As Fairfax County Public School students arrive today for the first day of the 2012-13 school year, thousands will be welcomed by their new teachers in supposedly “temporary” trailer classrooms. FCPS officials cite a projected 2 percent increase in student enrollment this year to explain why, even with the opening of two new schools in South County and Annandale, the school system has not been able to keep pace with demand for permanent instructional space.

This explanation would be more credible had FCPS not been saying the same thing for decades. Teachers at Herndon Middle School, for example, have been teaching children in “temporary” trailers for 28 years. After nearly three decades, not only can these outlying temporary structures no longer be considered a short-term solution, many of the trailers that have been in use for a decade or more are literally falling apart at the seams from age and wear.