Support the Montgomery Virtual Academy (MVA) from Budget Cuts!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 68 pages of ping ponging about whether COVID is still a thing or not, I'll weigh in. I'm not even a little bit afraid of COVID or any other contagion right now. Yet I still see value in a virtual option for kids who either can't or don't want to attend school. Is virtual as effective as in person? Of course not. Is it better than no school at all (which is what the data says about 25% or more kids in MCPS). MCPS is willing to waste tens of millions on all kinds of nonsense. Virtual school seems like a good investment that could use some improvement such as a state-run virtual school that all the counties could join, economies of scale and all.

What makes you think that kids who don’t bother attending in-person school would be present for virtual school? The chronic absenteeism rates for the MVA were higher than in-person and the graduation rates for NCS were lower.

It's easier to attend school from home (or wherever) than it is to go in person. Remove barriers and we'll serve more kids. It's that simple. We can never serve everyone and we have to acknowledge that. And because we don't need $200 million for a school for these kids virtual school should save $ once some of the issues are ironed out.

DP. Except the evidence is that this is wrong. MVA has worse issues with attendance than in person school and the issues with chronic absenteeism exploded after virtual instruction was required and have gotten better now that in person is returning to being the norm. During the pandemic Connecticut collected data on this and chronic absenteeism was worse for students with more remote learning. The bolded has a certain logic to it, but I'm the real world that's not how it plays out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

If you think plagues are funny then the whole thing has been a laugh riot for you. You clearly do not understand how opening made things worse.

Except it didn't. I get how you argued, in theoretical terms, that reopening would make things worse before we did it. But we actually did it and it was fine. The practice of only closing individual schools when staffing became too difficult was a fine way to avoid a system-wide closure.

Let's ask the teachers that died how fine it all was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 68 pages of ping ponging about whether COVID is still a thing or not, I'll weigh in. I'm not even a little bit afraid of COVID or any other contagion right now. Yet I still see value in a virtual option for kids who either can't or don't want to attend school. Is virtual as effective as in person? Of course not. Is it better than no school at all (which is what the data says about 25% or more kids in MCPS). MCPS is willing to waste tens of millions on all kinds of nonsense. Virtual school seems like a good investment that could use some improvement such as a state-run virtual school that all the counties could join, economies of scale and all.

What makes you think that kids who don’t bother attending in-person school would be present for virtual school? The chronic absenteeism rates for the MVA were higher than in-person and the graduation rates for NCS were lower.

It's easier to attend school from home (or wherever) than it is to go in person. Remove barriers and we'll serve more kids. It's that simple. We can never serve everyone and we have to acknowledge that. And because we don't need $200 million for a school for these kids virtual school should save $ once some of the issues are ironed out.

DP. Except the evidence is that this is wrong. MVA has worse issues with attendance than in person school and the issues with chronic absenteeism exploded after virtual instruction was required and have gotten better now that in person is returning to being the norm. During the pandemic Connecticut collected data on this and chronic absenteeism was worse for students with more remote learning. The bolded has a certain logic to it, but I'm the real world that's not how it plays out.

This is comparing apples and oranges. Kids in virtual are already outliers. So of course they'll have more issues. And I'm not sure we should care. We have in person which serves 95% of kids. Virtual could serve another 4%. And we can leave the other 1% who doesn't care behind instead of spending 80% of our resources on those kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

We could have reopened in fall 2020, and we should have (in my opinion), but I think it's relevant that omicron was after the vaccines, while fall 2020 was before the vaccines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

If you think plagues are funny then the whole thing has been a laugh riot for you. You clearly do not understand how opening made things worse.

Except it didn't. I get how you argued, in theoretical terms, that reopening would make things worse before we did it. But we actually did it and it was fine. The practice of only closing individual schools when staffing became too difficult was a fine way to avoid a system-wide closure.

Let's ask the teachers that died how fine it all was.

Shocking. People aren't immortal. Next you're going to tell me there are risks in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

We could have reopened in fall 2020, and we should have (in my opinion), but I think it's relevant that omicron was after the vaccines, while fall 2020 was before the vaccines.

Get real. That would've been a terrible idea. There was no vaccine at the time, and millions of people were dying. It would have caused unnecessary deaths. I'd rather not die just so some selfish person has more time for their Pilates class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

If you think plagues are funny then the whole thing has been a laugh riot for you. You clearly do not understand how opening made things worse.

