Editor, Gazette-Journal:

In recent months I have attended meetings of the Gloucester County School Board. One topic often dominates these gatherings and that is finances. A healthy and spirited discourse often occurs as to the proper amount of funding being provided by the board of supervisors for education.

To help me better understand the matter of adequate funding of education, I conducted some online research of various school districts. Here is a sampling of what I found when I compared similar factors between Fairfax County and Gloucester County school budgets.

Square miles, Gloucester, 218; Fairfax, 407.

Total population, Gloucester, 39,700; Fairfax, 1,172,000.

Elementary, middle, and high schools, Gloucester, 5/2/1; Fairfax 142/23/28.

Total students, Gloucester, 4,900; Fairfax, 190,000.

Total staff and faculty, Gloucester, 773; Fairfax, 24,700;

Annual operating budget, Gloucester, $61 million; Fairfax, $3.2 billion.

Annual salary of superintendent, G...