Barbara Comstock's Alternate Reality

Usually I don't comment on individual legislators press releases on here.  But this one I really need to.  First some background.

Numerous studies have shown that kids learn the most information at the youngest ages.  That doesn't mean a one year old can do complex math, but it does mean a one year old who learns two languages from the start will have an easier time with both than a ten year old who tries to learn a second language (or any other skill).  Early childhood education is the key to give students their best chance at success later in life.

With that in mind, numerous studies have focused on preschool education, kindergarten and early elementary years to see what the best time is to be introducing kids to various topics and helping them master those skills at the earliest possible ages.  The result of those studies has been to strongly recommend full-day kindergarten over the half-day kindergarten that many schools had for the last generation of students.  Virginia's largest school division- Fairfax County- began phasing in full day kindergarten a few years ago across it's nearly 150 elementary schools in the county. 

Without getting into all the minutia of this kind of transition, it's a pretty complicated thing to pull off.  For half day kindergarten, teachers taught both the morning and afternoon classes.  Obviously you can't just double class size (without blowing the entire point of improving educational achievement) so the first thing full day kindergarten requires is a doubling of the number of teachers, teaching assistants, etc. that are in the kindergarten classroom.  That costs money. 

There's also a big issue of classroom space, some schools have vacant rooms, but most schools are at capacity and many in Fairfax were already in trailers.  When I attended Fairfax schools, I was in trailers for four years as Robinson Secondary was renovated- but being in trailers for some classes in middle school or high school (where there are multiple classes a day) is a very different proposition than having elementary students stuffed in a small trailer for six or seven hours with one teacher. There is also a cost involved for the schools for the additional trailers to put students in- something system bureaucrats carefully study in order to time renovations so the system doesn't have to purchase a bunch of trailers it won't need in the future.

There's other issues too but as you can see this is a lot more complex that just saying "we want full day kindergarten and it needs to start immediately".

Seeing these issues, Fairfax began slowly phasing in full day kindergarten across its schools.  This might sound inherently unfair as some schools immediately got the program while others had to wait- but it's the logical way to approach the issue.  Unfortunately after the program had been implemented in almost 3/4 of Fairfax schools the budget crisis began to hit the county and school budgets.  The School Board then made a very unfortunate decision to not fund the remaining schools to be phased in, leaving 37 schools without this program.  Suddenly this was no longer an issue of phasing in, but a program frozen in place with students lucky enough to be on one side of the street getting to go to full day kindergarten while the other side of the street at another school was not.

Needless to say this got some parents very upset at the remaining schools and they have been aggressively organizing since then to get Fairfax County Public Schools back on track with this program.  I congratulate them on a job well done.  These parents are absolutely right that the entire system should have full day kindergarten.

With that background on the issue, enter Barbara Comstock and her press release from this weekend:

"I am pleased that the House Appropriations Committee voted unanimously on a budget which included my budget amendment that would allow a school district to shift money for one year from pre-school funds to the effort of completing all-day kindergarten in districts that have not yet achieved all day kindergarten in all of their schools. Many families in my district and around Fairfax are paying for all-day kindergarten but they aren't receiving it. This is simply unfair and is essentially a kindergarten tax. Our area is one of the areas that is still far behind on having full-day kindergarten in all of our schools.

"This budget amendment would help Fairfax County close the gap and provide all day kindergarten in all of our schools. I am proud to work with many or our local parents on this issue, as well as other local delegates, and I look forward to continuing to work with them to get all of our kindergarten students being treated equally."

Sigh.  I'm going to pass on the intellectual stupidity of calling this a "kindergarten tax" and just address the policy stupidity.

Studies have shown full day kindergarten improves a student's learning and educational performance.  There have not been studies that show this is "better" than targeted pre-K education programs, which also dramatically improve a student's chances at success.  We don't need to pick between these programs, we need to fund both.

That's where Barbara falls completely short and shows herself to be an enemy of the  program she is trying to appear friendly to.  We don't need the appropriations committee giving authority to schools to take away money from three and four year olds and allocate it to five year olds.  What's needed is additional money to pay to finish the expansion of full day kindergarten without cutting funds for pre-school education.  What's so hard to understand about that?!

