A Call to Action

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the first satellite to orbit the Earth that was considered by many a threat to American national security, the immediate response was the turn to education to solve the crisis. When the Nation at Risk report was released in 1983, education was described as the central issue that would define our nation’s future. Three years ago, noted author Thomas Friedman warned in his book, The World is Flat, that globalization had shifted into warp speed and if America was to meet the challenges of advances in technology and communications we must step up our pace. Education, again, was seen as the key component.

Today we are experiencing change in the midst of an economic recession and collapsing financial markets and the transition of the presidency. These are unprecedented times, and few people in the community, state or country are unaffected. If ever a call to action was needed, the time is now.

That change and action begins with education, which is the backbone of a democracy. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

The price of education may seem high to some, but the cost of ignorance is much more expensive. The Chesterfield community has long understood and benefitted from the investment in public education, which many describe as the economic engine that drives the county. As elected officials grapple with ways to balance budgets in times of declining state and local revenues, we should remind them to continue to make education their top funding priority. While we are competing for tax dollars with many other critical services, it is important to remember that our police and firemen, nurses and doctors, judges and social workers were all educated by teachers.

Every locality in this region is struggling to adequately fund education. Many now face drastic cuts. In Chesterfield County alone, we face the daunting task of cutting $52 million from our FY2010 operating budget based on state and local cuts to previously approved funding for public education.

Recent external audits have documented that Chesterfield County Public Schools is one of the most cost-efficient school divisions in Virginia. Administrative costs are 2.4 percent, which is lower than the state average. Chesterfield is the largest school division in Virginia with all of its fully accredited, yet ranks near the bottom of Virginia’s 132 school divisions in terms of per-pupil spending.

With recommendations from internal and external stakeholders serving on the Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee, we will make every effort to minimize the impact of these cuts to student learning. However, cutting $52 million from the operating budget will have a profound impact. Every single aspect of our education system, inside and outside of the classroom, will suffer. Some have said these funding cuts can be taken care of by cutting administrative costs and positions. That is simply not true. Wiping out the entire Chesterfield schools administration would still require the system to cut the budget by another 5 or 6 percent. The magnitude of these budget reductions on our school system is equivalent to the state shutting down five entire smaller school systems.

It is for all of these reasons that our school system has provided continuous budget updates to employees, parents, students and the Chesterfield community. I feel a professional, moral and personal obligation to discuss these challenges openly in order for our community to prepare for the future ramifications these budget cuts will have on Chesterfield students and families.

Asking our teachers to meet higher standards of state and federal accountability, teach larger class sizes and respond to more behavioral problems with fewer resources and slashed budgets is like the Pharaoh asking the Israelites to make bricks without straw.

We are maximizing our efforts and efficiencies to provide the best education possible for our students. But our school division needs help. So I ask Chesterfield residents, and others in the Richmond metropolitan area, to contact their local and state elected officials to ensure that everything possible is done to protect our teachers, other school staff members and most importantly our students. The vitality of our nation, state and county rests squarely on the shoulders of a strong public education system. It is time for citizens to act.