Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for
+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.
+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.
If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.
If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.
If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.
How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?
Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.
So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?
Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.
Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.
We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.
Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.
You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.
So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.
1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services
Guess what those two ideas have in common?
Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools….
I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.
This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag
What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.
That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.
I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.
As a former MVA parent who is black, I am compelled to speak up here. Our local
school *is* a hellscape. My child got tussled and bullied for weeks and went from being so passionate about academics to the point of pursuing it during spare time to wanting to be accepted by those bullies and losing just about all interest in academic pursuits because those bullies found it “weird”. The principal informed us that bullying and fighting are quite normal there and that it’s an underperforming school so I should adjust my expectations.
We wanted to return to the MVA but are disappointed that we no longer can. Now, you are essentially saying that these hellscape schools don’t exist.
ABC7 just interviewed the nominated superintendent Thomas Taylor and he said he would be meeting with the Montgomery Virtual Academy families because that is part of the process. He is agreeing to meet with these families after Felder refused.
Yea, families have really been pushing for this.
Gluttons for punishment? They want yet another person to tell them MVA is dead?
MVA families will not stop till the MVA is restored, just like you'd do if they shut down your child's school that was working for them.
That's called a temper tantrum. Your parents should have done more to teach you those aren't effective.
No, you can advocate for something long term without throwing a temper tantrum. Of course if that's the only lens you see the world in, everything looks that way to you. Strategic thinkers take the long view.
They made the decision to close it. You voiced your objections, but the policymakers in power decided to close it anyway. Continuing to whine about it is a temper tantrum.
identifying an alternative, sustainable path could be productive, but that isn't what the MVA supporters have been attempting to do.
Grow up. It’s a vital school for kids. Kids needs should come first. Try it.
If by "vital school" you mean "nice-to-have program", then yes, I agree
I'm sure for some kids it's a nice-to-have, but it sounds like there are a lot of kids there who have no other good alternative. (Outsider here, but some of the stories are really heart-rending.)
There's always an alternative. Some parents just don't like thise alternatives.
Wrong forum. MCPS does not always have alternatives. Dream on.
The main alternative is that they can go to in-person school. The vast majority of MVA can do this- their parents just don't want them to. There are a variety of reasons that their parents don't want them to, some which are better than others, but they could go.
Say you are clueless without saying.
Why do you feel you should get the choice but others should not? Why do you think you should decide what is best for others kids, but they don't get to decide what's best for your kids?
Because I’m not asking for $5 million to continue a covid-era program that’s lost more than two thirds of its participants, fails to educate kids even worse than in/person schools, and has unacceptably high chronic absenteeism rates so that parents can avoid sending kids to in-person schools to avoid the distraction of the fashion choices of their peers.
Still in the covid-era as you call it.
If you want to talk data, then release the data. How come MCPS gets to keep MVA data from the public? If it's so horrible, then put out the current data so we can all see. What are you so scared of?
On future messages, note that $5M is absolutely nothing to MCPS. They spend that much money on credit cards in a few months and don't even check receipts.
With the program having been officially cut from the budget, you do realize that the burden is on you to prove why that decision should be reversed, right? Screaming into the void about “recent data” to feed your conspiracy theories about the fact that the program somehow had a miraculous one-year turnaround in its assessment results that MCPS is now conspiring to withhold from you is not going to cut it.
Send some public information requests to get the data. Go to the press so the only people out there talking about why the MVA must stay aren’t the people who want to keep their kids away from middle school fashion distractions. Lobby the county council to step up for the kids with medical needs who really need something like the MVA as opposed to going back to IIS. Work to change the narrative that’s formed that the MVA largely serves entitled parents who are making a choice not to send their kids to in-person schools for a variety of reasons, none of which are because of a real need but instead is a preference to avoid the horrors of MCPS schools. Stop making up random arguments about how MCPS spends $5 million in other parts of the budget that’s now been approved for next year. Do better.
News blackout in your home? MVA families have been doing all that. Pay attention before you criticize.
If those families talking to the press reflect the "best" examples of need, then no wonder MVA was closed. There's no reason those kids couldn't go to school.
LOL. Just hate for the sake of hating. Good to know you have nothing to say but hate.
A reality check would help your cause. The people you've been putting forward to the media are not making a compelling case. That's why you haven't been getting support for MVA.
