Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Katie works for a consulting group that promotes charter schools. She is professionally obligated not to give a rat's ass about public schools.

Everyone should care about public schools for the selfish reason that good public schools boost home values, which boosts property taxes. And public schools would have wider support if APS ever showed the slightest ability to spend wisely and to plow on ahead, ignoring whiners, when there's a workable and affordable solution available, even if the parents are whining because it doesn't look like the schools they went to.

She'll suddenly care when her kid is old enough, just like she had a strong interest in daycare after she had a baby. Of course, there's a 99% chance her kid will go to an option school, so there's that.

Anonymous wrote:Katie works for a consulting group that promotes charter schools. She is professionally obligated not to give a rat's ass about public schools.

Everyone should care about public schools for the selfish reason that good public schools boost home values, which boosts property taxes. And public schools would have wider support if APS ever showed the slightest ability to spend wisely and to plow on ahead, ignoring whiners, when there's a workable and affordable solution available, even if the parents are whining because it doesn't look like the schools they went to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christian and Katie are parents to under 18 kids. Libby Garvey was on the school board for years prior to county board. They think about schools all the time.

This is like asking your community pool board to only think about the swim team. Facts are the majority of people in the county do not use the schools and while schools are an important part of any community, there are a lot of other priorities to balance as well. In Arlington, schools get a lot of support.

Okay I stand corrected.

I disagree it's like thinking of only the swim team. Of course there are other important things in the county. I use a lot of those services too and they are important to me. I just think that schools are not a high enough priority. Schools are never fully funded, they don't seem to have really considered the impact of schools on missing middle housing or trying to get amazon here, and I just see a lot of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when it comes to overcrowding, both from the board APS.

It's the finger-pointing problem, OP. The CB conveniently avoids all these things because APS is independently managed and overseen solely by the SB. It takes some very big and inconvenient problems off their plate.

Yes, there is zero accountability around here and it is mind boggling. It is nearly impossible to compel people on the school board, county board, or county government to actually do their jobs. Truly astonishing.

Exactly. I really wish Arlington had a mayor instead of a county board and then also had mayoral control of schools. Now each side understandably blames the other for problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christian and Katie are parents to under 18 kids. Libby Garvey was on the school board for years prior to county board. They think about schools all the time.

This is like asking your community pool board to only think about the swim team. Facts are the majority of people in the county do not use the schools and while schools are an important part of any community, there are a lot of other priorities to balance as well. In Arlington, schools get a lot of support.

Okay I stand corrected.

I disagree it's like thinking of only the swim team. Of course there are other important things in the county. I use a lot of those services too and they are important to me. I just think that schools are not a high enough priority. Schools are never fully funded, they don't seem to have really considered the impact of schools on missing middle housing or trying to get amazon here, and I just see a lot of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when it comes to overcrowding, both from the board APS.

It's the finger-pointing problem, OP. The CB conveniently avoids all these things because APS is independently managed and overseen solely by the SB. It takes some very big and inconvenient problems off their plate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christian and Katie are parents to under 18 kids. Libby Garvey was on the school board for years prior to county board. They think about schools all the time.

This is like asking your community pool board to only think about the swim team. Facts are the majority of people in the county do not use the schools and while schools are an important part of any community, there are a lot of other priorities to balance as well. In Arlington, schools get a lot of support.

Okay I stand corrected.

I disagree it's like thinking of only the swim team. Of course there are other important things in the county. I use a lot of those services too and they are important to me. I just think that schools are not a high enough priority. Schools are never fully funded, they don't seem to have really considered the impact of schools on missing middle housing or trying to get amazon here, and I just see a lot of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when it comes to overcrowding, both from the board APS.

Anonymous wrote:Christian and Katie are parents to under 18 kids. Libby Garvey was on the school board for years prior to county board. They think about schools all the time.

This is like asking your community pool board to only think about the swim team. Facts are the majority of people in the county do not use the schools and while schools are an important part of any community, there are a lot of other priorities to balance as well. In Arlington, schools get a lot of support.