In summary, no Barbara we are not proud of your "accomplishment" in Richmond to give the Fairfax School Board the authority to cut funding for three and four year olds pre-K and move it into full day kindergarten.  What would have been impressive was finding the $8,000,000 needed to finish this program across Fairfax County in the state budget and then fund it.  Instead you gave us a press release that isn't even worth the time I just spent on it.  Next time instead of getting out the mirror to tell us what a great job you are doing, why don't you pull out the checkbook instead?  It might be a little harder to do, but maybe you can sleep better at night having helped some kids instead of your own political career.

Comments

[martinlomasney]

ben this is so much worse than you describe.

Since pre-K programs are at schools with large disadvantaged students and the 37 Fairfax schools without full day K have the richest families, Comstock authorizes School Boards to take from the poor and disadvantage to give a benefit the rich. Typical rethugican politics.

[Kevin]

So where does the funding come from NEXT year? Since this is a one year fix, does this mean this will have to be approved over and over again if no new funding for the all day kindegarten is found? Will the Republicans grab the money from somewhere else next year?

Instead of shifting money from one need to the next, why don't we fix the tax code?

http://www.tax.virginia.gov/web_pdfs/taxtable.pdf

[FCPS Parent]

Given the state Local Composite Index approach to KG-12 education funding, it wouldn't make sense for any Northern Virginia state legislator to try and fund school expenses at the state level. Our Northern Virginia tax dollars are used largely to pay for other Virginia school districts. Northern Virginians would be better off (lower aggregate taxes and more funding for local public education) if the state reduced KG-12 education funding and the local Boards of Supervisors increased our local taxes.

More specifically, other school districts implemented full day KG so that it is available to students in all their elementary schools. FCPS chose not to do that. Instead FCPS used its money to start, expand, or continue other programs. FCPS elementary schools that have Full Day KG also tend to have smaller class sizes and more non-classroom resource teachers per student.

Most people understand that it's appropriate to give some additional resources to students who are at risk of failing their SOL tests. But some things are so basic that they shouldn't be denied students just because they happen to live in more affluent zip codes. Full day KG has become part of a basic education. Preschool is not in the same category, at least not yet.

[Not Larry Sabato]

FCPS parent- not all state education money goes through the local composite index. There's absolutely nothing stopping Barbara from securing a special $8M approp. to only Fairfax to finish this program for a year. Except her ineffectiveness.

[Stephen Spiker]

Ben, couldn't you also say there's nothing stopping Dels. Plum, Keam, Scott, Bulova, Filler-Corn, Watts, Kory, Sickles, and Surovell from securing a special $8M approp. to only Fairfax except for their ineffectiveness?

[Not Larry Sabato]

Stephen- sure you could, but none of them have the number of school affected by this that Barbara does.

[NotJohnSMosby]

Comstock is part of the Republican majority, so she's in a much better position to get an earmark than any of the Dems. I agree with Ben, this is a bullshit false-choice scenario that Comstock is trying to set the school board up for. I'm surprised she focused on moving money from pre-K instead of school lunches or something else which doesn't benefit the bulk of the kids in her district.

[Brian W. Schoeneman]

Does anyone actually think that Pre-k is actually not going to get the funding they need?

We are talking about 8 million here, not 8 billion. Jack Dale will simply extort the BOS liken he usually does and the money will be there.

We don't need Richmond for this.

[Not Larry Sabato]

If Jack Dale could just get the money from the BOS the full day kindergarten would already be implemented, but nice try Brian.

I do agree, it's a shame this got to Richmond and that the Board of Supervisors didn't pass a special half-penny on the tax rate and pay for this already. But as I've said before- this is what happens when you have pathetic Democrats on the Board like Jeff McKay.

[Stephen Spiker]

NotJohn, the problem with getting an $8M approp passed through the budget isn't an R vs D issue, its a one locality issue. Why would members of the approps committee approve $8M for a county they don't live in and don't represent?

[Brian W. Schoeneman]

Ben, I find it hard to believe that in a budget of over $2 billion, FCPS can't find $8 million for full time kindergarten if the political pressure was there to do it.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Stephen, you could say that about any appropriation to any county. You could say that about anything the feds fund for a specific state. Stop the rhetorical, circular defenses of every Republican and start addressing the real issue.

[DCCyclone]

I live in HD-34 myself and have a daughter starting this fall in half-day kindergarten in a FCPS. I'm not surprised Comstock is supporting the boilerplate conservative "answer" of rearranging the deck chairs when things are tight.

