The Virginia DOE has established a Governor’s School for each region of the state. We all subsidize these schools through our state income taxes. That won’t change even if APS pulls out. We will just be subsidizing a system of state magnet schools that none of our kids are eligible to attend. The main “additional” cost for TJ for APS is the transportation. The academic cost to educate the kids at TJ is actually less than what APS spends on a per head basis in our own high schools. So if transportation is the issue, then let’s talk about solutions for that problem- maybe implement a sliding scale to charge parents or something like that. APS is not requiring the students who are already at TJ to leave, so presumably they will be running a bus for the next three years already. There is time to work that out. Pulling out completely is just stupid.

Anonymous wrote:It’s in keeping with the general dumbing down of society. People of means are going to flock more and more to private institutions as tracking and admission to high caliber schools like TJ are done away with in the name of equity and budget reprioritization. It would be a perfect time to open a private STEM academy in the DC area.

+1000. There will always be kids who are smarter than others. All the so- called “equity” programs in the world won’t change that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awesome! Finally Duran is doing something that will improve APS. TJ takes up way too much of the discussion and everyone would be better off if it APS peaces out.

+1. There is no way to justify paying extra for students to attend TJ while cutting sports and extracurriculars for middle school students who stay in APS.

wait, are you seriously advocating that it's better to keep sports than an exceptional academic experience? am I in an episode of Varsity Blues?

I think it’s better for more students to have access to extracurricular activities that can help develop skills and interests, build character, and keep kids from getting trouble after school than to give zmore funds to a small number of students who go to TJ. If TJ is such a high priority for those families, they can move to Fairfax.

I agree. TJ is a Fairfax County resource and perk. People who want access can move to Fairfax.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awesome! Finally Duran is doing something that will improve APS. TJ takes up way too much of the discussion and everyone would be better off if it APS peaces out.

+1. There is no way to justify paying extra for students to attend TJ while cutting sports and extracurriculars for middle school students who stay in APS.

This is a false debate - there's room to fund both TJ and after-school activities if the school board and APS parents push back against Duran's ridiculous proposals to spend millions of new $ on bureaucracy and consultants at the APS main office.

I think the $290,000 is the savings achieved by eliminating this coming year's freshman (approximately 20 students). Once all APS students have graduated from TJ, the savings would be closer to $1M per year. Its not chump change, but I still think that APS would be wrong to pull out. There are some APS students from whom TJ is absolutely the right educational decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must be the triennial cycle to put TJ on the chopping block.

Having said that, if people want to send their kids to another county's school, I say move to that county. TJ is an entitlement. We do not have to support this.

Not accurate to describe this simply as "another county's school." It's a governor's school that is subsidized with state funding.

These numbers don't make sense. Let's say APS sends 100 kids to TJ across all four grades. The alleged savings by cutting TJ is $290,000. Are we supposed to believe it costs $29,000 more per student to have them serviced in a Fairfax school vs. an Arlington school? According to APS's own website, the cost per student to attend an Arlington school is $19,000. Are we supposed to believe that Arlington is paying TJ $48,000 per student to attend (thus costing the county $29,000 more per student to send them). I call BS.

290,000 divided by 100 is 2,900, not 29,000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp, your statement is misguided. Who said money used for TJ was going to help improve other services in APS or get extracurricular activities back?Remember, there are many stakeholders in APS who will earmark that money for their own purposes. There is no guarantee it will help gifted services, extracurriculars or anything else we care about. It should stay 100 percent for TJ.

I know there is not guarantee that he’s funds would go to middle school extracurriculars. But as I said in my first post, I can’t justify putting this money toward something that benefit such a small number of students when we are cutting programming that would benefit a much larger pool of students. Middle school extracurriculars was just one example.

I hope APS does cut off TJ funding. It’s long overdue.

+1
Happy to support a scholarship program for APS kids who qualify and can't afford the tuition. But otherwise, this is yet another elite luxury wealthy Arlington parents feel entitled to. I'm sure many of those going can afford to contribute toward the tuition. And if they really want to go, they'll figure out a way to get them there, even if it's a van carpooling with the other Arlington students - particularly the poorer ones who can't afford the tuition and are probably more hard-pressed to have the transportation.