Except it didn't. I get how you argued, in theoretical terms, that reopening would make things worse before we did it. But we actually did it and it was fine. The practice of only closing individual schools when staffing became too difficult was a fine way to avoid a system-wide closure.

Let's ask the teachers that died how fine it all was.

Shocking. People aren't immortal. Next you're going to tell me there are risks in life.

Good to know that MCPS administrators see teachers as disposable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 68 pages of ping ponging about whether COVID is still a thing or not, I'll weigh in. I'm not even a little bit afraid of COVID or any other contagion right now. Yet I still see value in a virtual option for kids who either can't or don't want to attend school. Is virtual as effective as in person? Of course not. Is it better than no school at all (which is what the data says about 25% or more kids in MCPS). MCPS is willing to waste tens of millions on all kinds of nonsense. Virtual school seems like a good investment that could use some improvement such as a state-run virtual school that all the counties could join, economies of scale and all.

What makes you think that kids who don’t bother attending in-person school would be present for virtual school? The chronic absenteeism rates for the MVA were higher than in-person and the graduation rates for NCS were lower.

It's easier to attend school from home (or wherever) than it is to go in person. Remove barriers and we'll serve more kids. It's that simple. We can never serve everyone and we have to acknowledge that. And because we don't need $200 million for a school for these kids virtual school should save $ once some of the issues are ironed out.

DP. Except the evidence is that this is wrong. MVA has worse issues with attendance than in person school and the issues with chronic absenteeism exploded after virtual instruction was required and have gotten better now that in person is returning to being the norm. During the pandemic Connecticut collected data on this and chronic absenteeism was worse for students with more remote learning. The bolded has a certain logic to it, but I'm the real world that's not how it plays out.

Can you provide us with the most recent data? Or are you just pulling this out of thin air? MVA is a few million, almost nothing in the budget and far cheaper than in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

We could have reopened in fall 2020, and we should have (in my opinion), but I think it's relevant that omicron was after the vaccines, while fall 2020 was before the vaccines.

Get real. That would've been a terrible idea. There was no vaccine at the time, and millions of people were dying. It would have caused unnecessary deaths. I'd rather not die just so some selfish person has more time for their Pilates class.

The MVA isn't about covid. Grow up and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

If you think plagues are funny then the whole thing has been a laugh riot for you. You clearly do not understand how opening made things worse.

Except it didn't. I get how you argued, in theoretical terms, that reopening would make things worse before we did it. But we actually did it and it was fine. The practice of only closing individual schools when staffing became too difficult was a fine way to avoid a system-wide closure.

Let's ask the teachers that died how fine it all was.

Virtual has nothing to do with covid or covid virtual. Time for you all to move on. I'm sorry that it was so hard on you to actually take care of your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

If you think plagues are funny then the whole thing has been a laugh riot for you. You clearly do not understand how opening made things worse.

Except it didn't. I get how you argued, in theoretical terms, that reopening would make things worse before we did it. But we actually did it and it was fine. The practice of only closing individual schools when staffing became too difficult was a fine way to avoid a system-wide closure.

Let's ask the teachers that died how fine it all was.

Virtual has nothing to do with covid or covid virtual. Time for you all to move on. I'm sorry that it was so hard on you to actually take care of your kids.

Speaking of moving on...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

We could have reopened in fall 2020, and we should have (in my opinion), but I think it's relevant that omicron was after the vaccines, while fall 2020 was before the vaccines.

Get real. That would've been a terrible idea. There was no vaccine at the time, and millions of people were dying. It would have caused unnecessary deaths. I'd rather not die just so some selfish person has more time for their Pilates class.

Or because virtual was terrible for almost all kids, whichever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love that the person who says “significant school choice” is the “only” thing that’ll salvage American education is hellbent on denying others that same choice. The cognitive dissonance is astounding but not surprising.

I'm not the school choice poster, but I'll note that the MVA supporters aren't any better. They now like to talk about how important it is to offer the choice of virtual because not all kids can learn in the same environment, but they still won't acknowledge it was wrong to deny kids a similar choice for 18 months until the fall of 2021.

The reality is everyone is watching out for themselves and their kids. If you want to send your kids to MVA, or you want to teach in MVA, then that means coming up with arguments to support it, regardless of any logical inconsistencies with previous positions expressed. If you send your kids to MCPS schools, then that means advocating for maximizing the resources available to those schools by keeping MVA closed.

Actually most MVA parents fully acknowledge that virtual didn’t work for everyone. It’s in person parents who won’t acknowledge virtual works for others without trying to say they are bad parents, want kids to go on vacations, shield their eyes from school clothing (the most bizarre argument yet), etc.

