Reply to Feedback about the newly split Roberto Clemente and Martin Luther King middle school magnet programs

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Reply to "Feedback about the newly split Roberto Clemente and Martin Luther King middle school magnet programs"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I just can't support the idea that it's fine and appropriate to have an unnecessary >$1000 field trip on grounds that affluent parents with kids in the magnet program are willing to pay for the magnet-program kids who have non-affluent parents.[/quote]

Are you a magnet parent?  We are URM and less than affluent. I am glad that my kid was exposed to amazing opportunities and possibilities within the magnet program, which was partly financed by the magnet parents who were able to contribute. We could afford to pay a fraction but the rest was handled beautifully by the magnet coordinator and the magnet secretary.  These kinds of pathways are closed to my child in normal programs.  I am sure that my child will be able to pay it forward in life by the virtue of being nurtured within the program by not only the program. the teachers but also his peers and their parents.

I am very aware that affluent people cam afford to give all kinds of enrichment to their children, regardless of if such a program exists or not.  Magnet programs remain the one avenue for the non-affluent parents to give these children a taste of these kinds of opportunities.  I would also say that UpCounty programs are unluke Takoma Park and Eastern where the parents are influential and affluent.  Most parents at Clemente were LMC or MC at best.  The very first day of the school the parents group advised us to start saving a small amount every single month, because most people were unable to swing $1300 without budgeting for it.

I think you cannot support this idea is perhaps because it rankles you that my brilliant URM child is getting an opportunity in life which you would he rather not get. Sorry, but you can stew somewhere else. 
[/quote]

PP you're responding to. My kid is a humanities magnet kid. I am for opportunities. I am not for [i]this particular[/i] opportunity, whose goals could be achieved in other ways that don't require non-affluent parents to receive charity from affluent parents (which you're fine with, and that's fine, but not everybody is) and also don't require payment of the equivalent of a month's rent from parents who maybe can afford it but would prefer other uses for the money.

If this field trip is so crucial to the program, then they need to start fundraising for it starting at the beginning of 6th grade, as a [i]group[/i] effort, with the funds going to decreasing the required payment of the field trip for everybody. Plus, for people who like the class bonds that are formed in the NYC field trip: this would create class bonds too.[/quote]

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