Stafford County is the 12th Richest County in the Nation, Near Bottom in Per Pupil Spending
Last week Forbes released a list of the top 25 richest counties in the nation. Stafford County was ranked as the 12th richest county in the nation, with the median household income at $89,536.00 and the percentage of residents 25 or older with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher at 36%.
An extremely good measure of how much a county actually invests in education is how much they spend per student (per pupil). What you will find is startling. How can the 12th richest county in the entire nation rank near the bottom of Virginia and the nation in per pupil spending? To put that in further context, Virginia is ranked only 37th in the nation in per pupil spending. So, we rank at the bottom of a state that ranks only 37th in the nation in per pupil spending. This would be almost laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.
According to the latest available data from the National Center for Education and Statistics (NCES, 2006-2007), Stafford County spends $8,900 per pupil. That ranks them 86th (out of the 132 districts that NCES had data for) in Virginia for per pupil spending. Stafford County, the 12th richest county in the nation, ranks 87th in Virginia in per pupil spending. Again, Virginia ranks in the bottom of the nation in per pupil spending and Stafford County ranks in the bottom of Virginia for per pupil spending. If you don’t see anything wrong with this, you should!
Based on per pupil spending, it should also be no wonder that Stafford County’s average teacher’s salary (per the Stafford Superintendent’s FY’11 Budget) is below the state and national averages. An average teacher in Stafford County makes $51,341. This is $808 below the state average and $4,734 below the national average. That’s right, a teacher in the 12th richest county in the nation makes 10 percent less than the national average.
What our elected officials fail to realize is that investing in education is one of the best investments that you can make. This is further evidenced by Bill Howell’s (R-28th) recent attempt to mislead constituents on the subject.
Last week the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors, including Howell disciple Supervisor Susan Stimpson (R-Falmouth), made things even worse for Stafford County schools in FY’11 by failing to appropriate $3.6 million in debt service savings to them that that they planned on using to offset the $26 million deficit (soon to be more thanks to Howell) they are facing. Combine this with the fact that the Republicans on the Board of Supervisors voted to repeal BPOL and covered it in the FY’10 budget by spending part of a school surplus, impacting our schools negatively to the tune of $7.4 million, it should be no surprise to folks that our local and statewide elected officials don’t have their priorities straight.
The 12th richest county in the nation currently has 53 percent of our schools failing to meet Annual Yearly Progress requirements. Enough is enough already. We need leaders who understand the clear correlation between future economic growth and well-educated children. Howell and his Republican counterparts on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors are out of touch with reality.
The 12th richest county shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom in our schools, but a race to the top!
What a sad state we are in. Why would anyone want to live here? But, hey, all our rest stops are now open!!! Shew–what a relief.
I don’t normally say things like this, but it’s been a long week already: You are an idiot. Your foundational proposition that “An extremely good measure of how much a county actually invests in education is how much they spend per student (per pupil)” is completely wrong.
Please take a look at how your test scores, graduation rate, etc. compare to the rest of the state and I think you will be pretty pleased.
Houdon, James, PWConservative – You miss the entire point of the post. Per pupil spending is a widely accepted measure of how much a locality spends on its schools. As for test scores, 53% of Stafford’s schools are not meeting AYP. This is based on SOL test performance. All of Stafford schools must meet 100% by 2014. As the Republicans cut funding to our schools, class sizes get larger and pre-k programs are defunded, I’m sure that Stafford’s schools will experience higher test results and better prepare our students for higher education and the workforce?! I’m not arguing the fact that Stafford “has” had some of the best schools in the Fredericksburg-region; however, I am arguing that the current path that Republicans have us on will have the effect of pushing our school system to the bottom and not the top. The cuts proposed by them will DIRECTLY impact the classroom. The Republicans call this “flexibility,” I call this stupidity.
Clearly, per pupil spending is not the only factor in whether or not a school is successful; however, I assure you that cutting an already very “lean” budget will have profound academic consequences. The reality is that Stafford Republicans would rather provide irresponsible tax breaks to their friends by using “school funds,” which could have been used to lessen the impact of the severe cuts coming from the state. Republicans need to get their priorities straight, putting our children first for a change. That would be refreshing.
“An extremely good measure of how much a county actually invests in education is how much they spend per student (per pupil).”
So, let’s examine that statement: “An extremely good measure of how much a county [spends] in education is how much they [sic] spend[s]….”
Clearly, whatever the amount spent per pupil in the county in which you were educated, it was wasted on you. Thank you for that tautology.
Who cares about how much is spent per pupil? Well, let’s see, mostly teachers unions and their Democrat lapdogs, and educational bureaucrats, since it ends up in their pockets in one way or another.
Those who actually care about the quality of eduction know that per-pupil spending is, at its best, a crude measure of educational quality and frequently, irrelevant to educational outcomes. For instance, it wasn’t so long ago (haven’t seen the figures recently) that New Hampshire had the lowest per-pupil spending in the nation, while New Hampshire had the highest average test scores on the College Boards.
This is good research. Good public service.
Stafford must be doing something right, DC has the highest per pupil spending in the nation and academic mediocrity abounds. Throwing money at a problem is no solution. Staffords prosperity is protected by it’s governments frugality.