Fairfax Schools at a Crossroads: Rising Budgets, Declining Outcomes
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist and the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. Her articles have also appeared in National Review, Fox News Digital, The Daily Signal and Townhall. Originally appeared on EdNews Virginia.
Fairfax County’s school board members are scheduled to vote today on the fiscal year 2027 $4.1 billion budget. Although there will be a $197 million increase in funds from last year, district leaders are still pointing to what they describe as a $28 million “budget gap,” referring to the county’s Board of Supervisors not transferring FCPS’s full requested amount.
Rather than addressing administrative bloat, district leadership is shifting resources away from classrooms to close the so-called “budget gap.” A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that FCPS spent $272 million on salaries for 2,346 non-school-based administrators in fiscal year 2026. Meanwhile, the district plans to reduce school reserve staffing by $8.8 million, eliminating 70 positions, which raises serious concerns. As class sizes increase in Fall 2026, some grades may require additional teachers, but reducing reserve staffing will limit flexibility to respond to enrollment shifts and will ultimately contribute to larger class sizes and reduced instructional support.
Increasing administrative spending while simultaneously cutting school-level resources and increasing class sizes raises serious concerns about fiscal priorities. And a 36% increase in the superintendent’s salary since 2019, as shown in the table below, has not coincided with improved student outcomes. In fact, since 2019, Fairfax County Public Schools’ average SAT score has declined by 35 points.
| Fiscal Year | Cost Per Pupil | Total Budget | Superintendent Salary | Avg. SAT Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $15,293 | $2.9B | $340,000 | (Brabrand) | 1218 |
| 2020 | $16,043 | $3.0B | $350,000 | (Brabrand) | 1211 |
| 2021 | $16,505 | $3.1B | $360,000 | (Brabrand) | 1201 |
| 2022 | $16,674 | $3.3B | $365,000 | (Brabrand) | 1185 |
| 2023 | $18,772 | $3.5B | $385,000 | (Reid) | 1181 |
| 2024 | $19,795 | $3.7B | $400,000 | (Reid) | 1178 |
| 2025 | $20,940 | $3.9B | $424,146 | (Reid) | 1183 |
| 2026 | $22,644 | $4.0B | $445,353 | (Reid) | N/A |
| 2027 (Proposed) | $23,722 | $4.1B | $463,167* | (Reid) | N/A |
*Estimated 4% increase
While the table shows a 55% rise in per-pupil spending since 2019, that growth has not been matched by measurable improvements in student academic outcomes. Overall, spending trends are increasingly out of step with performance outcomes.
As the school board considers another multi-billion-dollar budget today, the central issue is not whether FCPS is receiving more funding, but whether those resources are being deployed in a way that directly supports classrooms and student achievement. Without an alignment between spending decisions and measurable academic outcomes, continued budget growth is becoming an exercise in scale rather than effectiveness—where more money is spent, but not in ways that improve results for students.
The district urgently needs a comprehensive, independent, external audit of its budget.