LOL Just the majority leader in the Maryland Senate. We’ll take it!
Sad if you think this is anything other than a political CYA exercise. All the elected politicians who can actually influence the MCPS budget process decided to kill the MVA, unanimously. Of course the ones who have no authority to change anything will have their summer interns write some letters expressing their deep disappointment in those decisions.
It's more than that. Of course the state reps are going to point back to the county because it distracts from more substantive things they could do to help the parents that want virtual school.
Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
You have data? Make it public now.
Of course it does not apply to kids who got covid and never recovered or kids who became compromised during the pandemic.
Then explain why you do not want students that were in IIS to have a regular education through the MVA? You still want to deny them an opportunity. Why?
Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for
+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.
+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.
If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.
If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.
If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.
How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?
Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.
So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?
Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.
Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.
We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.
Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.
You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.
So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.
1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services
Guess what those two ideas have in common?
Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools…. :shock:
I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.
This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag
What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.
That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.
I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.
As a former MVA parent who is black, I am compelled to speak up here. Our local
school *is* a hellscape. My child got tussled and bullied for weeks and went from being so passionate about academics to the point of pursuing it during spare time to wanting to be accepted by those bullies and losing just about all interest in academic pursuits because those bullies found it “weird”. The principal informed us that bullying and fighting are quite normal there and that it’s an underperforming school so I should adjust my expectations.
We wanted to return to the MVA but are disappointed that we no longer can. :(
Now, you are essentially saying that these hellscape schools don’t exist.
ABC7 just interviewed the nominated superintendent Thomas Taylor and he said he would be meeting with the Montgomery Virtual Academy families because that is part of the process. He is agreeing to meet with these families after Felder refused.
Yea, families have really been pushing for this.
Gluttons for punishment? They want yet another person to tell them MVA is dead?
MVA families will not stop till the MVA is restored, just like you'd do if they shut down your child's school that was working for them.
That's called a temper tantrum. Your parents should have done more to teach you those aren't effective.
No, you can advocate for something long term without throwing a temper tantrum. Of course if that's the only lens you see the world in, everything looks that way to you. Strategic thinkers take the long view.
They made the decision to close it. You voiced your objections, but the policymakers in power decided to close it anyway. Continuing to whine about it is a temper tantrum.
identifying an alternative, sustainable path could be productive, but that isn't what the MVA supporters have been attempting to do.
Grow up. It’s a vital school for kids. Kids needs should come first. Try it.
If by "vital school" you mean "nice-to-have program", then yes, I agree
I'm sure for some kids it's a nice-to-have, but it sounds like there are a lot of kids there who have no other good alternative. (Outsider here, but some of the stories are really heart-rending.)
There's always an alternative. Some parents just don't like thise alternatives.
Wrong forum. MCPS does not always have alternatives. Dream on.
The main alternative is that they can go to in-person school. The vast majority of MVA can do this- their parents just don't want them to. There are a variety of reasons that their parents don't want them to, some which are better than others, but they could go.
Say you are clueless without saying.
Why do you feel you should get the choice but others should not? Why do you think you should decide what is best for others kids, but they don't get to decide what's best for your kids?
Because I’m not asking for $5 million to continue a covid-era program that’s lost more than two thirds of its participants, fails to educate kids even worse than in/person schools, and has unacceptably high chronic absenteeism rates so that parents can avoid sending kids to in-person schools to avoid the distraction of the fashion choices of their peers.
Still in the covid-era as you call it.
If you want to talk data, then release the data. How come MCPS gets to keep MVA data from the public? If it's so horrible, then put out the current data so we can all see. What are you so scared of?
On future messages, note that $5M is absolutely nothing to MCPS. They spend that much money on credit cards in a few months and don't even check receipts.
With the program having been officially cut from the budget, you do realize that the burden is on you to prove why that decision should be reversed, right? Screaming into the void about “recent data” to feed your conspiracy theories about the fact that the program somehow had a miraculous one-year turnaround in its assessment results that MCPS is now conspiring to withhold from you is not going to cut it.
