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
