Reply to Fairfax County: McLean Citizens Association demands smaller class sizes

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere.  The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn. [/quote]

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990.  If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again. [/quote]

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.[/quote]

If you don't want Louise Epstein to win, run someone other than Janie Straus.  I know there was at least one candidate in the area the last go round. [/quote]

Didn't Greg Brandon try unsuccessfully to get one of the Democratic endorsements for an at-large seat last time?  He's in Dranesville.

My sense of Epstein is that she always has to be the smartest person in the room.  She does know the FCPS budget very well.  She also knows all there is to know about AAP and then some.  But, as this thread shows, some of her crowd have no political savvy.   No one would be attacking the MCA if they'd just adopted a resolution that called for caps on class size and emphasized how big some of the classes are in McLean.   Instead, they went the extra mile and called for minimum class sizes as well.   By focusing on the "disparity" of class sizes and the "unfairness" of the current staffing formula, they diverted attention from whether some classes are too big, and invited a larger, open-ended debate on the most privileged and neediest groups in the county.   [/quote]

God forbid that would happen and we'd have a min. and a max spending for each child. You mean she works for a fair solution for all and doesn't hide behind issues that might not get her re-elected? I don't live in McLean but would appreciate anyone like this being elected on the school board.[/quote]

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