No money should be diverted from pre-school for the most vulnerable kids to kindergarten for everyone else. The 1st commenter here, martinsomasley, is right, that it's even worse to think that money could be diverted to schools in the wealthiest areas.

God I hope we have a decent candidate in HD-34.

[Not Paul Blart]

$8 million is .4% of the County's annual schools budget. There's no reason Dale can't find the money.

Ben, the LCI argument is a powerful one. No one in Richmond will vote against their own locality. This is not a partisan issue, but one of simple numbers. The wealthy "donor" localities that pay in more than they get back from the LCI only have about 18-20 seats in the House, and the other 80 House members generally won't approve ANY money that's outside the LCI.

The question is not whether Comstock is ineffective, it's whether the room is stacked against her (and every other NoVa representative, whether D or R). Non-LCI money stands very little chance of getting through either the House or Senate.

[Martin Lomasney]

DCCyclone

Word is that Margie won't run.

Anybody heard from Rip Sullivan?

[Not Larry Sabato]

The best possible Democratic candidate is getting ready to run there I hear. Hang on for an announcement in the next couple weeks.

[change]

“More money… More money”
Why does that always seem to be the mantra for education? (and everything else).
How much is enough?
Why not less?. Let’s consider; “less administration” and use the money for “better teachers”?
Let’s consider less money for beautiful buildings. Why do new schools have to be artistic and beautiful and each one different (at the cost of hundreds of millions) instead of one proven model? That would open up some extra “money”.

How is it that a one room schoolhouse (or home schooling) could give us the likes of Thomas Edison, Herbert Hoover, Alan Shepard and Joyce Carol Oates? (answer: it was the Teachers and parents; not administrators and beautiful surroundings)
I know many who are homeschooled and are scoring in the 99.9 percentile on standardized testing (not much “money” spent there).

The constant cry for “more money” is what has produced the situation we currently face in our country.
Union bosses want “more money” to the point where businesses can not pay and move the jobs overseas; thereby creating a situation where the only people making money are foreign entities (while we pay unemployment). The same thing is happening in cities. To numerous to list are those who are going broke from historic cries for “more money”.

It “ain’t” the money people.. it is the manner in which those in charge “choose” to spend it.
Make schools more like a business, if the kids do not get educated, fire the bosses; if parents don’t like the school they are in; let them take their children elsewhere (along with the money associated with the child). Do this and pretty soon the wheat will separate from the chaff.
I have never heard anyone say how much is “enough” to educate a child. The answer is always “more”. Unfortunately, we are now in a position where we have no “more”.

[Stephen Spiker]

Also, I find it odd that you set up a false choice at the end of your post, saying she could have helped kids instead of her political career. Color me confused, but doesn't helping kids generally brighten anybody's political outlook? I can't remember the last time I heard about a successful candidate running on an anti-kid platform.

[change]

Stephen,
Have you not realized that, in the eyes of some, it is the responsibility of the minority republicans in NOVA to pass legislation even though most of representatives here are democrats?

Fortunately, there are some NOVA legislators, on both sides, that cut the best deals they can no matter the party; with all of the downstate legislators; who also have some say in Va. politics.

[DCCyclone]

Martin: I heard last fall that Margi wasn't going to run again.

Ben: oh boy I hope you're right! I'm truly ready to write a check and volunteer for door-knocking as soon as a consensus nominee emerges.

[NotPaulGoldman]

I'm really hoping that Terry McAuliffe will run and believe he'll beat Ms. Comstock. Victory would be great exposure and experience for Terry and would in no way foreclose any other aspirations he might have.

[Not Larry Sabato]

NPG- I think Terry would be great also, but he couldn't win that seat. His civic resume in McLean (very very important there) is way too thin.

[Concerned Citizen]

All politics aside, the grammar in that press release from Comstock's office is quite poor:

" am proud to work with many or our local parents "

"and I look forward to continuing to work with them to get all of our kindergarten students being treated equally."

I proud cause we did reals good this session time.

Just, wow

[Hey Comstock, Leave Those Kids Alone]

kudos to Ben for publicizing this. As has been mentioned, this is incredibly destructive policy and wickedly manipulative by Comstock. It boils down to her boasting about robbing 4 year olds to pay for 5 year olds.

[Mr Bubbles]

i think im going to wait to see how her district is redrawn before i start giving a crap what she says