Reply to Petition to Keep Centers

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Reply to "Petition to Keep Centers - Hypocritical?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I guess I'm just sick to death of the ever-vocal FCAG demanding this and that of a PUBLIC school system, with seemingly no interest whatsoever in improving the education of all the other non-AAP students.  I would never in a million years sign one of their petitions.   [/quote]

Well, FCAG is a PRIVATE association of parents of gifted kids-- no affiliation with FCPS.  You pay due sand they do not get any tax dollars. One of their primary purposes is to lobby for gifted education in FCPS. I don't see how they are different than any other lobbyists or why they would lobby for Gen Ed.  It's not their purpose-- and in this case may be contrary to their interests. It would be like the athletic boosters, who are trying to keep high school sports in the budget, being expected to lobby to keep funding for the band and strings program.

If you think someone needs to lobby for Gen Ed, quit spending so much time bitching on DCUM and form a group to lobby for the interest of FCPS Gen Ed. Collect dues, develop a platform, commission studies and have members testify at school board meetings.  Nobody is stopping you from organizing Gen Ed parents and expressing your opion or lobbying for your kids. But if you are too lazy to do this, I don't understand why you expect my FCAG dues and volunteer time should go towards doing it for you. [/quote]

Uh, huh.  Well, say what you will, fewer than 350 signatures is pretty lame given how many AAP kids there are in FCPS.  As an advocacy group, they are one of the less impressive ones around.  
[/quote]

I belong, and I actually agree that they do a terrible job with petitions. But they are very effective at surveying members, commissioning studies, getting info from FCPS and compiling things like AP/ IB pass rates, TJ feeder school data and average class size of AAP Center vs LLIV vs Gen Ed. They also consistently have people put together effective presentations and testify at school board meetings. So, they do some things effectively. 
[/quote]

They regularly submit FOIA requests and effectively sell FCPS data that isn't already publicly disclosed to members who want additional information about FCPS.  Their presentations, on the other hand, suffer from the same defects as their petitions.

It will be a delight to see FCPS cut back on AAP in the future years.  It's unfortunate that it's taking a budget crisis to effect changes that should have already been made to restore some sanity to the system. 
  [/quote]

Once again-- it's not like FCPS is agreeing to FCAG's FOIA request and denying yours. Putting the FOIA request together is labor intensively and sometimes expensive. Why should FCAG do it for you?  If you want the data, pay the $10 and join FCAG, and you can get it. Or quit being lazy and submit your own request. No one is withholding the info from you-- you just aren't asking for it.

Oh, and BTW, FCAG does compile and release a lot of information to the general public. They release TJ feeder data immediately to everyone. Same with SAT data. Ap/IB pass rates are on their web site, except for the most recent couple of years. [b]You seem to expect a lot from an organization that you don't belong to that is not funded by your tax dollars. [/b][/quote]

Wow.  Not the PP, but this is rich coming from the AAP crowd who think nothing of demanding ever more from a public school system whose tax dollars are supplied by many parents, not just those with AAP kids.[/quote]

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