Trump's new educational secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos, have a reaching affect on VA Public Schools?

[Anonymous]

Families aren't the only ones who get to choose in a so-called school choice scenario. The schools get to choose too and then most vulnerable (poor and special needs) students will get the very shortest end of the stick. If separate but equal is your jam, great, because that's what you're going to get with a school vouchers program.

Not to mention the part where tax dollars will inevitably pay for religious schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope so. I'm pro choice, if your school is mis-managed, you should have the option to go to a school of your choice.

In a terrible school district, choice may help some students without improving public schools. In a good school district, choice may worsen schools generally.

This. Because the schools that are already segregated will become even more segregated until they are 100% poor and 100% minority. Meanwhile, my taxes will be diverted away from those poor minority students who are already starting out from less advantaged positions and the schools they are left behind in won't be renovated or have enough money for technology or new books or anything and inequality becomes further entrenched. The money will go to some religious academy where the teachers may not be qualified and where they could be teaching creationism or something. That's crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Families aren't the only ones who get to choose in a so-called school choice scenario. The schools get to choose too and then most vulnerable (poor and special needs) students will get the very shortest end of the stick. If separate but equal is your jam, great, because that's what you're going to get with a school vouchers program.

Not to mention the part where tax dollars will inevitably pay for religious schools.

Do you really think they'd be equal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people are naive to think that the federal government could not cram charters down the throats of localities. If they tied charter acceptance to ability to receive Title I funds, the states would have to cave. No one can really go without Title I funds.
Of course it runs contrary to the republican mantra of states' rights and local control, but that didn't stop them from forcing standardized testing down everyone's throats through NCLB.

They could reform the way Title 1 money is allocated, and use it to punish wealthy school districts that have to rely on Title 1 schools because of socioeconomic segregation within the wealthy districts. The wealthy school districts would face a choice between allowing the poor schools to become even poorer, without their Title 1 funds, or they would have to take steps to integrate to lessen the inequality.

Then they could send the Title 1 money to schools in rural areas that are more uniformly poor and where student outcomes are much worse than even the poorest students in wealthy districts. Win-win. Integration in segregated areas, and money more wisely spent where it is most needed. Make America Smart Again.

But they're not going to do the thing that would help any poor students, urban or rural. They're going to enrich their already wealthy cronies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Families aren't the only ones who get to choose in a so-called school choice scenario. The schools get to choose too and then most vulnerable (poor and special needs) students will get the very shortest end of the stick. If separate but equal is your jam, great, because that's what you're going to get with a school vouchers program.

Not to mention the part where tax dollars will inevitably pay for religious schools.

Do you really think they'd be equal?

Not the PP, but I suspect h/she was being tongue in cheek. Separate is never equal, and I think that was the point. Vouchers make the existing inequality even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Families aren't the only ones who get to choose in a so-called school choice scenario. The schools get to choose too and then most vulnerable (poor and special needs) students will get the very shortest end of the stick. If separate but equal is your jam, great, because that's what you're going to get with a school vouchers program.

Not to mention the part where tax dollars will inevitably pay for religious schools.

Do you really think they'd be equal?

Not the PP, but I suspect h/she was being tongue in cheek. Separate is never equal, and I think that was the point. Vouchers make the existing inequality even worse.

I was the PP and yes, I was being sarcastic. There will be nothing approaching equal of all the Langley kids go to private school and all the Hayfield kids stay in Hayfield. And the kids with iEPs will be trapped because the for profit charters will refuse to serve them and the traditional publics will have been gutted.

K-12 education choice is the primary component of this shitshow, but it's clear to me that Trump and his sycophants have no real idea what common core is as well. While the high stakes testing aspect is fairly pointless IMHO, I actually like the curriculum and see value in having standardized learning objectives across the country. Everyone loves to complain about common core math, but my first grader is essentially doing algebra right now because of the way math is being taught.

Honestly in the DC Metro we are almost universally fortunate to have strong public education systems. Say what you will about PG or PW, but schools in those districts are still ranked in the top 100 nationally. DC is the outlier. As an FCPS parent of a kid with an IEP, I see DeVos as presenting a huge threat to the strong districts around here, including FCPS and LCPS, and the special ed and FARMS kids will feel it the most.

It's worth nothing they DeVos or really any other Trumpet could also have a devastating effect on higher ed if there is a push to end direct lending. I have no desire to go back to preferred lenders. I really don't believe there is a clear understanding of everything with DOE does, despite the apparent intention to gut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine her appointment having a huge impact on VA schools. For one, we don't have any charter schools in VA. Secondly, most FCPS schools are functioning so there's no reason for vouchers. I think most educational efforts are focused on reforming Title 1 and innercity schools. VA has been left pretty much unscathed by this wave of education reform and NCLB that's been going on for over a decade.

