Long as we're at it let's tell the truth about who's responsible for Arlington's education mess. Same Arlington Democratic Regime that's been been micromanaging our lives for more than 35 years.
Kudos for making a mess of Arlington's Public School System over the past 25 years have to go to School Board / County Board members Libby Garvey and Mary Hynes. Libby and Mary came onto the School Board in the pre-SOL era and opposed SOLs. Since Libby's still on the County Board let's focus on her sterling political career. Pre-SOLs Libby didn't give a rat's a$$ about how Arlington's children were being educated. In fact, Libby's own neighborhood elementary school "crashed and burned" academically her first years on the School Board.
Libby eventually came around to supporting the SOLs the General Assembly mandated, together with the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind federal legislation. Things kept moving along until about 8 years ago when Chris Zimmerman's New Urbanism / Smart Growth and the influx of federal employees after 9-11-2001 stopped the outflow of families and parents from Arlington and encouraged families to stay in Arlington, buy much larger tear-down McMansions and enroll their children in Arlington's public schools. A choice made easy by the County Board and School Board members with children enrolled in the school system who decided to build Taj Mahal schools to try to solve APS's enrollment crisis. Taj Mahal schools designed with too few classrooms and too many energy-inefficient social spaces.
Same Smart Growth paradigm is in play today, 8 years later. Growth for the sake of growth without regard to consequences. Chris Zimmerman retired to inflict Smart Growth on the rest of America. Smart Growth remains as Arlington's sole planning paradigm.
Where does Erik Gutshall fit in to what happens next? He's not only C.Z., on steroids but a Smart Growth soccer parent on steroids and a Smart Growth developer out to urbanize every Arlington suburban neighborhood. Stay tuned for massive spending for more Taj Mahal education infrastructure with Erik on the County Board. Gotta put those lighted synthetic soccer fields somewhere, your neighborhood needs the density, don't be a NIMBY.
Margaret from Williamsburg
25 comments:
It's only going to get worse. They have no plans for all these kids coming, but still keep upzoning. It's such an obvious disaster, so of course we are doing nothing about it.
How many more students will Erik Gutshall's conversions of single family homes to apartment buildings add to APS's student population?
I completely resent the deals non-residents who head Economic Development and Planning make to inflict more density on us via corporate welfare gifts to real estate trusts and greedy corporations.
Do "Our Libby", "Lyin' Libby", and "Fibbin' Libby" refer to the same person?
Look at Ballston. Almost 500 residents signed a petition opposing up-zoning their neighborhood. They are referred to as "nuisances" by Planning Staff.
Why do we continue to accept the warmed-over 1960's Urban Renewal that economic refugees (e.g., Zimmerman, Garvey, Hynes, Favola, Fisette) from the Rust Belt brought with them when they migrated here 35 years ago?
Looks like we are back to the pre-Yuppie 1970's sex, drugs, and rock n roll in Arlington's upscale schools.
Libby is a closeted Hippie going back 50 years.
We're not in the pre-Yuppie era again. No way. Too much political correctness for that to happen. Too many people who belong to some ethnic group or religion who are offended by every little thing. Media can't risk offending anyone, Media Elite is driven by greed for advertising revenue.
Yorktown and Williamsburg are as close as it gets in 2017.
I resent so many people who are not Arlington residents using so much of Arlington's public infrastructure, schools, parks, playgrounds, everything. I am sick and tired of several hundred County employees allowed to keep their kids enrolled in Arlington schools after they move out of Arlington.
Stop me if you've heard this one: Big mouth education lawyer shows up at school board meeting and tells school board to stop searching students' lockers for drugs.
Agree that the media are a bunch of greedy jerks.
Yes, as a matter of fact Libby Garvey opposed SOLs and didn't give a r*** a** about Abingdon School when she was first-elected to the School Board.
Streets in Libby's Fairlington neighborhood will finally be repaved after years of complaints from residents about deteriorated paving.
I had to pull my kid out of Abingdon and spend many thousands of dollars sending her to private schools for 10 years because of Arlington's dysfunctional school system 20 years ago. This was at the time when Fairlington residents Paul Ferguson and Libby Garvey were elected to the County Board and School Board respectively. Paulie did not send his kids to Abingdon but to Arlington Traditional School.
Yes, Libby's neighbors are unhappy about street repaving but Libby is always too busy making extravagant promises to pet special interests to care about her own neighborhood.
I'm a middle class homeowner, and can't send my kid to our local school. A good education in Arlington is reserved for the rich and most privileged. Did you think your grandkids might get to go to the elementary school you sent your kids too? Well, I hope your family are millionaires! If not they might be able to afford to go to an overcrowded school that no limousine liberal would dare send their snowflake. Arlington Dems have sold out schools out to the developers and entrenched poverty in certain schools.
For more than a decade Lyin' Libby Garvey ignored the need for Abingdon School to be renovated. She voted repeatedly to construct Taj Mahal schools with two few classrooms. She voted for a $32 million expansion of Abingdon School and it appears that if the school isn't at capacity when it reopens in 2 months it will be at capacity in 2019. All Libby and the other Democrats are capable of doing is making more deals with developers to pack more people and vehicles of all types into this already overcrowded County, when they aren't throwing our tax dollars at their pet special interests.
We not only have to put up with more residents we are having to pay for extravagant sports and recreation infrastructure used by non-residents in border neighborhoods like Fairlington and Bluemont. Not surprising since the people on County Staff who get to spend our tax dollars on Taj Mahal sports infrastuucture aren't County residents.
Then there's Metrorail, which is going to consume 1% more of our tax revenue every year for many years in the future to put lipstick on a pig.
What's wrong with fibbin' Libby? Knee replacement surgery, or what? She's what, 65, and has been elected to school board and county board for more than 20 years and that's about 10 years too long.
Lyin' Libby is great at making promises in upscale restaurants to the team sports and live theater crowd. Latest promises are for a huge live theater complex and huge field house along Four Mile Run.
Libby's neighbors made repeated requests for the past 5 years for their streets to be repaved. Finally happening.
Limo Libs are supporting Tom Perriello for Governor. Entire State of Virginia run like "Progressive" Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church
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