Before Cutting Classrooms, Downsize the C-Suite
(EdNews Virginia) — Earlier this month, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Chief Financial Officer Leigh Burden told the budget committee that Fiscal Year (FY) 2028 would be “a difficult budget year.” Despite declining student enrollment, the number of the district’s central administrators has grown right along with its budget. From FY2021 to FY2027, that budget increased by $1 billion — from $3.1 billion to $4.1 billion. It is becoming increasingly clear that Virginia’s largest public school district doesn’t have a funding problem. It has a spending problem.
In a $4.1 billion budget, $17 million in salaries for the district’s 71 most senior central administrators might seem like a rounding error — a rain shower over an ocean, roughly 0.4% of the total budget. But it’s a symptom of a much larger problem. When district leaders fail to get as much money as they request from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, they tend to cut student services while their bureaucratic fiefdom keeps growing.
In her presentation to the budget committee, Burden advised members to prepare for a shortfall similar to FY2026’s, which came in at $154 million. Among her recommended cuts: increasing class sizes to save $35 million. But before any cuts are made that touch student outcomes, district leaders need to address their abundance of administrators who never set foot in a school…