Reply to Who said there isn't a North-South divide?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hope you are as enthusiastic about  improving Drew as you are about putting the crosshairs on montessori.

Fwiw, montessori costs aps about the same as immersion, once you factor in the intersessions.

The real problem most people have with montessori and option schools in general is the sense that some kids (the SA middle and UMC, mostly) are getting a something akin to a NA neighborhood elementary experience "without paying for it". This is the NA mindset again, that if you want a good elementary classroom experience for your kid you have to pay for it : buy an overpriced house in NA. Any efforts to do otherwise - rezoning to break up school segregation, busses across the DMZ I mean 50, expanding option schools , these are forms of cheating the status quo that says north wealthy, south poor.[/quote]

Actually, I am tenfold more enthusiastic about improving Drew than I am about Montessori.  Montessori is doing fine.  Drew isn't.  I'm not putting the crosshairs on Montessori - that co-location problem should have been fixed YEARS ago for the sake of students in BOTH programs.  But the neighborhood program kids are the ones who really irreparably suffered, not the Montessori kids.

Immersion doesn't have intersessions - you're mixing Immersion and Barcroft's year-round calendar.  And it doesn't cost the same if one program is getting 4 additional weeks of learning, which at least students pay something for.  Plus, Barcroft students will continue to benefit from Title I funds (as long as Title I still pays out).  It's questionable how the Title I funds at Drew were truly allocated and if Montessori doesn't qualify on its own, then APS will be paying 100% of the program's costs.

Intersessions don't have to be as costly as this superintendent has made them by only allowing "highly qualified teachers" teach the classes -- and Arlington pays teachers at their current/most recent salary.  Alexandria does not.  The only highly qualified teachers available during intersession times are current Barcroft teachers who want their full time off, too; or retired teachers whose salaries are higher.

Besides, I don't see how agreeing that the sliding scale for Montessori preK should be revised is a criticism of Montessori.  Or stating facts like Montessori costs more to run than a neighborhood school and has a very strong advocacy group.  It is by nature protected from large classes, and has two teachers in those small classes.  You don't consider those privileged-like benefits?[/quote]

Also, I live in south Arlington and put two kids through south arlington schools.  I have never once heard anyone express or even suggest "the sense that some kids (the SA middle and UMC, mostly) are getting a something akin to a NA neighborhood elementary experience "without paying for it".  [/quote]

That's because you deal in reality rather than the ridiculous world of victimhood pp has invented for himself.[/quote]

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