Video
Saturday, May 9, 2026

OPINION:

Plummeting test scores, political activism in the classroom, and a school board spending a staggering $150 million on a school it doesn’t need. That’s just the beginning of the dysfunction parents are exposing in Fairfax County Public Schools.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora joins Kelly Sadler to break down the waste, fraud, and abuse plaguing one of the nation’s largest — and most troubled — school districts.

[SADLER] This is more of a local story, and we share a common bond in the fact that we both have children who attend school in the district and have been frustrated. Stephanie’s most recent piece in The Washington Times is really a waste, fraud and abuse, questioning the decision makers within the school system, opening up this Skyview school. 

I got an email notification asking if my boys would be interested in attending it. Stephanie, give us the background story of what this school is. Is it needed? Why was this $150 million purchase made?

[LUNDQUIST-ARORA] It’s really egregious. And honestly, it’s just one more example of the irresponsible and reckless leadership of Fairfax County Public Schools, which is one of the largest districts in the nation. 

Back in 2015, the district decided that it needed more space in the long-term capital project because student enrollment, they thought, was going to increase. At that time, in 2015, when they were first talking about this, the district had about 185,000 students. And over time, the number of students in the district has decreased precipitously for a number of reasons. And it’s not because there are fewer school-age children in the county. It’s just that more of them are going to private school now and homeschooling. 

So whereas in 2019, only 8% of the eligible students were enrolled in FCPS, now it’s like 17% of the students are going to. And that’s actually because of how — and we can get into this more — what’s happened with the district in terms of the academics completely going downhill.

But anyways, so they were thinking back in 2015 that they needed another school. So fast forward now, 2025, the King Abdullah Academy went up for sale in the western part of the county for $150 million. And the school board jumped on it. They said, oh, this is a great deal. We need this. And what’s really ironic about it is that school enrollment has gone down so much since the time that they said that they needed it. So it went down now to like — it’s like 180,000 or something. And it’s — it was 177,000. And that’s supposed to go down even further. 

The University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center predicted that it’s supposed to decline again to like 165,000 by 2030. So basically, you’re looking at 20,000 fewer students from the time that they said we need this new school.

So anyways, they go ahead and they buy this school anyways. And it’s just — it’s such a waste of money. It’s crazy. So then their plan was they were going to let students opt into the school. And they thought that there would be so much interest in it that they would actually have to have a lottery system and all this kind of stuff. And the deadline for opting in was in January. And Kelly, as you know, because you got the email and I also got the email, what actually happened was they apparently couldn’t get enough interest because they extended this offer. They’re accepting 500 freshmen and 500 sophomores. They extended it to every single household in the district. 

So it’s obvious to me that they’re trying to — and they’re trying to sell it. Oh, be part of Skyview’s inaugural class. They’re trying to sell it to people. So they couldn’t get enough interest after their $150 million mistake is basically what happened. 

[SADLER] It’s unbelievable. We pay a lot of money as taxpayers, and I want that money to go into the school room so that my children have a better education in math, in science, in the core curriculum that build the foundation of life. And that is not happening. 

I wrote a column just a few weeks ago talking about my boys’ experience. As you know, or as our readers know, Virginia has redistricted. The vote was on April 21st. And the Friday before the vote, in the classroom — in the civics classroom — and I’ve got twin boys, and they, you know, they’re 14 years old, they’re in eighth grade, they’re in two separate civics classes with two different teachers. And when I picked them up from school that day, they’re like, hey Mom, are you voting yes? And of course, I was voting no, because I’m a conservative in Fairfax County. However, I think it’s unfair, the redistricting, the gerrymandering that’s going on by the Democrats giving them a 10 to 1 advantage, whereas it was a 6-5 split. And that kind of represents the state in terms of Democrats to Republicans. It was an egregious gerrymander. So of course I was voting no. 

But I was like, why are you telling me I have to vote yes? Oh, well, our civics teacher told us this. It’s an indoctrination. I was like, well, do you know how the House of Representatives — how that’s figured by the state representative? Do you know the three branches of government? This is what they should be learning in the classroom, not the political lens. But this was two different teachers in the same school system focusing on this. And the article went viral.

But it’s one example. There was another one earlier in the year that I didn’t — I was like, whatever. It was a walkout, an ICE walkout, because one of the civics teachers is very concerned she’s going to get deported or disappeared. So she’s putting that concern on the children and said, you know, you should participate in this. It wasn’t really voluntary. Parents didn’t know about it. It wasn’t advertised. But within the school it was — all of the kids knew that they could skip class in these hours to protest a political movement instead of learning in the classroom.

Have you had similar experiences with this kind of political indoctrination?

[LUNDQUIST-ARORA] Oh, Kelly, I’ve had so many. And if you look down my publishing record, you’ll see I’ve written about a lot of this. So your story really rung in my heart. It’s painful. This has happened to us so many times. 

Watch the video for the full conversation.

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