McLean Delegate Critical of Lobbyists for Fairfax Public Schools

Del. Barbara Comstock says the Fairfax County Public Schools send two to three people to Richmond when the state legislature is in session. “They put them up at the Jefferson the best hotel in Richmond and they are supposed to be lobbying us.”

“We don’t need to have them sitting down in Richmond everyday to do that,” said Comstock, R-McLean, Great Falls and Loudoun. Comstock made the comments at a recent meeting of the Education Committee of the McLean Citizens Association where she was the guest speaker.

Mary Shaw, a spokesman for FCPS said, "We have three individuals registered as lobbyists, but only one full-time lobbyist. One of those people only works during the General Assembly session and the other is a support employee who does no lobbying. They do not stay at the Jefferson."

They stay at the Crowne Plaza hotel, she said. The annual budget for the office is $241,020. Fairfax County Public Schools has a total budget of $2.2 billion.
 
The Government Relations Office initiates and sustains liaison activities with state and national policymakers in order to achieve the legislative goals of the School Board. Government Relations also promotes the positive leadership of the school division regarding education policy and financing, according to the schools' website.

Comstock also questioned the effectiveness of the schools' lobbyist. As an example she cited a bill approved by the House and Senate requiring that students in kindergarten through eighth grade receive at least 150 minutes of such programming a week to help combat childhood obesity.

She said the schools' lobbyists gave the Fairfax delegation little information about the impact of the obesity bill until it passed.

"Part of the whole Gatehouse (school administration headquarters) mentality that is still going on that we need to get back to you,” she said.

“We had to do some heavy lobbying” to get that bill overturned with “no help” from the schools' lobbyists, she said. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) vetoed the bill.

Members of the Fairfax County school board wrote a letter urging the governor not to sign the bill, claiming it could cost between $18 million and $24 million to pay for additional instructors and supplies, or to pay current teachers more for expanding their duties, The Virginia Statehouse News reported.

Ed Saperstein, chair of the Education Committee, invited Comstock to talk to the committee about the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.

State Sens. Janet Howell, D-Reston, McLean, and Barbara Favola, D-Arlington and McLean, are scheduled to speak at the committee's Dec. 20 meeting.