Reply to APS - Bye TJ

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Pp, your statement is misguided.  Who said money used for TJ was going to help improve other services in APS or get extracurricular activities back?Remember, there are many stakeholders in APS who will earmark that money for their own purposes.  There is no guarantee it will help gifted services, extracurriculars or anything else we care about.  It should stay 100 percent for TJ.  [/quote]

I know there is not guarantee that he’s funds would go to middle school extracurriculars.  But as I said in my first post, I can’t justify putting this money toward something that benefit such a small number of students when we are cutting programming that would benefit a much larger pool of students.  Middle school extracurriculars was just one example.

I hope APS does cut off TJ funding.  It’s long overdue.[/quote]

+1
Happy to support a scholarship program for APS kids who qualify and can't afford the tuition.  But otherwise, this is yet another elite luxury wealthy Arlington parents feel entitled to. I'm sure many of those going can afford to contribute toward the tuition.  And if they really want to go, they'll figure out a way to get them there, even if it's a van carpooling with the other Arlington students - particularly the poorer ones who can't afford the tuition and are probably more hard-pressed to have the transportation.  [/quote]
+1 as well.  When I was a kid the number of kids that went to TJ from Arlington was 0 -- it wasn't something that was allowed.  If you wanted to go to TJ, you moved to Fairfax.  
Even after they started allowing people to go there from Arlington, I feel like it is prohibitively difficult for most parents -- there isn't bus transportation to after school activities or social events and its frankly very far away.  [b]Its unfortunate but they should focus on things that benefit more than a handful of students. [/b] [/quote]

APS spends tons of time and energy and money on things that benefit only a handful of students. The program for pregnant and parenting students. The diversion program for students who have addiction/legal troubles. The program for students with significant physical disabilities. The evening high school for older students who are working.

There's no reason we can't provide transportation and send the money we would be spending in Arlington to Fairfax instead for tuition for a handful of kids capable and interested in taking advanced science and math classes we don't offer in our schools. Fairfax a) already offers the program, b) is geographically close to us, and c) charges tuition at cost, which is about the same as per-person spending at APS schools (plus transportation). We can't offer an equivalent experience due to a) too few students to support a full range of higher level classes and b) lack of facilities.

I would also point out that we do not invest in preparing students for higher level science and math the way Fairfax does, at all. Our identification and preparation of talented science and math students in Arlington is terrible, at least at the three elementary and middle schools I have had kids at. Letting kids prepare for TJ admission and giving them a bus is literally the LEAST APS can do. 
[/quote]

This is precisely why it makes no sense for us to continue to send kids to TJ. The only kids who even have a shot of getting in are those whose parents have done something outside of APS to prepare their children. It’s not a level playing field. And now that the VADOE is going to ban accelerated math for the entire state, there’s no shot whatsoever for anyone who isn’t doing outside prep. TJ in its current iteration will cease to exist.[/quote]

Whatever. Neither of my kids is athletic and they don't do sports. One isn't musical and has never done band or chorus. They won't take the kinds of things offered at the Career Center, they don't need special ed, we never applied for the choice schools, and so on. But just because they didn't want to, or didn't need, or weren't able to take advantage of everything APS offered doesn't mean those things shouldn't be offered -- that has never been the measure we have used to judge whether we should offer something. The measure is whether some kids will benefit from it. APS is a large school system in a wealthy county that offers a huge range of opportunities that people are free to take advantage of or not. And if there is an equity issue around program participation, then we should work on access, not remove the program. [/quote]

When the ONLY kids who can benefit are those who are already privileged and whose parents can afford pricey camps, classes, and tutors outside of the free public education everyone else is receiving necessary to gain admission to the program, then yes, we can say, “Nope.” Such a thing already exists, and it’s not free. You want it? Pay tuition at a school that meets the “needs” of your child. [/quote]

You could say the same thing about middle school sports.  [/quote]

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