Arlington Taxpayers Spend How Much, and Schools Management Doesn't Do What?
A front-page story in the March 30 edition of the Arlington Sun-Gazette focused on a report from the schools committee (Adobe required) of the Arlington County Civic Federation. According to the Sun-Gazette, the report "contends that county school officials are failing to track students well enough to see why some fail the state-mandated Standards of Learning tests, or SOLs."
The Federation's committee researched school budgets for the years 2001-2005, and found that $230 million was spent "raising student achievement and eliminating the (achievement) gap" during those five years. The report's executive summary says that while achieving "gratifying results in the increasing percentages of students passing the SOL tests and other measures of progress, However, we also found that there may be a hard core of 150-200 students (approximately 15% - 20%) in each grade who fail to meet the SOL standards, even when looked at longitundinally." The newspaper quotes comittee chairman Beth Wolffe as saying, "The system takes snapshots of kids in a certain year, but it doesn't follow kids to see if they are making progress."
According to the Superintendent's proposed FY 2007 budget, Arlington taxpayers will spend $17,923 per student (page 51).