More money for education without increasing taxes is on the forefront of Janet Oleszek's campaign next November for one of the at-large seats on the Fairfax County School Board.
The basis of her theory lies in a Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission (JLARC) report from two years ago, which reflected a $600 million deficit in education funds to Fairfax County from the commonwealth of Virginia.
"We can't be asking taxpayers, through the real-estate tax, to pay more," said Oleszek. "It's a process of pressure, pressure, pressure. They owe us."
The "they" she's talking about is the legislature in Richmond, which sends back 19 cents for every dollar paid in Fairfax County.
"Let's get the money from the JLARC, and this won't be such a dogfight," Oleszek said.
Two responsibilities of the legislature are public education and public safety, according to the state constitution, Oleszek said. The public safety part is covered, but "they're failing the requirement for funding public education," she said.
Oleszek's 20-something years as a PTA volunteer prime her for the School Board.
"I think the people who have worked with the PTA have similar outlooks. The PTA is excellent experience for what to focus on," Oleszek said.
Oleszek's experience includes being chairman of the Virginia State PTA Legislation, 2001-02; serving as County Council of PTAs Legislative Committee representative to Virginia General Assembly, 2002-03; and being a member of the PTAs for Oak View and Bonnie Brae elementary schools and Robinson Secondary School from 1990 to the present.
"I've been working as an advocate for education for the last 20 years," she said.
Braddock District School Board representative Tessie Wilson looked at the PTA experience as a good prerequisite for the Board.
"A lot of us on the School Board came from PTA involvement. Janet has done more on the state level PTA," Wilson said.
Oleszak kicked her campaign off at the Burke Fire Department on Sunday, April 6, and has got all summer to build her platform for the election in November. Along with her efforts to get funding, she also will push for educational accountability and a parents-and-families-first program. Part of her efforts includes backing for Project Excel and all-day kindergarten.
As the mother of two sons — Mark, 25, and Eric, 19, who graduated from the Fairfax County Public Schools — Oleszek has seen how far a quality education can go. Mark was a Robinson Secondary graduate in 1996 and is now in the doctoral program at Berkeley, Calif., and Eric, Robinson Class of 2002, is a freshman at Virginia Tech.
"How can we not provide a world class education for those kids?" she asked.