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I don't know what you're reading, but Thomas Jefferson High School is not in Fairfax. It's here in Alexandria. Fairfax would be half an hour drive for me and I

I don't know what you're reading, but Thomas Jefferson High School is not in Fairfax. It's here in Alexandria. Fairfax would be half an hour drive for me and I live on the extreme, western edge of Alexandria. There's a whole, other city in between (Annandale). It'd be like saying something was in Brooklyn when it's actually in Queens. Virginia is a weird state. Fairfax and Alexandria are classified as "independent cities", which exist in parallel to and outside of counties. There are only 41 independent cities in the US: Baltimore, MD; St. Louis, MO; Carson City, NV, and then 38 more in Virginia. The signficance is that independent cities can't levy income tax, but have to pay for their own schools and roads. We make revenue through property taxes (not just land/houses, but also cars! That's a whole other story) and business licenses. The state then calculates how much it will contribute to our school funding based on our supposed "ability to pay". Between property values and transit issues here, there are a likely more "property owners" in Fairfax than here in Alexandria. Alexandria is much more of a bedroom community for DC, whereas people in Fairfax spread more across NoVA for work. The state sees the higher property values in Alexandria, and our higher population, and thinks "oh, they are loaded, they don't need so much". But we're not. We're a town of renters. All the property is owned by DC and NYC property developers, which got sweetheart tax break incentives to build here. You can readily see it when visiting. Fairfax's roads are nicer. Their public buildings are newer and larger. They have several, gorgeous, gigantic public parks with stuff like kiddie train rides around the perimeter. Fairfax is apparently rolling in cash. And Alexandria can't even fix a foot bridge across a 20-foot wide creek bed. So we just don't have the money to fund our schools anymore. Hell, my own kid's school is one of the better ones in town and they can't even afford to have enough bus drivers and substitute teachers for the year. It's garden variety bad administration over the last 15 years, not anti-Asian sentiment.

darthvoldemort 5y ago
My friend lives in Fairfax and her school district feeds into TJ, so I assumed it was in Fairfax. This is a front-and-center issue for her.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  My apologies. I've since learned that TJ is a Fairfax County School Division school. TJ is smack dab in the middle of Alexandria. I didn't realize how unrelated Virginia's school division system is to its municipal structure. I didn't grow up here, so it seems absurd to have a completely different county's schools in our city.
  - TheCoelacanth 5y ago
    It's not in the City of Alexandria. It's in Fairfax County. It has an Alexandria postal address, but it is not inside Alexandria's political borders.
  - darthvoldemort 5y ago
    After your question, I asked me friend, and she said it's so damn confusing what the rules and borders are that it's easy to get confused.
TheCoelacanth 5y ago
No, it's in Fairfax County. Its address is Alexandria, but it's not inside the City of Alexandria[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thomas+Jefferson+High+School+for+Science+and+Technology/@38.8224487,-77.1745963,13z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89b64d3e93a4abf1:0xd7f52686dbc1012c!2sAlexandria,+VA!3b1!8m2!3d38.8048355!4d-77.0469214!3m4!1s0x89b7b2e02877e895:0xc12f564af4d3bcab!8m2!3d38.8200645!4d-77.1685424 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thomas+Jefferson+High+Scho...
- moron4hire 5y ago
  Well, chalk one up for "Virginia politics are stupid and unnecessarily complicated". I just learned that our school "divisions" (not districts like the rest of the country) have no correlation to our municipal structure, but also are incapable of doing their own revenue collection. We still can't afford basic stuff for our schools, despite NoVA being regularly ranked one of the richest areas in the country. Urban schools get about 1% more per student than rural schools from the state. They claim to incorporate cost of living adjustments, but it's clearly not enough if we can't do basic things like hire enough bus drivers. This bullshit is a vestige of the Civil War when West Virginia split of to be an abolitionist state. I don't understand the fetishization of such "culturally important" (sarcasm) things like municipal structure when what we have is not working. "This hammer was my great, great grandpappies, that he bought from the Sears Robucks Catalog in 1887. Yes, the handle is cracked and the claw can't grip modern nail heads, but by God, it was good enough for him, it'll be good enough for us".

darthvoldemort 5y ago

My friend lives in Fairfax and her school district feeds into TJ, so I assumed it was in Fairfax. This is a front-and-center issue for her.

moron4hire 5y ago
My apologies. I've since learned that TJ is a Fairfax County School Division school. TJ is smack dab in the middle of Alexandria. I didn't realize how unrelated Virginia's school division system is to its municipal structure. I didn't grow up here, so it seems absurd to have a completely different county's schools in our city.
- TheCoelacanth 5y ago
  It's not in the City of Alexandria. It's in Fairfax County. It has an Alexandria postal address, but it is not inside Alexandria's political borders.
- darthvoldemort 5y ago
  After your question, I asked me friend, and she said it's so damn confusing what the rules and borders are that it's easy to get confused.

TheCoelacanth 5y ago

No, it's in Fairfax County. Its address is Alexandria, but it's not inside the City of Alexandria[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thomas+Jefferson+High+School+for+Science+and+Technology/@38.8224487,-77.1745963,13z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89b64d3e93a4abf1:0xd7f52686dbc1012c!2sAlexandria,+VA!3b1!8m2!3d38.8048355!4d-77.0469214!3m4!1s0x89b7b2e02877e895:0xc12f564af4d3bcab!8m2!3d38.8200645!4d-77.1685424 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thomas+Jefferson+High+Scho...

moron4hire 5y ago
Well, chalk one up for "Virginia politics are stupid and unnecessarily complicated". I just learned that our school "divisions" (not districts like the rest of the country) have no correlation to our municipal structure, but also are incapable of doing their own revenue collection. We still can't afford basic stuff for our schools, despite NoVA being regularly ranked one of the richest areas in the country. Urban schools get about 1% more per student than rural schools from the state. They claim to incorporate cost of living adjustments, but it's clearly not enough if we can't do basic things like hire enough bus drivers. This bullshit is a vestige of the Civil War when West Virginia split of to be an abolitionist state. I don't understand the fetishization of such "culturally important" (sarcasm) things like municipal structure when what we have is not working. "This hammer was my great, great grandpappies, that he bought from the Sears Robucks Catalog in 1887. Yes, the handle is cracked and the claw can't grip modern nail heads, but by God, it was good enough for him, it'll be good enough for us".