Reply to Is it time for private school vouchers in Montgomery County?

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Reply to "Is it time for private school vouchers in Montgomery County?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP you are citing multiple posters and trying to lump different arguments into one.

Many special populations - special needs students being one - fell disproportionately behind than other students according to MCPS data presented to the Board of Ed. MCPS was quick to remove the supports and services that these students legally need for accessibility. MCPS has been slow to provide services so special needs students can catch up. This equates to a two year decline for students with special needs. Enough is enough. We are tired of our students being treated as an afterthought by MCPS, and as one PP has expressed, not deserving of educational benefit. That’s taking a whole student group that gained rights under the ADA, Section 504, and the IDEA back to pre-Civil Rights level of discrimination.

Parents are tired with fighting with MCPS for basic services listed on IEPs that aren’t being provided. School choice would provide us a financial mechanism to be able to leave MCPS to a school that wants to educate them.

[/quote]

My child has an IEP. I haven't seen their issues not being addressed. True, their issues aren't very complicated compared to.some.

But you are speaking for your own family. Not for all of us. Like you, I assume, I'm also on the various SN list serves and Facebook groups. There's no groundswell of parents demanding school vouchers. And you don't seem to be complaining there about it.

At this point I think at least half a dozen different posters have explained to you why school choice isn't going to give your child a magic placement that will "fix" them. That horrible troll post about damaged kids had one element of truth in what they said that perhaps you need to hear:

Our kids aren't "normal," whatever that even means. It's ablelist for you to assume our kids can meet your arbitrary goals and that only some vast Moco conspiracy is what's holding them back. Maybe what's holding your child back is his father's massive sense of entitlement and privilege. [/quote]

Except what MCPS is doing (not providing more than de minimus) is against federal law.  Gosh, some of you are so dim!  Just because your kids can memorize things quickly doesn’t mean our kids (who may have working memory issues) aren’t bright and are being ignored. (As an example).  
[b]
MCPS is a despicable organization - but if your kid is in Blair Magnet - you wouldn’t even realize it.  Or you work for the schools - Moco is America’s Venezuela… everyone works for the schools or the county.

Charters are one of the few ways to give a monopoly a signal - you are sub-optimal.  With so many county workers as voters it’s challenging to change the status quo[/b].[/quote]

+1 million

This is exactly ir.  [/quote]

+1000 - There are many reasons why parents are unhappy. How students with disabilities are discriminated against is one reason parents want alternative options.

If you are happy with MCPS (particularly if MCPS is paying for your child’s private education) then count your children blessed. Some disabilities are more appropriately addressed by MCPS than others. Some schools do a better job than others. It doesn’t mean the voice of complaints aren’t valid. The State complaint losses are piling up. The OCR complaints are piling up. Due Process is a longer venue and the last result, so they will begin piling up as well.

Even though some PPs have clear implicit bias about educating students with disabilities, all students deserve FAPE - a Free Appropriate Public Education. [/quote]

I don’t think most are disagreeing with you that students with disabilities deserve FAPE.  What they are arguing in 1) Appropriate needs to be defined with respective to each disability and 2)the current MCPS average cost to educate a student of 16K (which includes the additional dollars being spent on a smaller portion of the population) is not going to pay for private school tuition most anywhere in the DMV, and definitely not somewhere that will address many of the student disabilities that MCPS is tasked with addressed.  ALSO, and this is very key, no private school is required to admit your child (voucher or no voucher) nor lower their cost of tuition, which means for many, that vouchers wouldn’t actually give them meaningful choice.[/quote]

Since we are talking pie in the sky here, recognize that the $16k average you mention is high due to additional supports needed for ESOL, and SpEd.  Some of those kids can easily cost $50k a year once all staff and testing is accounted for.   It pulls up the average.  I would expect that a more typical cost to educate a typical child is about $10k or so.[/quote]

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