You might have seen our yard signs around the county — or more recently, our posts on social media — urging Arlingtonians to vote “no” on this year’s school bond. Regrettably, Arlington Public Schools failed to earn back our trust. The district was among the very last in Virginia to unlock schoolhouse doors — and even then, every Monday remained a “teacher prep” day. “Hybrid” students attended physical classrooms just twice a week (with truncated school days).
Now the results are in. Failing grades rose significantly, across the board, last year. And now we have the latest Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores — “pass rates” in reading, math and science plummeted (the latter two subjects by double digits). With district schools (finally) open five days a week, there is no still no real plan to address these staggering learning losses. Instead, our school board is wasting time, money, and energy on ideological fads.
We believe the best way to send our school board a message they’ll hear and understand is with a big “no” vote on their latest bond referendum. If you believe our kids deserve better, we invite you to join us. Like and share our message on social media (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) — and remember to vote “no!”