I thought I'd use this blog post to simply comment on a variety of recent news stories (including blogs) about Montgomery County Public Schools.
So, here we go, in no special order:
More voters, less democracy
In this Gazette piece, even though the county’s population is blooming—we have more voters than ever before—our school board says they are just fine with the current number of board members. Who knew the board was against expanding citizen representation?
Board with its collective head in the sand
The board also seems against knowing anything specific about the risk behaviors of its students. Here is a Washington Examiner piece about a lack of MCPS data on student drug use. Will this—the lack of data—ever change?
New board member wants to please everyone
We have a new Board of Education member—Rebecca Smondrowski. She’s going to be fun watching, especially after saying this in The Washington Post: “I don’t want to let anybody down.” Is that possible?
Old board members care little about pleasing
If new board member Smondrowski is a quick study, she’ll learn that letting folks down or disappointing them comes with the territory. See this Gazette story about letting Muslim students and parents down who recently pleaded with the board to close schools for an important Muslim holiday.
Old board members care less about teen sleeping habits
MCPS remains confused over our high schools starting later in the day so that teens can sleep more. This Bethesda Magazine blog piece does a great job of capturing two high school principals dueling over the issue.
Starr publicly confesses that MCPS has not closed achievement gaps
In his inaugural State of the Schools address, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr went on the record saying MCPS has not closed achievement gaps. This Washington Post article provides a nice summary of the event. Hallelujah!
Now, we need Starr to track down former MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast
and tell him to stop accepting awards for closing gaps.
