Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Fairfax County School Board Has the Upper Hand – But Never Mind

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sherlockj
in ,

Ricardy Anderson, Chair, Fairfax County School Board

by James C. Sherlock

Just because I am interested and think you might be, I checked job satisfaction among the roughly 13,500 teachers in the employ of Fairfax County Public Schools — very few of whom have stood in front of live students in the last year.

I did that the real way, not opinion surveys but demonstrated supply and demand.

I first computed the number of classroom teachers in the FCPS system by dividing the number of pupils — 188,000 by the FCPS-advertised pupil to teacher ratio — 14 – 1.

I had to do that calculation because I could not find on the FCPS website any statistic on how many classroom teachers that system employs. That is where the 13,500 classroom teachers estimate come from. It is close enough.

I then examined the number of open teacher positions – less than 130 — being advertised by FCPS for the 2021-2022 school year on its website today.

That means only one of each 100 teacher positions is unfilled for next school year. On March 9th 2021. One percent unfilled for the fall. There is clearly fierce demand for those jobs.

Consider the tremendous leverage that can give the Fairfax County School Board over the various unions that claim to represent those teachers. Strike threats and such.

I then read the biographies of the twelve Fairfax County School Board members. They are a dozen of the most woke persons in the universe. Period.

They did not get elected to represent the kids.

So never mind.

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12 responses to “Fairfax County School Board Has the Upper Hand – But Never Mind”

  1. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    To really see satisfaction by teacher vacancy for next year, one will have to wait until April 15 or later to see who was let go and then how many did not sign new contracts.

  2. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    So, the “wokest” has high teacher job satisfaction, low unfilled poisitions, +80% post secondary education bound and SATs of
    Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, Mathematics
    FCPS 604, 607
    Virginia 567, 549
    Nation 528, 523

    Uh yep. Something’s wrong. Clearly

  3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    I don’t see the point of this post. First, based on your methodology, you dem onstrate that Fairfax County teachers are satisfied with their jobs. But, then you pivot to speculating on the degree that the School Board would stand up to the teachers in collective bargaining. You allude to strike threats and then conclude, based on your reading of the biographies of the board members that they would fold. There are some problems with your reasoning. First, the new collective bargaining law did not change the prohibition of strikes. Second, basing your projection on biographies prepared for a public website is really jumping to conclusions. Third, if the teachers are so satisfied, why is there reason to believe that they would be unreasonable in any collective bargaining process or even want to go on strike?

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      He gets to use the word “woke”.

  4. Walter Hadlock Avatar
    Walter Hadlock

    I agree with Dick Sizemore, what’s the point of this article?

  5. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Mr. Sherlock,

    I share your concerns about the direction our public schools are taking, but this post is based on nothing but assumptions and speculation. Your arguments are much stronger when they are based on real research and facts.

    No offense, sir, but this posting is pretty weak.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      And it is indeed way too early to gauge how many openings will need to be filled for the fall. Meaningless at this point. Few give notice until they have to.

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      And it is indeed way too early to gauge how many openings will need to be filled for the fall. Meaningless at this point. Few give notice until they have to.

    3. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      And it is indeed way too early to gauge how many openings will need to be filled for the fall. Meaningless at this point. Few give notice until they have to.

  6. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    I am fairly closely tied into Fairfax schools due to family as students and teachers. The only thing I hear is in the Fall it may still be hybrid approach, which is problematic for working parents keeping the students home during the week still.

  7. Sam Ketner Avatar
    Sam Ketner

    Those biographies are medium Woke at best.

  8. Sam Ketner Avatar
    Sam Ketner

    Those biographies are medium Woke at best.

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