Reply to Supreme Court Refuses to Take Up TJ Admissions

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The "Parents Defending Education” claim that it’s a “grassroots” organization is total BS - they are part of a larger orchestrated effort to drive wedge issues for the GOP. It’s just another astroturfing scam to get suburban moms worked up into a frenzy with OUTRAGE after OUTRAGE.

They have ties to the Koch Bros. 
https://defendinged.org/about/

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Speech_First
[i]Speech First's president and only listed employee, [b]Nicole Neily has worked for many Koch-affiliated groups. Neily was the president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, the Cato Institute’s manager of external relations, the coalition relations manager for FreedomWorks’ Center for Global Economic Growth, and a "Koch summer fellow for both the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights and the Competitive Enterprise Institute[/b]."[7]

The Nation, characterized Speech First as "a highly professional astro-turfing campaign, with a board of former Bush Administration lawyers and longtime affiliates of the Koch family...Speech First’s board of directors includes a former head of a Koch-backed trust and two conservative attorneys from Koch-funded programs."[2]
[/i]
The people involved are anti-“CRT”, anti-trans, anti-education.

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/yes-virginia-there-is-critical-race-theory-in-our-schools/article_ba449c18-cf99-11eb-a719-4bfc9103236c.html

https://www.masspoliticsprofs.org/2021/04/12/koch-connections-and-sham-grassroots-of-parents-defending-education/. 
[i]Parents Defending Education is corporate school privatizers going hard right to attack school boards, superintendents, principals, and teachers. It’s a dirty game and it’s about as grassroots as say, a Koch political operation.

Mercedes Schneider has figured out the grassroots angle in Parents Defending Education: Prefab “Grassroots”—PDE needs local connections to claim standing in law suits to chill the free speech of any educator who questions white supremacy. Peter Greene minces no words in Parents Defending Education: Astroturf Goes Hard Right:

PDE is particularly odious because of its whole “turn in any teacher or school that offends you” approach to chilling conversation and teaching. This is not just astrotyurf (sic), but astroturf with its brown shirt on.[/i][/quote]

Again, I acknowledged they have a biased perspective. However, they also have the evidence exhibits, which you can interpret. No need to read their interpretation, just draw your own conclusions from the evidence.
[/quote]

Are you new here? We hashed this all out years ago.

Thank god this is finally over. Leave the kids alone, Republicans. Stop using them as pawns. 
[/quote]

Democrats are the ones using us as pawns to achieve their idea of "racial diversity", treating us as groups rather than individuals[/quote]

It was not about racial diversity.  It was about destroying academic excellence as a concept.  The number of Asian students didn't decline much, but many top Asian students were denied admission while mediocre ones were admitted.  The number of students taking algebra 1 in 8th grade went from single digits to triple digits.
Students who were top in MathCounts, Science Olympiad, or qualified for USAJMO(a handful in the whole country) were rejected. [/quote]

This.
They need to just [b]admit that FCPS is not aiming to keep TJHSST as the “#1 public high school in the country” that educates the brightest minds in its district[/b]. While the claim may still hold for another year or two, there is no question that there will be no option but to lower standards to accommodate the students they pull in. Arguably these are still high-achieving kids within their specific middle school environment. [b]But that’s not the same as saying that this high school draws the best and brightest in the district. [/b]
Instead, they are content to sacrifice merit on the alter of  equity.

I would have more respect for the board if they admitted that this is their aim and stopped trying to sell that there will be no academic downside to this.[/quote]

There are two concepts packed into what I’ve bolded, and they can be in tension with each other. I don’t think the goal should be to create the number one high school in the country (whatever that means—is it based on rankings in a random news magazine?). But educating the brightest minds across the region is a worthy goal. And bright can be determined by more than just achievements that some kids, but not others, have access to. Remember these are kids who are only partway through their public school educational journey. Setting aside some slots for each middle school in the catchment area ensures that the brightest kids from each middle school have an opportunity to attend TJ. Those kids may not have the same resume and access to test prep as kids from wealthier areas because they lack access to activities, resources, and the like. And remember the admission changes increased the class size, continuing to allow for a substantial number of at-large seats. So it’s the best of both worlds—you get kids with lots of a achievements while also ensuring access to some of the brightest kids in the county who, through no fault of their own other than going to a less resourced school or coming from a background where they’ve had to overcome obstacles, may not have had the same a achievements by eighth grade but are capable of thriving at TJ. Some of those kids are the best and brightest in the district, but simply haven’t had a platform to demonstrate it yet. [/quote]

+1
Why is it so hard to accept that kids from schools other than Carson and the 3 or 4 other middle schools who have historically been monopolizing TJ admissions are just as bright and have the ability to thrive in this environment if only they were given the chance???[/quote]

Why is so easy to accept that only 550 students per grade of (200000?) get a chance for a good high school education? [/quote]

False premise. Fairfax County has [b]the best high schools top to bottom of any large high school system in the country.[/b] The fact that there is only one specialized high school doesn't detract from the fact that a student can receive an objectively "good" high school education at any of its 25 schools.[/quote]

Citation? 
[/quote]

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