Washington Post endorsements for Fairfax County School Board races

[Anonymous]

Opinions? Did they get (anything?) right?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-posts-choices-for-fairfax-school-board/2011/10/20/gIQADSoY7L_story.html

[Anonymous]

I don't think the Post really knows NoVa. Most Post writers live in DC or Maryland, and they get spoon-fed endorsements from the local Democratic organizations. They endorsed one Republican (Lolita Mancheno-Smoak), with every other endorsement going to a candidate endorsed by the Democrats.

I do think they got the Dranesville endorsement right. By my book, through her close ties to Catherine Lorenze, who has accused poor children of "making out like bandits" in Fairfax, Louise Epstein has forfeited the right to be taken as a serious opponent to Janie Strauss. While I don't think Epstein's concerns are as narrow as the Post suggested, it's not inappropriate to judge her in part by the reactionary company she keeps.

[Anonymous]

I have a child in AAP and I have to regretfully say that while I have a great deal of respect for Louise Epstein as someone who's very thoughtful amd highly knowledgeable about FCPS and GT issues in particular, I thoroughly disagree with her support of eliminating extra staffing support for at-risk students. For one thing, I wouldn't be too worried even if my DC's class size increased to even 40 or more kids. While I realize there would be little individualized attention, the hallmark of many AAP children is that they are so intense and interested in learning that provided they can more or less hear and see the teacher, they'll learn no matter what. Our child is several years ahead of grade level, and is almost entirely self taught. All we did was provide books.
In addtion, there is a not too infrequent assumption among some GT parents that GT students deserve, if anything, more support than other kids because "they will be the job creators, inventors and leaders of tomorrow." I believe this is completely wrong. Giftedness probably has little correlation with success and leadership in the real world, and even if it did, there is no moral justification for entrenching such differences in starting advantage among children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a child in AAP and I have to regretfully say that while I have a great deal of respect for Louise Epstein as someone who's very thoughtful amd highly knowledgeable about FCPS and GT issues in particular, I thoroughly disagree with her support of eliminating extra staffing support for at-risk students. For one thing, I wouldn't be too worried even if my DC's class size increased to even 40 or more kids. While I realize there would be little individualized attention, the hallmark of many AAP children is that they are so intense and interested in learning that provided they can more or less hear and see the teacher, they'll learn no matter what. Our child is several years ahead of grade level, and is almost entirely self taught. All we did was provide books.
In addtion, there is a not too infrequent assumption among some GT parents that GT students deserve, if anything, more support than other kids because "they will be the job creators, inventors and leaders of tomorrow." I believe this is completely wrong. Giftedness probably has little correlation with success and leadership in the real world, and even if it did, there is no moral justification for entrenching such differences in starting advantage among children.

Epstein was involved with Fairgrade, which may have benefitted some non-GT students. But during the discussions she claimed that she was actually arguing against her own interests, because her own children were GT students who would earn As and A+s under any grading scale. She's clearly accomplished, but I don't think she brings a lot of empathy to the table. It's not going to help people in Great Falls and McLean if needs-based staffing is jettisoned and poor students in other parts of the county suffer.

[Anonymous]

The FAIRGRADE leadership used the contact information (mostly email addresses) gathered from parents signing their petition back in April 2008 to communicate about FAIRGRADE.

Then the range of issues the FAIRGRADE "founders" got involved in morphed and they used those same email addresses AGAIN and *FOR OTHER PURPOSES* by the Fairfax Education Coalition.

Then the Fairfax Education Coalition (FEC) misrepresented the number of parents that were backing their effort by using the number of emails gathered for the FAIRGRADE petition as being the number of parents that FEC was representing! They used this misrepresented number in testimony before the Fairfax County School Board.

This is not only dishonest and misleading, but also is against Federal Trade Commission standards.

At least two of the FAIRGRADE "founders" were very much aware of this dishonest tactic - but they let it occur and continue nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who want to know what's going on here, do a google search of "red apple mom lorenze fairfax underground" and you will be enlightened.

[Anonymous]

I don't think parents need to be meek PTA types, but this woman seems rather out of control.

Does she think people will hire her for larger political campaigns if a few candidates she backs get elected to the School Board? Most people don't even know the name of their local School Board representative.

[Anonymous]

Who gets fired as a room parent and a PTA volunteer? She must be a real pill. I will vote for the opponent of whomever she endorses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who want to know what's going on here, do a google search of "red apple mom lorenze fairfax underground" and you will be enlightened.

Thanks for posting this!