Anonymous wrote:Do any ACPS parents think a lot of this podcast sounded awfully familiar?

This APS parent does... and if I'm an option parent I might argue it's a mirror...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Yes please go to a private school. You have your head in the sand if you don't understand how fundraising favors the access inherently available to those of higher socioeconomic status. PTA funds raised at a public school should be pooled and distributed to the others in the school district.

You’re an idiot. People will just stop contributing and will, in fact, move their kids to privates. That won’t make the high FARMS public schools one bit better.

DP.

You're not doing FARMS kids a favor now. Especially not if your kids are in some sort of AAP/TAG/G&T enclave. Many of these schools with lots of outside funding are just private schools getting massive subsidization from the taxpayer.

The appalling immorality of this is why I went private.

Listening to the podcast, I realized I’m a Rob, though I honestly try to get buy-in from all parent groups. Last year I raised over $160k for the nonprofit that runs out after care program. Our PTA raises about $40-80k a year and our school is small. The PTA pays for all school field trips, some after school clubs for kids income based and repairs and needs for the school. I really think it is a class issue. Not race. Our school is 30/30/30/10. 30% Black, 30% Latino, 30% white, 4% Asian 6% mixed race. You have the diverse affluent families of color and then the kids who live in public housing. Our school is a mix of $1M homes and community housing developments. I really think people struggle when there are social and economic issues.

My son completed kindergarten. He picked up on the fact that some of his friends were experiencing homelessness, some had unstable home environments, some had food insecurity. With the pandemic, some of his friends disappeared from class on Zoom. Some kids told the class and teacher no adults were at home because they were at work.

As hard as I tried to build a friendship with friends of different social classes, there were issues like smoking and riding in the car without car seats. I felt judgey. It’s really hard that I need to have conversations with my son about homelessness and food insecurity. He told me about kids falling asleep in class or not having a bed. I do think it’s good to realize not everyone has the same privileged life. But throwing money at the issues doesn’t solve the root causes of poverty, inequality or equity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Yes please go to a private school. You have your head in the sand if you don't understand how fundraising favors the access inherently available to those of higher socioeconomic status. PTA funds raised at a public school should be pooled and distributed to the others in the school district.

You’re an idiot. People will just stop contributing and will, in fact, move their kids to privates. That won’t make the high FARMS public schools one bit better.

Enough with the name calling. What is wrong with you?

American bred sociopath. Money is all the matters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Yes please go to a private school. You have your head in the sand if you don't understand how fundraising favors the access inherently available to those of higher socioeconomic status. PTA funds raised at a public school should be pooled and distributed to the others in the school district.

You’re an idiot. People will just stop contributing and will, in fact, move their kids to privates. That won’t make the high FARMS public schools one bit better.

Enough with the name calling. What is wrong with you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Yes please go to a private school. You have your head in the sand if you don't understand how fundraising favors the access inherently available to those of higher socioeconomic status. PTA funds raised at a public school should be pooled and distributed to the others in the school district.

You’re an idiot. People will just stop contributing and will, in fact, move their kids to privates. That won’t make the high FARMS public schools one bit better.

Saying "Nice White Parents" is racist and targeting a specific racial group because of your negative feelings toward them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Yes please go to a private school. You have your head in the sand if you don't understand how fundraising favors the access inherently available to those of higher socioeconomic status. PTA funds raised at a public school should be pooled and distributed to the others in the school district.

The idea was to benefit the many FARMS kids at the school who might not be able to get help otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Yes please go to a private school. You have your head in the sand if you don't understand how fundraising favors the access inherently available to those of higher socioeconomic status. PTA funds raised at a public school should be pooled and distributed to the others in the school district.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crummy schools have had trillions dumped into them over the last 40 years. People do not change. Whether it’s culture or genetics, I don’t know. What I do know is that the needle NEVER moves. All the so called improvements are fake, the result of cheating, data juking and other manipulating schemes. And we need stop painting inner city teachers and admins as selfless saints. The most unqualified POS six-figure admins I’ve ever dealt with were inner city admins.

