My name is Brian Wheeler. I am the parent of two children in County schools and I am the At-Large member of the Albemarle County School Board. Our chairwoman, Diantha McKeel, has already spoken to you in her official capacity representing the School Board and I fully support her comments.

I am speaking tonight as citizen to demonstrate my support for full funding of our County’s education needs and the maintenance of Albemarle’s current tax rate. As you know, we have some new challenges that have arisen since the beginning of the budget process, namely the uncertainties related to the costs of VRS and the revenues we will receive in the state budget. Based on what we know today, it would be a mistake to back away from the decision this community made in 2000 to raise taxes to better support our schools. Those investments have been successful AND we have more challenges we need to address.

When we measure our student performance, we are in the top 10% of all school divisions in the Commonwealth. When we measure our investments in education, we see we are getting a tremendous value for our education tax dollar. We are able to do that because of the hard work of this system's employees, and to them I say, "Thank you for a job well done." However, this budget recognizes that we cannot continue down this path of under funding education, raising the bar higher, and continually expecting our staff to get the job done absent additional support and resources. It also recognizes that we have many challenges in front of us for which we are going to need an exceptional cadre of teachers and administrators to be successful. High on that list of challenges for me are the achievement gaps that are leaving some in this community behind.

The warning signs have been made very clear:

Mrs. McKeel mentioned the high rate of teacher turnover… 60% in the first three years. I am a businessman in the private sector, I know what high turnover costs my firm in lost investments in training, recruiting costs, and processing new hires and terminations. My turnover rate is much smaller, yet I am having to add technical staff to keep up with the churn. Imagine the costs in our schools. Those dollars could be invested more wisely in competitive compensation.

Yes, more money for public schools has been an evergreen rallying cry for parents as well as teachers in Albemarle. It should not have to be that way, but the fact is we are not fully funding education in Virginia and the localities are being forced to pick up the tab. As part of the budget I asked staff to tell us what the state was not paying Albemarle to fund the Standards of Quality (SOQ), we determined that Albemarle should have received an additional $3.86 million in SOQ funding in the 2002-03 school year alone.

If the state starts paying its fair share, we can and should keep taxes as low as possible. Until that happens, even with escalating property values, we have to increase our investments in education to ensure this school division and all its children will be successful.

Counties like Albemarle can, and should, step up to the plate to keep improving our public schools. It is not fair that state funding is inadequate, but it is the smart investment for our County's children and our future. We can only improve with market-competitive compensation that ensures this system has highly qualified teachers, administrators, and support staff.