Email from Scott York re: freeze on education funds

did anyone else get this email??? sounds pretty dire- is it time for Vorthern VA to secede from VA?!?! looking forward to your opinions here...

Dear Friend,

My fellow citizens, please take the time to read this as we need your help!

In Governor Kaine’s FY11 fiscal budget proposal he recommended that the Local Composite Index (LCI) biennial adjustment be frozen for the 2011 fiscal year budget. The LCI is the measure used to determine state and local shares of K-12 funding in Virginia. The formula uses data (growth in student population, local income, retail sales and property values) to determine a locality’s ability to pay for its schools. It is part of the routine distribution for education funding that occurs every two years. While imperfect, the LCI has been Virginia’s accepted measure of local ability to pay for k-12 education for many years!

Why do we need your help? This arbitrary freeze will mean a loss to Loudoun County of $34,356,421!

This year the LCI adjustment, if not frozen, would help Loudoun County at a time when we have the largest growing student population in the Commonwealth. Loudoun School’s will see an increased enrollment of 3,351 students. Yet, if the LCI is frozen then Virginia Beach becomes the top recipient by getting an additional $14,803,612 at a time when their school system will see a reduction of 524 students.

If that was not enough, as a region, Northern Virginia collectively will lose $122,400,000 in state funding, while adding 10,263 new students. At the same time, school divisions benefiting under the proposed freeze will receive an additional $114,000,000 while collectively educating a projected 2,300 fewer students. This is hardly fair and is totally unacceptable!

While the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, the School Board, our counterparts in the region, and our state delegation are working on this issue, we need your help NOW!

Please take a few minutes to contact the Governor’s office by going to the following link to Governor McDonnell’s online e-mail form, http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TheAdministration/contactGovernor.cfm or by calling 804-786-2211 and tell the Governor that the arbitrary freeze on the Local Composite Index is wrong and that Richmond needs to honor this long standing funding formula!

Also, please pass this message along to your family, friends and neighbors and ask them to do the same. We cannot allow this to happen!

Thank you and God Bless,

Scott K. York
Chairman,
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors

 

I was just about to post it! I've already sent an email to the Governor stating my opposition to this freeze.

 

I don't know what that index is but I sent a letter asking to not reduce funds for education.

 

Here is a little more information on the county school web site:
http://cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/509759161361/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=614323&C=101455

 

thanks for the template- i sent my letter and sent it to others.

 

Good template! I'll be sending this off to the gov, and requesting that neighbors do the same.

 

You can also call! Call the Governor to blast him over the freezing of the LCI!
His phone # is 804-786-2211.
His name is "Bob."