Plans for a $22 million expansion of full-day kindergarten to all Fairfax County elementary schools could run afoul of forecasted budget constraints.
The School Board-backed proposal would, over three years, bring full-day kindergarten to the 63 public schools that remain without it. The program could be difficult to implement in the next fiscal year, however,when increases in revenue streams are expected to drop sharply as the housing market slows.
“I think it will be postponed for fiscal year 2008, unless we come up with some creative funding,” said Debby Fulcher, a coordinator in the school system’s Office of Early Childhood and Family Services.
Proponents tout full-day kindergarten as a way to cut the number of students who later require special education, and to provide earlier immersion to children who speak English as a second language. It is also seen as a way to relieve parents of the burden of day care.
“The earlier we provide educational opportunities to children, the better for students to succeed,” said Fairfax County School Board Chairman Ilryong Moon. “Especially for language minority students and students in poverty, early intervention is critical.”
Under the current plan, 275 new staff positions would be added to fully cover the county’s approximately 11,000 kindergartners, Fulcher said. Many surrounding jurisdictions have already implemented full-day kindergarten across all of their schools.
But Fairfax County’s fiscal forecast is not promising. County agencies have been told to prepare budgets without any expansions of programs, as a result of the prediction that real estate assessments would drop from 20 percent to 1 percent by fiscal 2008. Real estate taxes account for about 60 percent of the county’s annual revenue.
The drop-off will no doubt affect the school system, which is considered largely separate from Fairfax’s government but nevertheless depends on the county for about 75 percent of its budget.
“We’ll have to carefully look at revenue numbers. … We understand we are going into a really tight fiscal situation,” Moon said.
The all-day lowdown
As planned, the expansion of full-day kindergarten across all of Fairfax County’s elementary schools would:
» be established over three years
» cost $22 million
» bring the program to 63 schools currently without it