Send some public information requests to get the data. Go to the press so the only people out there talking about why the MVA must stay aren’t the people who want to keep their kids away from middle school fashion distractions. Lobby the county council to step up for the kids with medical needs who really need something like the MVA as opposed to going back to IIS. Work to change the narrative that’s formed that the MVA largely serves entitled parents who are making a choice not to send their kids to in-person schools for a variety of reasons, none of which are because of a real need but instead is a preference to avoid the horrors of MCPS schools. Stop making up random arguments about how MCPS spends $5 million in other parts of the budget that’s now been approved for next year. Do better.
News blackout in your home? MVA families have been doing all that. Pay attention before you criticize.
If those families talking to the press reflect the "best" examples of need, then no wonder MVA was closed. There's no reason those kids couldn't go to school.
LOL. Just hate for the sake of hating. Good to know you have nothing to say but hate.
A reality check would help your cause. The people you've been putting forward to the media are not making a compelling case. That's why you haven't been getting support for MVA.
LOL Just the majority leader in the Maryland Senate. We’ll take it!
This is a weird position to take. Nancy King has no power over MCPS. In her position, she doesn't control funding, or even provide oversight. Having her write statements about MVA is a waste of time.
If you really wanted to support your cause, you'd be pressuring her to voice her support for a state program, which she actually could help make happen.
She only controls the State budget and oversight. How much government class did you skip?
Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for
+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.
+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.
If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.
If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.
If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.
How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?
Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.
So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?
Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.
Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.
We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.
Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.
You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.
So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.
1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services
Guess what those two ideas have in common?
Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools….
I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.
This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag
What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.
That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.
I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.
As a former MVA parent who is black, I am compelled to speak up here. Our local
school *is* a hellscape. My child got tussled and bullied for weeks and went from being so passionate about academics to the point of pursuing it during spare time to wanting to be accepted by those bullies and losing just about all interest in academic pursuits because those bullies found it “weird”. The principal informed us that bullying and fighting are quite normal there and that it’s an underperforming school so I should adjust my expectations.
We wanted to return to the MVA but are disappointed that we no longer can. Now, you are essentially saying that these hellscape schools don’t exist.
ABC7 just interviewed the nominated superintendent Thomas Taylor and he said he would be meeting with the Montgomery Virtual Academy families because that is part of the process. He is agreeing to meet with these families after Felder refused.
Yea, families have really been pushing for this.
Gluttons for punishment? They want yet another person to tell them MVA is dead?
MVA families will not stop till the MVA is restored, just like you'd do if they shut down your child's school that was working for them.
That's called a temper tantrum. Your parents should have done more to teach you those aren't effective.
No, you can advocate for something long term without throwing a temper tantrum. Of course if that's the only lens you see the world in, everything looks that way to you. Strategic thinkers take the long view.
They made the decision to close it. You voiced your objections, but the policymakers in power decided to close it anyway. Continuing to whine about it is a temper tantrum.
identifying an alternative, sustainable path could be productive, but that isn't what the MVA supporters have been attempting to do.
Grow up. It’s a vital school for kids. Kids needs should come first. Try it.
If by "vital school" you mean "nice-to-have program", then yes, I agree
I'm sure for some kids it's a nice-to-have, but it sounds like there are a lot of kids there who have no other good alternative. (Outsider here, but some of the stories are really heart-rending.)
There's always an alternative. Some parents just don't like thise alternatives.
Wrong forum. MCPS does not always have alternatives. Dream on.
The main alternative is that they can go to in-person school. The vast majority of MVA can do this- their parents just don't want them to. There are a variety of reasons that their parents don't want them to, some which are better than others, but they could go.
Say you are clueless without saying.
Why do you feel you should get the choice but others should not? Why do you think you should decide what is best for others kids, but they don't get to decide what's best for your kids?
Because I’m not asking for $5 million to continue a covid-era program that’s lost more than two thirds of its participants, fails to educate kids even worse than in/person schools, and has unacceptably high chronic absenteeism rates so that parents can avoid sending kids to in-person schools to avoid the distraction of the fashion choices of their peers.
Still in the covid-era as you call it.
If you want to talk data, then release the data. How come MCPS gets to keep MVA data from the public? If it's so horrible, then put out the current data so we can all see. What are you so scared of?
On future messages, note that $5M is absolutely nothing to MCPS. They spend that much money on credit cards in a few months and don't even check receipts.
