I just got around to listening to a recent interview of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling by Coy Barefoot (WINA AM 1070, Charlottesville Right Now). The podcast is only 11 minutes and I recommend it to those following school budget issues.
Bolling talks about his 100 ideas for the future of Virginia. Among them is the suggestion that the state should require localities to invest at least 65% of their resources in the classroom as opposed to the central office. This is also known as the '65% solution' and there is a bill pending in this year's General Assembly to do just that.
Bolling says that, on average, public schools in Virginia invest only 60% in the classroom. In Albemarle County, we already spend 75% of our operational funds on classroom instruction. As one school board member, I am opposed to the legislation. Obviously, it would not change anything in Albemarle County. I think the accountability programs of the Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act and the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) should be the levers that shift resources to where student achievement will be most impacted--in our classrooms. These financial matters are best left to the local School Boards and their Superintendents. The state should focus on fulling funding the Standards of Quality (SOQs) and ensuring our SOLs are good measures of student achievement.
This and other frequently asked questions are answered in Superintendent Pam Moran's funding request for fiscal years 2009-10. This website has all the details: http://www.k12albemarle.org/board/budget
Brian Wheeler
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