remove a revenue stream by spending the surplus (double whammy there), which could instead go towards reducing the looming budget deficit. We need to do everything in our power to protect our core services (e.g. education, police, fire and rescue). The reality is that we are in for either severe cuts to these services (many of which are already cut to the bone) or a massive increase in homeowner’s property taxes to sustain them. So what are Republicans proposing going forward? I’m waiting…

I, for one, am deeply concerned about our schools. Did you know that approximately 53% of Stafford’s schools did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) last year? No Child Left Behind stipulates that any school system that receives federal funds must meet 100% AYP by 2014; and that schools that don’t make AYP for two or more consecutive years in the same content area be sanctioned, which would ultimately affect federal funding. If Stafford is hoping to attract businesses to the area, I assure you that a failing school system will not convince them.  The remaining $4.8 million surplus could easily mean that more teachers keep their jobs (ensuring reasonable class sizes) and we can make the necessary investments in our schools for fiscal year ’11 and beyond.

The Republicans have tried to make the argument that BPOL will hurt businesses and cause them to leave Stafford County in this economic climate. If that is the case then why isn’t Spotsylvania or the City of Fredericksburg considering a repeal of BPOL? Again this isn’t an argument for or against BPOL, it is simply a fact. Yes, a fact that current Supervisor Gary Snellings (R-Hartwood) agreed with in 2004.

Snellings said the following about BPOL back in 2004,

My argument has always been that if you have BPOL, you will run businesses out of the county…But I don’t see businesses jumping across the Rappahannock River because Stafford doesn’t have BPOL.

Snellings went on to say back in 2004,

I have never been in favor of BPOL…Until now. I don’t see any other way we can relieve some of the burden on homeowners other than putting it on BPOL. Nobody likes taxes, but the reality is, this is not as big a burden as we are being led to believe.

So in summary, Snellings didn’t see businesses coming to Stafford because of not having BPOL, believed BPOL provided a means to relieve the tax burden on homeowners and it wasn’t as big of a burden as everyone was being led to believe. Now he and his Republican colleagues have changed their mind on BPOL? Since I don’t believe there have been any substantive changes to BPOL since 2004, why the sudden change in opinion? Again, this is politics at its’ worst.

Going forward, we can only hope that our elected officials put the needs of the many over their own. The severe budgetary problems we are facing belong to no political party. It is time for them to put Stafford County residents first. I’m tired of the hypocrisy. What we need is fiscal restraint and responsibility and not political posturing.

It is already a forgone conclusion that Republicans will use the surplus to repeal the BPOL revenue stream (which some have stated would equate to $140 million over the next 20 years). The problem with all of this is that Republicans still have failed to address the revenue stream problem moving forward and have instead tried to make repealing BPOL appealing through the use of the one-time windfall (surplus). They are essentially out selling the bearskins before they have even found the bear.

At this point, I can only hope that Republicans level with county residents on what this will mean in terms of our property taxes and core services moving forward; however, if history prevails, I won’t be holding my breath.