With the program having been officially cut from the budget, you do realize that the burden is on you to prove why that decision should be reversed, right? Screaming into the void about “recent data” to feed your conspiracy theories about the fact that the program somehow had a miraculous one-year turnaround in its assessment results that MCPS is now conspiring to withhold from you is not going to cut it.
Send some public information requests to get the data. Go to the press so the only people out there talking about why the MVA must stay aren’t the people who want to keep their kids away from middle school fashion distractions. Lobby the county council to step up for the kids with medical needs who really need something like the MVA as opposed to going back to IIS. Work to change the narrative that’s formed that the MVA largely serves entitled parents who are making a choice not to send their kids to in-person schools for a variety of reasons, none of which are because of a real need but instead is a preference to avoid the horrors of MCPS schools. Stop making up random arguments about how MCPS spends $5 million in other parts of the budget that’s now been approved for next year. Do better.
News blackout in your home? MVA families have been doing all that. Pay attention before you criticize.
If those families talking to the press reflect the "best" examples of need, then no wonder MVA was closed. There's no reason those kids couldn't go to school.
LOL. Just hate for the sake of hating. Good to know you have nothing to say but hate.
A reality check would help your cause. The people you've been putting forward to the media are not making a compelling case. That's why you haven't been getting support for MVA.
LOL Just the majority leader in the Maryland Senate. We’ll take it!
+1
With the kind of hard-hitting and sweeping rhetoric Senator King provided in support of the MVA, we'll surely see a sea change in suppory soon. It was a Patrick Henry "Give me liberty or give me death!" type of plea:
"Ultimately, the decision will be made by the Board of Education, but I will continue to talk to Board Members and school officials about the importance of continuing the Virtual Academy and the importance of providing the best educational opportunities for Montgomery County students."
A commitment to continue to talk to people! We're going places!
Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
You have data? Make it public now.
Of course it does not apply to kids who got covid and never recovered or kids who became compromised during the pandemic.
Then explain why you do not want students that were in IIS to have a regular education through the MVA? You still want to deny them an opportunity. Why?
What would be the cost of this type of MVA program, i.e., one that serves kids will real medical needs and doesn't include kids who are too shy to go to school, too distracted by the fashion choices of their peers to go to school, too nervous about school shootings to go to school, too heavily bullied to go to school?
Anonymous wrote:The few families I know in the virtual school signed up for it to avoid their kids from attending a middle school that resulted from a boundary study. Their reasoning was simply they didn't want their kids to go there. One even told me it was a nice option since they could take their kids on multiple vacations throughout the school year without missing school. I know this isn't everyone's reason but for these families, it was to avoid a low performing school on paper that they were worried about.
You are really going to hate the charter school familes next year.
No hate, the pp is jealous. They want to be able to go on vacations anytime and help their kids cheat on tests, but they didn't like their kids enough to keep them at home in MVA.
Uh, that was me and far from jealous, thank you. Your response is idiotic. If we wanted to, we could have done virtual school too because we work from home; but because we are reasonable people, we decided to try the school in person before jumping to biased conclusions and keeping our child away from it. My kid ended up doing awesome and met some great friends.
It's OK to admit that you'd love to be able to take vacations whenever you want and to help your kids get good grades by feeding them answers to tests.
Who is going on vacations whenever they want and helping their kids get good grades by feeding them answers? That's right..not me and nor would I ever participate in that. I actually want my kids to be successful. It's ok for you to say that YOU would rather be selfish and think of yourself than do what's best for your child's future. Go ahead and go on your vacations but not on tax payer money. You're free to homeschool.
Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
You have data? Make it public now.
Of course it does not apply to kids who got covid and never recovered or kids who became compromised during the pandemic.
Then explain why you do not want students that were in IIS to have a regular education through the MVA? You still want to deny them an opportunity. Why?
What would be the cost of this type of MVA program, i.e., one that serves kids will real medical needs and doesn't include kids who are too shy to go to school, too distracted by the fashion choices of their peers to go to school, too nervous about school shootings to go to school, too heavily bullied to go to school?
You have so much hate for children. Where did all that hate come from?
Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
You have data? Make it public now.
Of course it does not apply to kids who got covid and never recovered or kids who became compromised during the pandemic.
