2023 Arlington County Board Candidate Questionnaire
Question 2 of 5
Under Virginia law, the County Board has the authority to provide appropriations to the School Board subject to major expenditure classifications (e.g., instruction, pupil transportation, operation and maintenance, contingency reserves, etc.) with which the School Board must comply. Would you be willing to more clearly delineate how APS should use additional funds as allowed under Virginia law?
Audrey Clement: The 2023 WABE Guide shows that at $23,521 Arlington’s cost per pupil exceeded every other area jurisdiction, including Fairfax County with a cost per pupil of $18,772 (p. 31). At an average $89,881, Arlington teacher salaries exceed all other area jurisdictions, including Fairfax County with an average teacher salary of $83,623 (p. 38). 2022-2023 SOL results show that the average pass rate in Arlington County was 77.8 percent as compared with 68.8 percent for Fairfax County. However, the achievement gap between white and black students was 31.8 percentage points in Arlington County as compared with 26 percentage points for Fairfax County.
These numbers indicate Arlington is spending the extra money to promote competition among the whites rather than parity among racial groups. This suggests an inability to extend the STEM learning model to disadvantaged children. The solution is not to throw more money at the problem, since that clearly doesn’t work. The solution is to encourage the School Board to reassess and tweak APS’ instructional methodology.
If the Board is dissatisfied with APS’s inability to reduce the achievement gap, it could divert funds from one major expenditure category to another, or it could redirect the distribution of one-time funds. However, because the School Board is a separate and co-equal branch of government, County Board does not have the authority to direct the School Board on instructional matters.
Maureen Coffey: Yes, I think the County Board should be clear and specific if we are providing additional funds what the purpose of those funds is intended to be. I am interested in exploring a more collaborative budget process for the County Board to have with the School Board and APS administration. I think that restricting conversations about the budget and collaboration to just the spring budgeting process means that we miss an opportunity for larger changes and more accountability for past policy decisions. Through greater collaboration, we have an opportunity for the County Board to understand more clearly what the true needs are for APS to use as part of the County Board’s budget process. To me, that is a requisite foundation before deciding upon the correct allocation of County funds for APS, including any additional funds above the revenue sharing amount. I would also like to see APS prioritize instructional spending rather than administrative spending, and have growing concerns about the expansion of 12-month staff.
Susan Cunningham: I will advocate for transparency on how funds are used and on our return on investment within these categories. Provided the data were reasonable and readily available, I would expect the school board to manage the details and report back on results and future refinements. However, if concerns (including lack of transparency) were to arise I would consider providing more oversight and delineation on how APS should use additional funds within these expenditure categories.
Juan Carlos Fierro: As indicated in question 1, I would subject contributions with conditionality statements defining percentages based on expenditure classifications. Furthermore, I would give preference to indicating that the instruction category be given preference to other categories.