Petition to Keep Centers - Hypocritical?

[Anonymous]

Here's a FCAG sponsored petition to maintain AAP in its current form:

https://www.change.org/p/dr-karen-garza-fcps-school-board-tell-fairfax-county-schools-fcps-to-preserve-aap-centers-gifted-magnet-schools?recruiter=8104325&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

I can't help but think it's a bit hypocritical. There's a heavy focus on what cutting back on centers would mean for students at poorer schools. Where are these people when Carson, Longfellow and Rocky Run send much larger numbers of students to TJ than other schools, year after year. I feel like they are just using this as a pretext to protect a system that disproportionately benefits the well-off.

[Anonymous]

Of course it is.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I don't understand "plain English", but I don't see why dropping the bus service is equated to eliminating the centers.

(FWIW, I intend to keep my DD at the base school anyway...Most parents at our local elementary do the same.)

[Anonymous]

I love it when rich people try to defend what they've got by invoking their deep and abiding concern for the poors. If they really cared, they'd be lobbying for higher taxes so the AAP centers wouldn't NEED to be cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love it when rich people try to defend what they've got by invoking their deep and abiding concern for the poors. If they really cared, they'd be lobbying for higher taxes so the AAP centers wouldn't NEED to be cut.

+10000

[Anonymous]

They are lumping two different issues and making it one and it is wrong.

One is that there are centers that are overcrowded and there are base schools that have robust (or potentially robust if the students come back) LLIV programs at both the ES and MS levels. There is a separate movement to have those students move to base schools. This is is more of a space issue and efficiency as there are large enough numbers of Level IV qualifed students at theses schools to have the program stay in the base school. These include most of the McLean and Vienna ES (and others) and MS like Cooper and Thoreau (and others). This is not a busget issue (even though is may save a very very very small bit of money), but a space issue and perhaps a neighborhood school issue and a Region issue.

The second issue IS a budget issue and bussing for AAP centers is on the chopping block along with a mirade of other programs. The way to solve the budget issue is NOT to lobby individually on pet programs but to combine it with ALL the populations affected by ALL the programs on the chopping block. This is the only way to sway the purse holding BOS.

[Anonymous]

Nice summary, 12:30

What FCAG does not want to say is there are budget realities, and the "I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore" approach will not help address these realities.

FCAG could offer a positive proposal instead, offering a solution that's somewhere in the middle of keeping everything the same and eliminating all centers and transportation. (For example, a proposal such as identifying overcrowded AAP centers where there is critical mass at the base school and eliminating transportation to the Center school (but still providing choice).)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a FCAG sponsored petition to maintain AAP in its current form:

https://www.change.org/p/dr-karen-garza-fcps-school-board-tell-fairfax-county-schools-fcps-to-preserve-aap-centers-gifted-magnet-schools?recruiter=8104325&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

I can't help but think it's a bit hypocritical. There's a heavy focus on what cutting back on centers would mean for students at poorer schools. Where are these people when Carson, Longfellow and Rocky Run send much larger numbers of students to TJ than other schools, year after year. I feel like they are just using this as a pretext to protect a system that disproportionately benefits the well-off.

Yes you are right. And I say that as a proponent of the centers. But when dealing with this school board you need to know what argument will work -l8i

[Anonymous]

I guess I'm just sick to death of the ever-vocal FCAG demanding this and that of a PUBLIC school system, with seemingly no interest whatsoever in improving the education of all the other non-AAP students. I would never in a million years sign one of their petitions.

[Anonymous]

From the petition:

"Anyone with an AAP kid knows that they might feel like a “nerd” or outcast when they are in the minority. But at a Center school, where most kids are like them, they “fit in” and thrive."

The AAP kids of today are no longer the "nerds" (using their words, not mine) of GT programs from a decade ago. They are completely mainstream, involved in sports and other activities. And why is this? Because AAP has opened up the program to vast numbers of kids over the years, kids who wouldn't have otherwise been identified as "gifted". It is moronic to claim that these are the outcasts, the "nerds" who need their "peer group". These kids are as mainstream as any others and their peer groups are found everywhere - yes, even in the base schools.