Then explain why you do not want students that were in IIS to have a regular education through the MVA? You still want to deny them an opportunity. Why?
IIS has always been small. It's not staffed to handle anything close to 800 kids year-around. They were obviously in school.
MVA supporters keep pointing IIS, but that doesn't reflect the reality of the kids in MVA. You didn't do IIS because you were worried about student peers criticizing fashion choices. You didn't do IIS because you were too tired to go to school, but apparently not too tired to go for a hike or pass out fliers in Takoma Park. And you certainly didn't do IIS because you didn't want to catch the flu in the winter.
I've known kids in IIS before- particularly ones post-transplant and a couple being hospitalized for rare autoimmune disorders. For much of that time, their medical care and health would not have allowed consistent, real-time participation in virtual classes. Once their health improved enough that they could, it wasn't long before they could return to class.
Are there kids that fall into that middle zone between IIS and school for longer periods of time? There probably are. But if we were really focused on the kids who truly **can't** go to school, then we'd create a virtual program that looks a lot different than MVA. It would either need to be much more narrowly scoped if maintained at the county level, including fewer classes, or it would need to be operated at a state level to get enough students for it to operate at scale.
Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for
+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.
+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.
If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.
If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.
If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.
How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?
Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.
So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?
Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.
Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.
We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.
Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.
You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.
So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.
1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services
Guess what those two ideas have in common?
Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools…. :shock:
I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.
This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag
What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.
That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.
I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.
As a former MVA parent who is black, I am compelled to speak up here. Our local
school *is* a hellscape. My child got tussled and bullied for weeks and went from being so passionate about academics to the point of pursuing it during spare time to wanting to be accepted by those bullies and losing just about all interest in academic pursuits because those bullies found it “weird”. The principal informed us that bullying and fighting are quite normal there and that it’s an underperforming school so I should adjust my expectations.
We wanted to return to the MVA but are disappointed that we no longer can. :(
Now, you are essentially saying that these hellscape schools don’t exist.
ABC7 just interviewed the nominated superintendent Thomas Taylor and he said he would be meeting with the Montgomery Virtual Academy families because that is part of the process. He is agreeing to meet with these families after Felder refused.
Yea, families have really been pushing for this.
Gluttons for punishment? They want yet another person to tell them MVA is dead?
MVA families will not stop till the MVA is restored, just like you'd do if they shut down your child's school that was working for them.
That's called a temper tantrum. Your parents should have done more to teach you those aren't effective.
No, you can advocate for something long term without throwing a temper tantrum. Of course if that's the only lens you see the world in, everything looks that way to you. Strategic thinkers take the long view.
They made the decision to close it. You voiced your objections, but the policymakers in power decided to close it anyway. Continuing to whine about it is a temper tantrum.
identifying an alternative, sustainable path could be productive, but that isn't what the MVA supporters have been attempting to do.
Grow up. It’s a vital school for kids. Kids needs should come first. Try it.
If by "vital school" you mean "nice-to-have program", then yes, I agree
I'm sure for some kids it's a nice-to-have, but it sounds like there are a lot of kids there who have no other good alternative. (Outsider here, but some of the stories are really heart-rending.)
There's always an alternative. Some parents just don't like thise alternatives.
Wrong forum. MCPS does not always have alternatives. Dream on.
The main alternative is that they can go to in-person school. The vast majority of MVA can do this- their parents just don't want them to. There are a variety of reasons that their parents don't want them to, some which are better than others, but they could go.
Say you are clueless without saying.
Why do you feel you should get the choice but others should not? Why do you think you should decide what is best for others kids, but they don't get to decide what's best for your kids?
Because I’m not asking for $5 million to continue a covid-era program that’s lost more than two thirds of its participants, fails to educate kids even worse than in/person schools, and has unacceptably high chronic absenteeism rates so that parents can avoid sending kids to in-person schools to avoid the distraction of the fashion choices of their peers.
Still in the covid-era as you call it.
If you want to talk data, then release the data. How come MCPS gets to keep MVA data from the public? If it's so horrible, then put out the current data so we can all see. What are you so scared of?
On future messages, note that $5M is absolutely nothing to MCPS. They spend that much money on credit cards in a few months and don't even check receipts.
