Community Corner

FEC: Right Initials, Wrong Name

Does this group have the best interests of students?

 What would you call a group made up of vocal critics of Fairfax County Public Schools, driven by issues unrelated to student achievement, and led by people running for the school board? 

 They call themselves the Fairfax Education Coalition, or  FEC.  Despite their name, FEC has ignored or sidestepped every serious discussion about student achievement. 

More importantly, FEC has been AWOL while Fairfax County has lost tens of millions of dollars in state and local school funding, as enrollment increased by thousands.  Instead of focusing on the educational issues that matter most, FEC has become a magnet attracting every person and group with an ax to grind.  Lately, it has also become a breeding ground for School Board candidates. 

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 FEC’s agenda lists the following “focus issues,” in order: 

            1.         Boundary Changes;

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            2.         Teacher Compensation;

            3.         School Board Oversight;

            4.         FY 2012 FCPS Budget Priorities;

            5.         Facilities/Transportation; and (finally)

            6.         FCPS Student Affairs and Achievement.

It is hard to see how any organization can call itself an “education coalition,” when its first priority is school boundaries and its last priority is student achievement.  If the “Truth in Labeling” law applied, FEC would stand for “Fairfax Education Critics.'

 This agenda should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with FEC’s members.  They include Fairfax CAPS and “Friends of Community Schools,” two groups which protested – and filed unsuccessful lawsuits challenging – School Board decisions to redraw school boundaries and close an elementary school. 

Teacher compensation is a priority for FEC – as it is for the School Board – as FEC includes two teachers’ unions.  Governance is a priority because some FEC members are upset about student discipline and high school start times. 

The only group without a current complaint, FairGrade, achieved its stated goals more than two years ago.  Although FairGrade has no reason to exist, FEC touts its extensive list of former supporters as within its supposed “reach.”  More significantly, one of FairGrade’s founders – along with five of her fellow FEC activists – is running for the school board in November.

 One might expect an “education coalition” to acknowledge, promote, and build on our incredible success in raising student achievement across the board, and to focus on the important challenges we will face in the future.  These include improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps; fixing the unrealistic and unfunded mandates of the federal “No Child Left Behind” law; and perhaps the greatest challenge, addressing the persistent underfunding of our schools by all three levels of government.  But these issues are not even on FEC’s radar screen.

 Instead of supporting initiatives to improve student achievement and obtain needed funding, FEC continues to pursue gripes against the school system.  For example, FEC leaders recently criticized the School Board’s FY 2012 budget – even though the School Board merely seeks to return funding to the same level as three years ago, when we had 10,000 fewer students. 

One FEC leader running for the School Board attacked programs that prepare students for the global economy by starting foreign language instruction in elementary school, when young minds can best learn another language. 

These positions not only reflect ignorance of the issues that matter the most, they demonstrate a callous insensitivity toward our children.  They certainly have no place in an “education coalition.”

At a time when we must join together to meet our common challenges, we need groups and individuals who can help us rise to the occasion.  Fairfax County has plenty of them, in civic associations, PTAs, arts and music groups, and most recently the hundreds of parents and teachers who advocated so effectively for full-day kindergarten. 

If FEC cannot work constructively to support the needs of all our children – including funding – they should step aside and let others take the lead.

 


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