Fairfax faces choice: Raise taxes to fund teacher pensions, or tame local spending

"Fairfax County officials are about to run head-on into the same public sector pension funding crisis that is spreading across the entire country, as detailed by the Pew Center on the States' recent report about the "trillion-dollar funding gap."

The issue is being drawn with razor-sharpness in Fairfax in the choice now facing local school board officials: They can either ask the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to raise taxes to fund lavish teacher pensions and other retirement benefits properly, or they can reduce current teacher and administrator salaries by eight percent and use the money saved instead."  Read more

By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
02/21/10 8:40 AM EST