I've never heard a single MVA supporter acknowledge that kids should have had the opportunity to go to school in fall 2020. Some even point to MVA as an example for the rest of MCPS to follow.

Because we are good people who agreed kids should be virtual due to the pandemic, health care was overloaded and the high transmission rate. Why cannot you acknowledge how serious covid was at that time?

Not by the fall.

You forgot about omnicron.

Partly given the misspelling, I can't tell if that was a joke. Assuming you were serious, Omicron wasn't until after MCPS reopened, and MCPS remained open. We certainly could have reopened in fall 2020.

If you think plagues are funny then the whole thing has been a laugh riot for you. You clearly do not understand how opening made things worse.

Except it didn't. I get how you argued, in theoretical terms, that reopening would make things worse before we did it. But we actually did it and it was fine. The practice of only closing individual schools when staffing became too difficult was a fine way to avoid a system-wide closure.

Let's ask the teachers that died how fine it all was.

Shocking. People aren't immortal. Next you're going to tell me there are risks in life.

Good to know that MCPS administrators see teachers as disposable.

There's a huge difference between being "disposable" and being expected to accept a pervasive risk in order to fulfill a fundamental function of a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 68 pages of ping ponging about whether COVID is still a thing or not, I'll weigh in. I'm not even a little bit afraid of COVID or any other contagion right now. Yet I still see value in a virtual option for kids who either can't or don't want to attend school. Is virtual as effective as in person? Of course not. Is it better than no school at all (which is what the data says about 25% or more kids in MCPS). MCPS is willing to waste tens of millions on all kinds of nonsense. Virtual school seems like a good investment that could use some improvement such as a state-run virtual school that all the counties could join, economies of scale and all.

What makes you think that kids who don’t bother attending in-person school would be present for virtual school? The chronic absenteeism rates for the MVA were higher than in-person and the graduation rates for NCS were lower.

It's easier to attend school from home (or wherever) than it is to go in person. Remove barriers and we'll serve more kids. It's that simple. We can never serve everyone and we have to acknowledge that. And because we don't need $200 million for a school for these kids virtual school should save $ once some of the issues are ironed out.

DP. Except the evidence is that this is wrong. MVA has worse issues with attendance than in person school and the issues with chronic absenteeism exploded after virtual instruction was required and have gotten better now that in person is returning to being the norm. During the pandemic Connecticut collected data on this and chronic absenteeism was worse for students with more remote learning. The bolded has a certain logic to it, but I'm the real world that's not how it plays out.

Can you provide us with the most recent data? Or are you just pulling this out of thin air? MVA is a few million, almost nothing in the budget and far cheaper than in person.

The pp's post was consistent with the most recent available data. If you have data that refutes those findings, please share it. Two year old data is better than no data at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 68 pages of ping ponging about whether COVID is still a thing or not, I'll weigh in. I'm not even a little bit afraid of COVID or any other contagion right now. Yet I still see value in a virtual option for kids who either can't or don't want to attend school. Is virtual as effective as in person? Of course not. Is it better than no school at all (which is what the data says about 25% or more kids in MCPS). MCPS is willing to waste tens of millions on all kinds of nonsense. Virtual school seems like a good investment that could use some improvement such as a state-run virtual school that all the counties could join, economies of scale and all.

What makes you think that kids who don’t bother attending in-person school would be present for virtual school? The chronic absenteeism rates for the MVA were higher than in-person and the graduation rates for NCS were lower.

It's easier to attend school from home (or wherever) than it is to go in person. Remove barriers and we'll serve more kids. It's that simple. We can never serve everyone and we have to acknowledge that. And because we don't need $200 million for a school for these kids virtual school should save $ once some of the issues are ironed out.

DP. Except the evidence is that this is wrong. MVA has worse issues with attendance than in person school and the issues with chronic absenteeism exploded after virtual instruction was required and have gotten better now that in person is returning to being the norm. During the pandemic Connecticut collected data on this and chronic absenteeism was worse for students with more remote learning. The bolded has a certain logic to it, but I'm the real world that's not how it plays out.

This is comparing apples and oranges. Kids in virtual are already outliers. So of course they'll have more issues. And I'm not sure we should care. We have in person which serves 95% of kids. Virtual could serve another 4%. And we can leave the other 1% who doesn't care behind instead of spending 80% of our resources on those kids.

MVA wasn't serving 4%. It was serving closer to 0.5%, which is well below your proposed threshold for abandonment.