Testimony to the Fairfax County School Board FY2021 Final Budget Hearing - 05/12/2020
-- by Arthur G. Purves, President of the President, Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance (fcta.org).
Public Schools: Learning or Social Studies?
Madam Chairman, Members of the Board, Mr. Superintendent:
My name is Arthur Purves. I address you as president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance. Thank you for holding this hearing.
Today the Board of Supervisors voted to raise real estate taxes. They did not lower last year's tax rate of $1.15 to offset this year's increase in assessments. The supervisors are also giving full pay to county employees that are not working during the COVID-19 lockdown. Private-sector taxpayers that are losing jobs and pay now face a tax hike. Is it fair to give those school employees who are not working full pay while taxpayers are losing pay and paying higher taxes?
The Sun-Gazette quoted the school board chairman as saying, "..., we understand how important a thriving and successful school system supports more than just student learning. Our schools are a hub of social activity, a place to make connections and a place to have a sense of belonging."
In response to this quote, an email observed that half a century ago "... CHURCHES were the hub of social activity, a place to make connections and a place to have a sense of belonging and we found our true belonging in our homes and families ... SCHOOLS were for learning the 3 R's. How things have changed."
The chairman's comment echoes John Dewey, who felt that learning reading, arithmetic, and history were secondary. Dewey's introduction of "whole word" reading instruction, replacing history with Social Studies", and rejection of math drill explain the low Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) test scores and the minority student achievement gap. The FCPS FY2021 213-page $3 billion Proposed Budget devotes less than a page to academic achievement. The FCPS average SAT score is at the 76th percentile. While higher than other districts, this is not excellent. The average SAT score of the University of Virginia freshman class is at the 95th percentile, which is excellent.
You cannot replace the family. "No other success can compensate for failure in the home." Many of your graduates are so poorly educated that they will not be able to marry and support a family. Rather than trying to replace families, fix your curriculum so your graduates are "economically marriageable" and can create and support their own families.
Likewise, schools, with their Supreme-Court-mandated atheism, cannot replace churches. You're trying to teach the second commandment, to love your neighbor, while skipping the first commandment. As John Quincy Adams stated, "The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy." Likewise, secular curricula cannot make students wise, virtuous, or happy.
Public schools need to share the financial burden felt by private workers that are losing jobs and paying higher taxes. Please spend our $3.1 billion on learning instead of a futile attempt to replace family and church. To get value for our taxes, return the curriculum to the pre-John Dewey teaching methods that worked for a hundred years and abandon the current methods, which produce mediocrity, poverty, and inequality.
Thank you.