With the program having been officially cut from the budget, you do realize that the burden is on you to prove why that decision should be reversed, right? Screaming into the void about “recent data” to feed your conspiracy theories about the fact that the program somehow had a miraculous one-year turnaround in its assessment results that MCPS is now conspiring to withhold from you is not going to cut it.
Send some public information requests to get the data. Go to the press so the only people out there talking about why the MVA must stay aren’t the people who want to keep their kids away from middle school fashion distractions. Lobby the county council to step up for the kids with medical needs who really need something like the MVA as opposed to going back to IIS. Work to change the narrative that’s formed that the MVA largely serves entitled parents who are making a choice not to send their kids to in-person schools for a variety of reasons, none of which are because of a real need but instead is a preference to avoid the horrors of MCPS schools. Stop making up random arguments about how MCPS spends $5 million in other parts of the budget that’s now been approved for next year. Do better.
News blackout in your home? MVA families have been doing all that. Pay attention before you criticize.
If those families talking to the press reflect the "best" examples of need, then no wonder MVA was closed. There's no reason those kids couldn't go to school.
LOL. Just hate for the sake of hating. Good to know you have nothing to say but hate.
A reality check would help your cause. The people you've been putting forward to the media are not making a compelling case. That's why you haven't been getting support for MVA.
LOL Just the majority leader in the Maryland Senate. We’ll take it!
This is a weird position to take. Nancy King has no power over MCPS. In her position, she doesn't control funding, or even provide oversight. Having her write statements about MVA is a waste of time.
If you really wanted to support your cause, you'd be pressuring her to voice her support for a state program, which she actually could help make happen.
She only controls the State budget and oversight. How much government class did you skip?
You should look again at the MCPS budget process. I'm not sure who led you astray, but they're apparently not a friend to your cause.
Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for
+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.
+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.
If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.
If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.
If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.
How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?
Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.
So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?
Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.
Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.
We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.
Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.
You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.
So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.
1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services
Guess what those two ideas have in common?
Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools….
I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.
This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag
What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.
That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.
I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.
As a former MVA parent who is black, I am compelled to speak up here. Our local
school *is* a hellscape. My child got tussled and bullied for weeks and went from being so passionate about academics to the point of pursuing it during spare time to wanting to be accepted by those bullies and losing just about all interest in academic pursuits because those bullies found it “weird”. The principal informed us that bullying and fighting are quite normal there and that it’s an underperforming school so I should adjust my expectations.
We wanted to return to the MVA but are disappointed that we no longer can. Now, you are essentially saying that these hellscape schools don’t exist.
ABC7 just interviewed the nominated superintendent Thomas Taylor and he said he would be meeting with the Montgomery Virtual Academy families because that is part of the process. He is agreeing to meet with these families after Felder refused.
Yea, families have really been pushing for this.
Gluttons for punishment? They want yet another person to tell them MVA is dead?
MVA families will not stop till the MVA is restored, just like you'd do if they shut down your child's school that was working for them.
That's called a temper tantrum. Your parents should have done more to teach you those aren't effective.
No, you can advocate for something long term without throwing a temper tantrum. Of course if that's the only lens you see the world in, everything looks that way to you. Strategic thinkers take the long view.
They made the decision to close it. You voiced your objections, but the policymakers in power decided to close it anyway. Continuing to whine about it is a temper tantrum.
identifying an alternative, sustainable path could be productive, but that isn't what the MVA supporters have been attempting to do.
Grow up. It’s a vital school for kids. Kids needs should come first. Try it.
If by "vital school" you mean "nice-to-have program", then yes, I agree
I'm sure for some kids it's a nice-to-have, but it sounds like there are a lot of kids there who have no other good alternative. (Outsider here, but some of the stories are really heart-rending.)
There's always an alternative. Some parents just don't like thise alternatives.
Wrong forum. MCPS does not always have alternatives. Dream on.
The main alternative is that they can go to in-person school. The vast majority of MVA can do this- their parents just don't want them to. There are a variety of reasons that their parents don't want them to, some which are better than others, but they could go.
Say you are clueless without saying.
Why do you feel you should get the choice but others should not? Why do you think you should decide what is best for others kids, but they don't get to decide what's best for your kids?