Don't be so complacent. This blowhard spent years trying to establish a charter school in Falls Church.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/why-is-fairfax-county-afraid-of-a-little-charter-school/2015/02/08/ce46801c-ae2d-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html

And in Mason District, a Ms. Jessica Swanson, DCPS employee, and bankrolled by Teach for America affiliated super PAC "Leadership for Educational Equity" ran against Penny Gross in the democratic primaries for BOS last year. DCPS and Teach for America are both ardently pro-charter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/fairfax-election-heats-up-over-seven-corners-plan-and-school-funding/2015/06/04/afde472e-0934-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html

I really don't care for Penny Gross, but I voted for her in the primaries so that Ms. Swanson would not have a fighting chance of establishing charters in Fairfax County.

Do you have kids in the Stuart pyramid? This charter school was supported by many parents. The current system is not working for a lot of students.

And that was a smear campaign by Penny Gross. Jessica Swanson supported looking into this charter school as an option. So did many FCPS teachers and administrators. Jessica Swanson would have been a much better advocate for Mason Distruct schools than Penny Gross.

[Anonymous]

I red somewhere that Falwell was his first choice.

[Anonymous]

We are in Alexandria City. I support charter schools and think they could do for Alexandria what they did for DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in Alexandria City. I support charter schools and think they could do for Alexandria what they did for DC.

Alexandria just needs to join TJ and they will start seeing more wealthy families come into their school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine her appointment having a huge impact on VA schools. For one, we don't have any charter schools in VA. Secondly, most FCPS schools are functioning so there's no reason for vouchers. I think most educational efforts are focused on reforming Title 1 and innercity schools. VA has been left pretty much unscathed by this wave of education reform and NCLB that's been going on for over a decade.

Don't be so complacent. This blowhard spent years trying to establish a charter school in Falls Church.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/why-is-fairfax-county-afraid-of-a-little-charter-school/2015/02/08/ce46801c-ae2d-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html

And in Mason District, a Ms. Jessica Swanson, DCPS employee, and bankrolled by Teach for America affiliated super PAC "Leadership for Educational Equity" ran against Penny Gross in the democratic primaries for BOS last year. DCPS and Teach for America are both ardently pro-charter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/fairfax-election-heats-up-over-seven-corners-plan-and-school-funding/2015/06/04/afde472e-0934-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html

I really don't care for Penny Gross, but I voted for her in the primaries so that Ms. Swanson would not have a fighting chance of establishing charters in Fairfax County.

Do you have kids in the Stuart pyramid? This charter school was supported by many parents. The current system is not working for a lot of students.

And that was a smear campaign by Penny Gross. Jessica Swanson supported looking into this charter school as an option. So did many FCPS teachers and administrators. Jessica Swanson would have been a much better advocate for Mason Distruct schools than Penny Gross.

Fortunately, the other Penny Gros - at Stuart - is doing a great job there now. The school is much better since Calhoun got the boot.

But I agree that Penny Gross does nothing positive for the schools and turns a blind eye to conditions that result in crowded schools in her district.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is already basically divided into the haves and have nots. If you live in one of the garbage pyramids like I do, you would be all for vouchers. Let's face it. If you're in certain FCPS pyramids, your schools are failing and not getting any better. The ESL and FARM students just keep coming, and middle class families avoid your pyramid like the plague. Give me my tax dollars back so I can send my kids to a school that isn't failing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in Alexandria City. I support charter schools and think they could do for Alexandria what they did for DC.

What they did for DC? They have screwed the neighborhood schools in a good portion of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is already basically divided into the haves and have nots. If you live in one of the garbage pyramids like I do, you would be all for vouchers. Let's face it. If you're in certain FCPS pyramids, your schools are failing and not getting any better. The ESL and FARM students just keep coming, and middle class families avoid your pyramid like the plague. Give me my tax dollars back so I can send my kids to a school that isn't failing.

That's BS. More so than any other sizable school district in the area, there are plenty of schools in FCPS that serve a mix of students. If you bought in a district like Lee or Mount Vernon anytime in the past 20 years, you should have know you were buying into a district with a lot of ESOL/FARMS kids. Most of those schools also have a lot of kids who aren't ESOL or FARMS, and very few of those schools are "failing" by objective measures. Few of us want our public schools gutted, just so you can both pay a lower mortgage and avoid sending your kids to school with ESOL/FARMS kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is already basically divided into the haves and have nots. If you live in one of the garbage pyramids like I do, you would be all for vouchers. Let's face it. If you're in certain FCPS pyramids, your schools are failing and not getting any better. The ESL and FARM students just keep coming, and middle class families avoid your pyramid like the plague. Give me my tax dollars back so I can send my kids to a school that isn't failing.

It doesn't sound like the schools are failing the students. Perhaps it's the other way around?