We have some unhappy politicians. When the economy is good, our politicians tax and spend. When the economy is not good, politicians argue about taxing and spending. With luck, some politicians win their arguments against taxing and spending.
The place where our local politicians are arguing is at our Board of County Supervisors (BOCS). Corey Stewart and John Stirrup are leading a coalition to keep taxes down (see here, here and here). So far the BOCS cannot agree on the advertised tax rate (for budget planning), and they have pushed off the decision until the 11th of March. The law requires a decision by the 18th of March.
Of course, since they have no responsibility for setting tax rates, the Prince William School Board is campaigning for more money. The School Board is trying to be polite, but what the School Board wants is a budget that matches growth plus inflation. With the notable exception of Gil Trenum, the School Board passed a resolution stating that it agreed with the substance of a letter drafted by School Board Member Grant Lattin (see here). Lattin’s letter took issue statement by one of the county supervisors that got into the newspaper.
As reported in the Potomac News, one member of the Board of County Supervisors said he was concerned that the school’s central office staff is top-heavy. The most recent data from the Educational Research Services shows that per pupil expenditures for central office and school board services in Prince William County are 44 percent below the national average. (from here)
Side Note
The BOCS discussed one item in closed session. This discussion resulted from a not unexpected development. As a result of the Virginia Supreme Court’s declaration that the Northern Virginia Transportation (AKA Taxation) Authority taxation authority is unconstitutional, the BOCS does not have as much money to spend as it expected.
Board members broke from their tax rate debates to enter into closed session to discuss legal issues surrounding the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance court case brought, in part, by Del. Robert “Bob” Marshall, R-Prince William. That case was settled at the state level with a unanimous decision that found the authority of the NVTA to tax residents unconstitutional. Left in a lurch were several jurisdictions, Prince William County included, that had planned on the money for road issues. (from here)
Legal issues? Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall? The Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger are trying to use the Freedom of Information Act to find out what was discussed.
The comments made by Richardson and Lattin at the March 5th School Board Meeting last wednesday were a display of arrogance and ignorance. Instead of listening to citizen comments and concerns regarding the pathetic math Investigations program in PWC schools, they chose to attack the petition signers and basically call them liars. There was a lively rant directed at the BOC Supervisors as well. These officials don’t seem to remember that they were elected to represent the citizens. They need to be replaced and fast! Every citizen should watch the video from that meeting on the PWCS-TV website.
Some parents have tried to use FOIA to obtain documents and information on the Math Text adoption and committee reports but as of yet they have been stonewalled by PWCS and told that a deposit of $1900. would be required to even proceed with the request. Where is the accountability and what good is FOIA if regular citizens can’t afford the time or money to fight them to get information. There is nothing “Free” about “Freedom of Information Act”.
Joline – I think that the School Board does not agree that he information in the petition is accurate. Although Lattin did use rather strong language, I do not think he called anyone a liar. Richardson did not say much of anything about math investigation.
The members of the School Board also did not rant. The School Board is under intense pressure as is the BOCS. The School Board finds easier success with a larger budget. The BOCS pleases taxpayers with lower tax rates — but they do not want to take the blame if the school system does not have sufficient funds. So each side presents its case to the public as convincingly as it can.
Citizen Tom-
Thanks for caring enough about this issue to write about it. In reference to Richardson, his comments were directed at BOCS I believe, it was at one of the other recent board meetings where he discussed the Math program. I can’t pull up the video to review the tape with his comments at the moment so I will have to try and get to that tomorrow. (I was in the room at the last meeting and it seemed as though another board member was motioning him, trying to stop Richardson as he went on for several minutes talking about the BOCS.) Sitting through the whole meeting last week there were a couple of statements by board members that certainly sounded like they were bordering on personal attacks and the tension in the room during the budget discussion was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Clearly some of the school board members were not comfortable with the heated comments that were directed at the BOCS. Several of the school board members indicated that they wanted to meet face to face with the BOCS to discuss the budget issues. But Lattin, and I believe Richardson, were very adamant that it would only be a waste of time (as it had been in the past) and they did not want to request any working sessions or meetings with BOCS. There appears to possibly be something personal between some of the BOCS and school board members, at least it appears that way from statements being made from both sides in the media. Certainly nothing constructive seems to be coming out of these criticisms of each other.
During that meeting Lattin did say that the bullets on the math petition were untrue and went as far to say that if they were true he would have signed it himself. We are concerned parents very frustrated by the lack of accountability and responsiveness to parents, teachers and citizens. We wrote that petition to try and raise the awareness in the community and get the attention of the school board. We have reached out to many people and groups while doing research and trying to really understand all the issues involved with it. NYCHold was one of those groups we have been in contact with, they did not have any part in writing our petition. They have posted articles, links and other information related to our group on their website, mostly after we had started our petition.
While it seems to be a chess game for PWCS having their attorneys respond to requests for information and refusing to answer questions, our children fall farther behind in math. Teachers tell us that they are hushed and told exactly what to say to students and parents. They have told us that they are monitored and will be targeted if they speak out about the math program. Nearly all the teachers and many of the parents we have talked to say that they won’t speak out publicly because they fear retaliation either against themselves or their children. Those of us who have spoken up have already experienced some of consequences and intimidation tactics first hand. PWC parents created the petition out of desperation because all our other attempts to address this issue in the past year have failed. Some parents want to look into a lawsuit now but really what we all want is a better public education for our children! While this battle rages neither parents, teachers, students or administration can “win”.
Comments made on March 5th, 2008 by Mr. Grant Lattin, Vice Chairman, Prince William County School Board at PWCS Board Meeting.
(video transcript at http://www.pwcstv.com/vod.asp?vod=16)
“The petition that was sent around that has 1272 citizens who have signed
it; if the things that were true on that petition were true I would have signed it. They’re not true. A number of the bullets on that petition are simply false and are misleading and they are taken directly off of a website NYCHOLD that is apparently a group of people who are determined to stop this kind of improvement in math teaching. If the old system worked well, we would be at the top of the world in math. We’re at the bottom of the world in math. And anybody who has looked into those international statistics there doesn’t seem to be any debate about that. The only ones that seem to suggest
that everything’s OK is the small group of people who know math very well. And they learned it through the old system and for those people it worked. But we’ve left behind generations of people who do not understand math well, and its time for us to start letting them enjoy math as much as the people who understand math well.”
JK
Joline – Thank you for your comment. I appreciate your thoughtful comment.
It is very easy to get angry about these issues, but it is not very helpful. The School Board is trying to do its best, and so are the school teachers. The problem is the system itself. We are using a socialist system to educate our children. Such a system requires the electorate to manage the schools. To be successful managers, we must almost become education experts. Of course, the notion we have time to do that is absurd.
So we end up being forced to trust “education experts.” Under the “control” of our political leadership, these “education experts” decide what children need. And parents, the people responsible for seeing to it that their children are educated, end up without any authority in the matter. That is, the only alternative parents have is to complain or to take their children out of the public school system (and still pay taxes).
Parents should have a choice. “Education experts” should be required to prove their expertise in a competitive market just like other professionals.
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