American school districts are losing students, and the hard part is deciding what to cut. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), Virginia’s largest public school district — which used to be considered one of the nation’s strongest systems — shows one way that choice can go wrong. To balance its reduced budget, it cut its school staffing, increased class sizes, and continued to let administration staffing grow.
FCPS is shrinking. As of Sept. 30, 2026, Virginia’s largest school division enrolled 171,936 students, about 4,200 fewer than the 176,133 projected in its fiscal year 2027 budget. Since fall 2019, the division has lost about 17,000 students, roughly 9 percent.