+1 as well. When I was a kid the number of kids that went to TJ from Arlington was 0 -- it wasn't something that was allowed. If you wanted to go to TJ, you moved to Fairfax.
Even after they started allowing people to go there from Arlington, I feel like it is prohibitively difficult for most parents -- there isn't bus transportation to after school activities or social events and its frankly very far away. Its unfortunate but they should focus on things that benefit more than a handful of students.

Terrible terrible idea to cut funding for TJ. You cut off opportunities for bright gifted students interested in engineering, medicine, and science and then advocate for the money to be used elsewhere. No doubt in my mind that money will be used in bureaucratic waste and not help a single student. Duran is advocating right now to hire a COO. That should be his job. That’s the waste l am referring to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp, your statement is misguided. Who said money used for TJ was going to help improve other services in APS or get extracurricular activities back?Remember, there are many stakeholders in APS who will earmark that money for their own purposes. There is no guarantee it will help gifted services, extracurriculars or anything else we care about. It should stay 100 percent for TJ.

I know there is not guarantee that he’s funds would go to middle school extracurriculars. But as I said in my first post, I can’t justify putting this money toward something that benefit such a small number of students when we are cutting programming that would benefit a much larger pool of students. Middle school extracurriculars was just one example.

I hope APS does cut off TJ funding. It’s long overdue.

+1
Happy to support a scholarship program for APS kids who qualify and can't afford the tuition. But otherwise, this is yet another elite luxury wealthy Arlington parents feel entitled to. I'm sure many of those going can afford to contribute toward the tuition. And if they really want to go, they'll figure out a way to get them there, even if it's a van carpooling with the other Arlington students - particularly the poorer ones who can't afford the tuition and are probably more hard-pressed to have the transportation.

Anonymous wrote:Pp, your statement is misguided. Who said money used for TJ was going to help improve other services in APS or get extracurricular activities back?Remember, there are many stakeholders in APS who will earmark that money for their own purposes. There is no guarantee it will help gifted services, extracurriculars or anything else we care about. It should stay 100 percent for TJ.

I know there is not guarantee that he’s funds would go to middle school extracurriculars. But as I said in my first post, I can’t justify putting this money toward something that benefit such a small number of students when we are cutting programming that would benefit a much larger pool of students. Middle school extracurriculars was just one example.

I hope APS does cut off TJ funding. It’s long overdue.

Pp, your statement is misguided. Who said money used for TJ was going to help improve other services in APS or get extracurricular activities back?Remember, there are many stakeholders in APS who will earmark that money for their own purposes. There is no guarantee it will help gifted services, extracurriculars or anything else we care about. It should stay 100 percent for TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awesome! Finally Duran is doing something that will improve APS. TJ takes up way too much of the discussion and everyone would be better off if it APS peaces out.

+1. There is no way to justify paying extra for students to attend TJ while cutting sports and extracurriculars for middle school students who stay in APS.

wait, are you seriously advocating that it's better to keep sports than an exceptional academic experience? am I in an episode of Varsity Blues?

I think it’s better for more students to have access to extracurricular activities that can help develop skills and interests, build character, and keep kids from getting trouble after school than to give more funds to a small number of students who go to TJ. If TJ is such a high priority for those families, they can move to Fairfax.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awesome! Finally Duran is doing something that will improve APS. TJ takes up way too much of the discussion and everyone would be better off if it APS peaces out.

+1. There is no way to justify paying extra for students to attend TJ while cutting sports and extracurriculars for middle school students who stay in APS.

wait, are you seriously advocating that it's better to keep sports than an exceptional academic experience? am I in an episode of Varsity Blues?

Anonymous wrote:Awesome! Finally Duran is doing something that will improve APS. TJ takes up way too much of the discussion and everyone would be better off if it APS peaces out.

+1. There is no way to justify paying extra for students to attend TJ while cutting sports and extracurriculars for middle school students who stay in APS.

Awesome! Finally Duran is doing something that will improve APS. TJ takes up way too much of the discussion and everyone would be better off if it APS peaces out.