With half of Fairfax County’s 12-member elected school board retiring this year, voters had a rare opportunity to change dramatically the direction of the nation’s 12th largest public school system. Unfortunately, they opted for the status quo, re-electing all remaining incumbents, including Chairwoman Jane Strauss, Dranesville. Only two reform candidates — Megan McLaughlin, Braddock, and Elizabeth Schultz, Springfield — were added to the new board whose 10 Democrat-endorsed and two Republican-endorsed members reflects Fairfax County’s political landscape.

Although McLaughlin and Schultz, both outspoken critics of FCPS and Superintendent Jack Dale, are greatly outnumbered, they now have a bully pulpit from which to prod, cajole and even shame rubber-stamping incumbents, who are tempted to rest on their laurels. The many problems facing the 175,000-student public school system are nonpartisan. None is more important than restoring public trust and choosing the right successor to Dale, who also announced he will depart in June 2013 when his current contract expires.