I oppose burdening teachers with excessive testing and reporting, mandatory continuing education, and fads imposed by administrators trying to justify their existence. Teachers are the architects for our future, and only competent and trustworthy should be hired for such important roles. Once hired, they should be trusted and empowered to take on the most challenging task of educating and to enforce discipline in their classrooms.

Having two children graduated from the FCPS system with outstanding honors, still having poorer knowledge of ‘American History’ than their immigrant parents, I have personally witnessed the lack of depth and continuity of ‘US History’ in FCPS curriculum. This deficit is something that I am very concerned about. As a school board member and a proud US citizen I will play a key role to change this scenario for the better. Incremental US history education from K to 12 should be mandated as a requirement for graduation.

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) is the only magnet school in Fairfax County for its gifted children. TJ provide challenging learning environment focused on math, science, and technology. However, gifted children with interests in various other disciplines as well exist. TJ being the only such school available now, children gifted in arts and humanities too are tempted to get into TJ. Later, they pursue disciplines other than math, science or technology. This undermines the mission of TJ and this needs to be addressed.

I propose to establish an additional school for high achievers in Fairfax County with a focus in arts, humanities, government and international studies. The funding model should be designed with the least burden on Fairfax county tax payer, as a partnership between Fairfax County, private enterprise as well as other public education systems in the area. This should be an innovative institution offering a comprehensive college preparatory program emphasizing government, international studies, science, mathematics, languages, and fine arts. As a jurisdiction just outside of Washington DC, I believe that Fairfax County is the ideal place to have such a school and we have to provide leadership to the area jurisdictions to make it happen. The nature of the proposed school makes it a good candidate to gain significant support from the federal government in its founding efforts.

Despite all the efforts and money spent by our system for decades, schools with predominantly low-income minority households continue to under-perform in fulfilling their mission. It is time to think out of the box. Direct instruction methods in contrast to exploratory models such as inquiry-based learning currently employed at FCPS is found to be much more effective, and should be explored. Curricula such as Montessori or Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading (DISTAR) with phonics-based reading instruction and adequate drill will benefit all students.

Education choices afforded by School Voucher programs in 15 states and Washington, D.C have proven to make situation better. School vouchers give parents the freedom to choose a private school for their children, using all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education. Possibilities such as school choice and charter schools should be explored as potential solutions to this issue.