PWCS need to be taken over and run by the state, given the inability of Prince William County to create a school system that is not intellectually and ethically offensive.

I know that well intentioned people such as Kelly, Walts, and Johns try to do their best, but they’re just not intellectually equipped to do a competent job.

The Superintendent and School Board actually have very little control over the budget. When you say they pushed back the timeline for Kettle Run by a year, it was actually the Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) that forced that decision. The Superintendent and School Board can only create a budget that spends what they are allocated by the BOCS. In the budget cycle you’re referencing, the BOCS cuts to the property tax rates coupled with the decline in property values left the school system with some tough choices. Pushing back capital improvement projects was one those.

If you want to point fingers, start with the people who *really* control the purse strings. Start with the BOCS.

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As for the issue at hand, the MJM editorial cartoon was a cheap shot. Prince William County Schools actually do very well, especially considering the hand they’ve been dealt by the BOCS in terms of adequately funding education.

John Light and I agree (yikes!) on at least one point–the quality of the education our children receive is not solely the responsibility of the school system. The leading indicator of student performance is not SOL scores, SAT scores, or any other standardized test. The best indicator of how well a student will perform is the level of parental involvement in that child’s education.

Arlington County is a very good example of this at work.

Take a look at the SOL data for LOW INCOME students who are all in the SAME SCHOOL - and what do you see …

Asians score very high — 95%+ pass rate

Caucasians score about 90% pass rate

Hispanics (English speaking) score about 80% pass rate

and

African Americans score about 65 - 70% pass rate.

While the rich and upper-middle class can send their children to SAT prep courses (which were offered for free when I went to High School), the poor or lower-middle class cannot. When a child has both parents working 2 or more jobs, and is working part time themselves, they do not have the proper study habits to effectively achieve the higher scores required on the Standardized tests. Now, that does NOT mean that they CANNOT do well, just that it is more difficult.

Now add to the mix those minorities whose primary language at the home is other than English, and a higher score is even more difficult to achieve. Then add to that mix those parents who are here illegally and stress is added to the child so that when they sit down to take a test, in a foreign language, in a country they may or may not want to be in, scores will not be up-to-par.

We can all talk about how WONDERFUL it was in the past and how our education was MUCH superior (which it was) than today’s, but what does that REALLY solve??? What is needed is solutions and frankly, that does NOT start at the school, nor does it fall solely in the hands of the School Board or School Superintendant…it starts at home.

Teachers in the area can barely handle the cost of living on their own salaries. Even if they are combining salaries with a spouse, so much of their life is taken up by work that they will not get paid for. And you want people to consider giving them LESS? Yikes!

No, but salaries are public record.

Don’t get me wrong you won’t get rich doing it but I don’t think teachers ever go into that field for ‘the money’.

Have you ever been a public school teacher before?

There are many more similarities, than differences, between the poor rural white students and the poor African American and Hispanic students. Most of these similarities pertain to their socioeconomic status of these children. Therein lies the causes for low academic performance. Academic performance here in PWC, as well as across the country are only going to improve when we look at solutions to the many problems faced by these children.

I would advise Lefty and other readers to look beyond the skin color and ethnic background of our county’s children. I am proud to send my children to PWCS because so many of the schools are so diverse, which is where the true strength of the school system lies. I am fortunate enough in my job to deal with high performing children everyday from all ethnic backgrounds.

Lastly, not that the number is relevant, but 12,000 ESOL students is grossly incorrect.

I hate to burst your bubble, but staff and teachers have very little to do with SAT scores, performance, etc. It’s ethnic makeup. Everybody knows but nobody wants to admit that Hispanics and African Americans pull down all measures of academic performance.

Because the School Board and School’s Planning Office refuse to stick a crowbar in their wallet and use their capital funds to purchase land. Rather, they extort it out of developers by bartering their support for a chunk of “free” land, regardless whether the property fits their geographic requirements. (see: Silver Lake and Gainesville Middle Schools) A better example is the new Gravely school, mere blocks from Alvey but without an access route that isn’t shared by Alvey because construction of the access road is tied to the developer (Toll Brothers) reaching a threshold number of building permits. Spare me the maganamity of Toll Bros., if they were as public spirited as some would lead you to believe, they would have just built the damn road. The School Board and particularly the School’s Planning Office are just as guilty as the BOCS for the mess the county is in.

Of course, what we should do is to “stop treating education as something the county is required to provide” in a government-controlled school, and enact vouchers for parents and children to exercise real educational choice. That would solve many of the problems you identify, as well as a myriad of others. My two children are educated at a private school in PWC at a cost for both which is less than the per pupil expenditures in the County’s government schools. Our government schools are overbureaucratized to a fare-thee-well, and surely should be reduced.

Current educational salaries are sufficient if not high. Administrative costs are very high and need to be cut.

We need to stop treating education as something the county is required to provide and as something that each child/parent should earn.

What I want to know is why the schools didn’t find a site in 2000-2002, when it was obvious we were in a housing boom and that people were flooding into the western end of the county? They had to know right then that Battlefield wouldn’t be enough. The county tax coffers were ripe with money and they get a big chunk of that. Why didn’t they buy the land back then and the school would have already been open by now?

Also, Brentsville is overcrowded, but they are #1 in both SAT scores and SOL scores so the staff should be commended for accomplishing that despite 600 extra kids and the trailer village that they attend classes in.

They may be citizens but their parents aren’t. So, I guess they can come back when they reach the age of consent in their ancestral homelands, then come back. By then, we won’t need the schools. Fortunately, many of them will not register with the American consulates in their ancestral homelands, and they will lose their citizenship.