Because I’m not asking for $5 million to continue a covid-era program that’s lost more than two thirds of its participants, fails to educate kids even worse than in/person schools, and has unacceptably high chronic absenteeism rates so that parents can avoid sending kids to in-person schools to avoid the distraction of the fashion choices of their peers.
Still in the covid-era as you call it.
If you want to talk data, then release the data. How come MCPS gets to keep MVA data from the public? If it's so horrible, then put out the current data so we can all see. What are you so scared of?
On future messages, note that $5M is absolutely nothing to MCPS. They spend that much money on credit cards in a few months and don't even check receipts.
With the program having been officially cut from the budget, you do realize that the burden is on you to prove why that decision should be reversed, right? Screaming into the void about “recent data” to feed your conspiracy theories about the fact that the program somehow had a miraculous one-year turnaround in its assessment results that MCPS is now conspiring to withhold from you is not going to cut it.
Send some public information requests to get the data. Go to the press so the only people out there talking about why the MVA must stay aren’t the people who want to keep their kids away from middle school fashion distractions. Lobby the county council to step up for the kids with medical needs who really need something like the MVA as opposed to going back to IIS. Work to change the narrative that’s formed that the MVA largely serves entitled parents who are making a choice not to send their kids to in-person schools for a variety of reasons, none of which are because of a real need but instead is a preference to avoid the horrors of MCPS schools. Stop making up random arguments about how MCPS spends $5 million in other parts of the budget that’s now been approved for next year. Do better.
News blackout in your home? MVA families have been doing all that. Pay attention before you criticize.
If those families talking to the press reflect the "best" examples of need, then no wonder MVA was closed. There's no reason those kids couldn't go to school.
LOL. Just hate for the sake of hating. Good to know you have nothing to say but hate.
A reality check would help your cause. The people you've been putting forward to the media are not making a compelling case. That's why you haven't been getting support for MVA.
LOL Just the majority leader in the Maryland Senate. We’ll take it!
+1
With the kind of hard-hitting and sweeping rhetoric Senator King provided in support of the MVA, we'll surely see a sea change in suppory soon. It was a Patrick Henry "Give me liberty or give me death!" type of plea:
"Ultimately, the decision will be made by the Board of Education, but I will continue to talk to Board Members and school officials about the importance of continuing the Virtual Academy and the importance of providing the best educational opportunities for Montgomery County students."
A commitment to continue to talk to people! We're going places!
Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
You have data? Make it public now.
Of course it does not apply to kids who got covid and never recovered or kids who became compromised during the pandemic.
Then explain why you do not want students that were in IIS to have a regular education through the MVA? You still want to deny them an opportunity. Why?
What would be the cost of this type of MVA program, i.e., one that serves kids will real medical needs and doesn't include kids who are too shy to go to school, too distracted by the fashion choices of their peers to go to school, too nervous about school shootings to go to school, too heavily bullied to go to school?
You have so much hate for children. Where did all that hate come from?
So, in other words, you have no idea what that type of program would cost.
Anonymous wrote:What did these families and teachers do before the pandemic and the virtual academy?? They need to go back to that!!!!
Teachers and students back in the classroom or no pay, no studies, nothing!!!! Find something else the state doesn’t pay for!!!!
Wasn’t the Virtual
Academy already canceled? Why is this debate still ongoing??
!!!!!! Amazing to see the lack of knowledge. There was no school before MVA, there was only tutoring!!!!! As much as you hate it, all children are entitled to a free public education!!!!!!!! It’s not 1950 anymore and we don’t exclude children that are disabled from education!!!!!!!!!
Which is why MCPS has a variety of programs to help students that need accomodations. The vast majority of kids in MVA weren't previously in IIS-- they were in schools.
You have data? Make it public now.
Of course it does not apply to kids who got covid and never recovered or kids who became compromised during the pandemic.
Then explain why you do not want students that were in IIS to have a regular education through the MVA? You still want to deny them an opportunity. Why?
What would be the cost of this type of MVA program, i.e., one that serves kids will real medical needs and doesn't include kids who are too shy to go to school, too distracted by the fashion choices of their peers to go to school, too nervous about school shootings to go to school, too heavily bullied to go to school?
You have so much hate for children. Where did all that hate come from?
When someone tries to accept your premise that MVA is for kids who can't go to school, you come back with a personal attack? Odd.
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.
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.
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