I worked in one of those schools. The problem was not the teachers or the admin or the curriculum or the students. The problem was poverty, which schools don't cause and can't solve alone. No amount of money put into a school for anything at all is going to help a kid who goes home to a crack house every day, who is abused, hungry, whose mom leaves him locked out of the house all night while she has "clients" in, and so on. All that really happens and it happens right here in Northern Virginia. That's why the needle doesn't move. It's people that need money, not schools.

Exactly. And that so many folks are ready to blame the kids for their situation says all you need to know about the people throwing stones.

+1

And someone was advocating to just give extra SNAP cards to these parents and eliminate FARM

Why don't they do that?

With the Pandemic-EBT benefit, many families who previously qualified for school meals are now getting EBT or increased-EBT instead.

That ended in June. I haven't heard anything about it being extended beyond the may/june time period.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crummy schools have had trillions dumped into them over the last 40 years. People do not change. Whether it’s culture or genetics, I don’t know. What I do know is that the needle NEVER moves. All the so called improvements are fake, the result of cheating, data juking and other manipulating schemes. And we need stop painting inner city teachers and admins as selfless saints. The most unqualified POS six-figure admins I’ve ever dealt with were inner city admins.

I worked in one of those schools. The problem was not the teachers or the admin or the curriculum or the students. The problem was poverty, which schools don't cause and can't solve alone. No amount of money put into a school for anything at all is going to help a kid who goes home to a crack house every day, who is abused, hungry, whose mom leaves him locked out of the house all night while she has "clients" in, and so on. All that really happens and it happens right here in Northern Virginia. That's why the needle doesn't move. It's people that need money, not schools.

Exactly. And that so many folks are ready to blame the kids for their situation says all you need to know about the people throwing stones.

+1

And someone was advocating to just give extra SNAP cards to these parents and eliminate FARM

Why don't they do that?

With the Pandemic-EBT benefit, many families who previously qualified for school meals are now getting EBT or increased-EBT instead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crummy schools have had trillions dumped into them over the last 40 years. People do not change. Whether it’s culture or genetics, I don’t know. What I do know is that the needle NEVER moves. All the so called improvements are fake, the result of cheating, data juking and other manipulating schemes. And we need stop painting inner city teachers and admins as selfless saints. The most unqualified POS six-figure admins I’ve ever dealt with were inner city admins.

I worked in one of those schools. The problem was not the teachers or the admin or the curriculum or the students. The problem was poverty, which schools don't cause and can't solve alone. No amount of money put into a school for anything at all is going to help a kid who goes home to a crack house every day, who is abused, hungry, whose mom leaves him locked out of the house all night while she has "clients" in, and so on. All that really happens and it happens right here in Northern Virginia. That's why the needle doesn't move. It's people that need money, not schools.

Exactly. And that so many folks are ready to blame the kids for their situation says all you need to know about the people throwing stones.

+1

And someone was advocating to just give extra SNAP cards to these parents and eliminate FARM

Why don't they do that?

Anonymous wrote:How about living in a country where I am not responsible for your kids? If your school is a problem, go somewhere else. Your kids are not my problem.

Because if we don't have a well-educated population then we need to import highly skilled labor for our well-paying jobs and our citizenry is susceptible to bizarre conspiracy theories.* Education isn't just about your kid getting ahead, it's about living in a functional society.


*Belief in conspiracy level correlates with low level of education: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/24/a-look-at-the-americans-who-believe-there-is-some-truth-to-the-conspiracy-theory-that-covid-19-was-planned/

Our PTA pays for supplemental help for all the kids at the school who are struggling with reading. But we are being bashed for it because not all schools have a PTA that can do this. So we shouldn't be allowed to either. No wonder people give up and go private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about living in a country where I am not responsible for your kids? If your school is a problem, go somewhere else. Your kids are not my problem.

Why bother living in a country with public education if that's your attitude

DP it comes down to parenting. I can't force someone to parent better. I can look out for my own children and give them all the advantages I can. Every parent worth their salt does this.