To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the letter published in the February 13-19 edition entitled: "School Budget: How to Pay?" submitted by Christopher Thompson of West Springfield. In this letter, Thompson suggests that the reason for rapidly increasing enrollment in the Fairfax County schools is the rapidly increasing number of children of illegal aliens in the system. Up to this point, I think he hit the nail right on the head... add to this the rapidly increasing number of English as a second language students- except that the number of children of illegal aliens in the system far exceeds the 6,000 number he quotes. Minus these children there would be no school budget crunch and I agree that those who are here or remain here must be educated.
Proving legal status of one parent is a fine idea, but the democratic machine that runs this country would never go for that for purely political reason. And the idea of submitting a bill to the federal government is ludicrous. But how about this- how about a school tax based upon the number of children enrolled in the Fairfax County system per household, not a real estate tax per house? Or a combination thereof? Certainly every tax payer would pay something, but on a graduated scale. This is an old idea, but perhaps the time has come for it to be revisited. And John Cook is 100 percent wrong when he says this crisis is "business as usual," unless he considers the continual decline of the quality of the Fairfax County school system as it relates to surrounding counties as "business as usual."
Richard Cheadle
Burke