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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I voted for Miranda. My takeaway from this is that many people in Arlington really are fine with how APS has handled the pandemic. I find this ... curious. Arlington is a weird place. I used to really love living here, but now I think we are a strange microcosm of a place. There's a lot to love but also ... I still can't really believe that most people are OK with [b]APS providing very little instruction[/b] the past year.

And yes, yes, I know the teachers are working hard. I'm not blaming them. But virtual learning is so much a worse alternative than in-person, and other places have managed this so much better than Arlington, that's it's still a bit beyond me.

Most of Arlington is happy to leave schools part-time for three more weeks because it's the end of the year and, meh. Never mind that we have very little COVID in Arlington now and that those weeks could make a huge difference still for some of our kids ...

I just don't get it.[/quote]

My kids are in high school, and that was not our experience.

I have been shocked -- not surprised, because there have been plenty of indications that this is the case, but I didn't want to believe it -- by the indifference of affluent parents to the experiences and needs of less-affluent families. Plenty of people seemed to view the news that those parents weren't comfortable returning to school as a sign that they needed to be convinced, not the the better-off parents needed to think harder about what they were asking for. And when told that APS needed a consistent approach to opening across schools, parents who had just been ranting that remote learning is garbage and we can't do that to children were suddenly of the opinion that families that wanted to choose remote should just do that and let other people choose differently.

It was gross. [/quote]

Are you serious? Anyone who spoke out saying they wanted to support RTS for those communities was accused of “using brown kids” as an excuse to reopen schools. Then when someone says those families should be able to continue to choose virtual while other kids return, they’re gross for saying families who would like remote school should be able to do so.

If your child was struggling at home this year (like many of the younger Elementary kids were), it was a no win situation. We’ve so lost our way that parents cannot even advocate for their own children anymore because somebody somewhere has it worse. Which makes it a race to the bottom. If a small subset of kids can’t make it to school 5 days per week, then NO ONE’s kids should.  :roll:

Meanwhile every family that possibly could set up pods, hired tutors, or went private. APS didn’t actually *do* anything to help less affluent families. They just made sure everyone else was equally deprived of a real education in the name of “equity” meanwhile widening the gap between the families with money for resources and those without. I think that is why so many families have grown complacent this past year, because they accepted they would need to buy their way out of this since they couldn’t rely on APS.

I’m fortunately in a position we could join a pod with a licensed educator, but I’m horrified for the families that couldn’t afford this type of assistance.

Just like there is now a giant wealth gap in this county, we are about to find ourselves in a giant educational gap. And instead of the county being able to focus on just a small subset of students who were not able to return in person, there are now too many students who are behind to even accommodate with summer school. [/quote]

That's because in Arlington:

"Equity" is for poor people
Rich people don't need or care about equity because they don't need to.
If APS institutes some policy that restricts something for students, no problem. They will just use a private provider for whatever service or good that was restricted.

[/quote]

DP.  Also “equity” is largely fake in the eyes of the already-privileged.  One has to be in favor of it, through statements, but there, the real goal of the privileged is just to further strengthen THEIR grip on privilege.  That is, by saying the right things, privileged people make sure that people in pursuit of equity  won’t come after them.  And yes, such rich folks will find the services elsewhere, if needed.  At some point, one has to ask:  what do such people get out of living in Arlington if schools are a concern.  Solid parks and good commutes, I guess.  The housing stock isn’t anything special.[/quote]

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