Enough with this attitude that AAP kids are some sort of special breed who must be hot-housed with other AAP kids lest they not reach their "potential". It has become such a crock of B.S.

[Anonymous]

The gifted lobby in Fairfax is astoundingly tone-deaf. It springs from their fundamentally wanting to hold their children out as better than others, so they've developed a way of speaking that simply astounds anyone who's not in their small circle.

It's an environment in which making preposterous claims about your own child's intelligence and desperate need for a "special" program is the price of admission; where the needs of most kids are, at best, disregarded and, at worst, considered entirely undeserving of attention; and where the poor are generally looked down upon, but occasionally acknowledged when they provide useful fodder for talking points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the petition:

"Anyone with an AAP kid knows that they might feel like a “nerd” or outcast when they are in the minority. But at a Center school, where most kids are like them, they “fit in” and thrive."

The AAP kids of today are no longer the "nerds" (using their words, not mine) of GT programs from a decade ago. They are completely mainstream, involved in sports and other activities. And why is this? Because AAP has opened up the program to vast numbers of kids over the years, kids who wouldn't have otherwise been identified as "gifted". It is moronic to claim that these are the outcasts, the "nerds" who need their "peer group". These kids are as mainstream as any others and their peer groups are found everywhere - yes, even in the base schools.

Enough with this attitude that AAP kids are some sort of special breed who must be hot-housed with other AAP kids lest they not reach their "potential". It has become such a crock of B.S.

In short, you are against Local Level IV too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nice summary, 12:30

What FCAG does not want to say is there are budget realities, and the "I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore" approach will not help address these realities.

FCAG could offer a positive proposal instead, offering a solution that's somewhere in the middle of keeping everything the same and eliminating all centers and transportation. (For example, a proposal such as identifying overcrowded AAP centers where there is critical mass at the base school and eliminating transportation to the Center school (but still providing choice).)

So many options, but to claim AAP is somehow untouchable in the face of a $70-100 million shortfall is arrogantly tone deaf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nice summary, 12:30

What FCAG does not want to say is there are budget realities, and the "I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore" approach will not help address these realities.

FCAG could offer a positive proposal instead, offering a solution that's somewhere in the middle of keeping everything the same and eliminating all centers and transportation. (For example, a proposal such as identifying overcrowded AAP centers where there is critical mass at the base school and eliminating transportation to the Center school (but still providing choice).)

So many options, but to claim AAP is somehow untouchable in the face of a $70-100 million shortfall is arrogantly tone deaf.

Not sure what the bolded refers to -- I certainly have never stated any program or item is "untouchable." In my opinion, zero-based budgeting would be the way to go. But I doubt any elected School Board member has the stomach for zero-based budgeting.

In addition, the political reality is there will likely be additional monies from the state and the Big Bad Budget Deficit will be nowhere near what was first postulated when the Budget Task Force when first convened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm just sick to death of the ever-vocal FCAG demanding this and that of a PUBLIC school system, with seemingly no interest whatsoever in improving the education of all the other non-AAP students. I would never in a million years sign one of their petitions.

Well, FCAG is a PRIVATE association of parents of gifted kids-- no affiliation with FCPS. You pay due sand they do not get any tax dollars. One of their primary purposes is to lobby for gifted education in FCPS. I don't see how they are different than any other lobbyists or why they would lobby for Gen Ed. It's not their purpose-- and in this case may be contrary to their interests. It would be like the athletic boosters, who are trying to keep high school sports in the budget, being expected to lobby to keep funding for the band and strings program.

If you think someone needs to lobby for Gen Ed, quit spending so much time bitching on DCUM and form a group to lobby for the interest of FCPS Gen Ed. Collect dues, develop a platform, commission studies and have members testify at school board meetings. Nobody is stopping you from organizing Gen Ed parents and expressing your opion or lobbying for your kids. But if you are too lazy to do this, I don't understand why you expect my FCAG dues and volunteer time should go towards doing it for you.