and to be clear that +1 I'm serious not being nasty like the other posters. We need more choices for school board here and OP seems to care.

Anonymous wrote:OP you should run for school board.

+1

Having your kids in private should preclude you from being on the school board. And if you are working at ACPS and live in Alexandria.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why people make such a big deal over whether people have kids or not to serve on school board. Does it matter if teachers and principals send their kids to ACPS, or even have their own kids? Since when is that a job qualification for public service? Plenty of people care about education and are invested in our schools whether they have kids in those same school systems or not.

Because it’s weird. Why is the school system good enough for other kids but not yours? I don’t trust a SB member who sends their kids to private to know what’s going on day-to-day in the public schools. I don’t trust them not to make deals re: land use & buildings that will benefit their child’s private school.

Anonymous wrote:OP you should run for school board.

Ah, the old "if you're going to complain, you should run" chestnut. Weird that all the people in Alexandria who complained about Trump didn't run for president. It's the same poor logic as the PP.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why people make such a big deal over whether people have kids or not to serve on school board. Does it matter if teachers and principals send their kids to ACPS, or even have their own kids? Since when is that a job qualification for public service? Plenty of people care about education and are invested in our schools whether they have kids in those same school systems or not.

It definitely made a difference during the school shut down. Hopefully that never happens again but there was a huge difference between the school board members who had kids in the schools (Reif, Nolan) and the ones who didn't (Lorber, Alderton, Greene, Suarez). And of course having a super who pulled a kid from the public schools (he said in a school board meeting that she was getting D and had "learned to exploit the system) and sent her to private should have made him sympathetic to parents who kept their kids in ACPS but it did the opposite. Hutchings doubled down on his distain for parents and was happily followed in that distain by Anderson, Lorber etc.

So yes, it makes a difference. But I don't think not having kids should preclude people from running from school board.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why people make such a big deal over whether people have kids or not to serve on school board. Does it matter if teachers and principals send their kids to ACPS, or even have their own kids? Since when is that a job qualification for public service? Plenty of people care about education and are invested in our schools whether they have kids in those same school systems or not.

Should City council members reside in the City? Doesn’t everyone want wonderful communities?

OP you should run for school board.

I don’t know why people make such a big deal over whether people have kids or not to serve on school board. Does it matter if teachers and principals send their kids to ACPS, or even have their own kids? Since when is that a job qualification for public service? Plenty of people care about education and are invested in our schools whether they have kids in those same school systems or not.

I would rather vote for someone that sends thier kids to private school than someone with no kids. At least the person with kids realizes what's important and is trying to make a difference at the public schools so that they could send that kids there. Someone who is not a parent has no idea.

Anonymous wrote:Won’t vote for anyone with kids in private, that’s for sure.

Will you vote for those without any children at all?

A few of them don't have any kids at all.

Really not one??

Well currently, there aren't any candidates.

If you meant school board members, Alderton - the school board chair - has her kids in private.

Also of note is that the very well paid TAG Director for ACPS sends her kids to private. She pulled them out of George Mason which has an underserved reputation as one of the better elementary schools. Clearly she thinks otherwise.

Won’t vote for anyone with kids in private, that’s for sure.