Where is the Board of Education?

Testimony to Montgomery County Board of Education
January 21, 2009

Good evening, I am Janis Sartucci a member of the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County. The Parents' Coalition has a website chock full of public information for public school parents in Montgomery County. Our address is www.parentscoalitionmc.com.

I. "The Table" -Where is the Board of Education?

This evening's testimony is on the topic of the Operating Budget; however, the testimony is not being presented to those that are "at the table" deciding what is funded in the Operating Budget and what is cut. Recently, the Superintendent has spoken about those at the table; MCPS staff, two representatives from each of the three employee unions and two representatives from MCCPTA. There is a video of the "table" participants in action on the MCPS website showing the creation of the MCPS Operating Budget. However, there is no mention of Board of Education members at the Operating Budget table, and no Board members are seen in the video.

Why are our elected representatives not at the table deciding what is to be funded and what is to be cut in the annual public school budget? We elected you to represent us and instead the vast majority of Montgomery County parents and citizens have NO representation at the MCPS Operating Budget creation table. Unless parents and citizens are a member of a union or one of the 18% of parents that are members of a PTA, Montgomery County parents and citizens have no representation at the table where the MCPS Operating Budget is created.

II. Illegal Curricular Fees - Where is the Board of Education?

Parents have also lost their representation in the discussion of the illegal curricular fees that are being imposed in our local schools. At the January 9, 2009, joint Board committee meeting we learned that the Board of Education would not be deciding what fees should be charged and what fees should be eliminated. Instead, the new rules will be created and set by Superintendent Weast. The new rules include a clause that if anyone challenges a fee, the fee can be waived without any paperwork or procedure for validation of need. Thereby anyone who knows to request a waiver of an illegal curricular fee will be granted a waiver.

The Maryland Attorney General has said, "we are safe in saying that anything directly related to a school's curriculum must be available to all without charge". Parents that know what the Attorney General has said will know they cannot be charged for curriculum related items. Only families that do not know the law will be left to pay illegal curricular fees. As a Baltimore education advocate commented to me, this amounts to taxing the ignorant. Only those that are ignorant of the law will be paying illegal curricular fees.



III. Outdoor Education - Where is the Board of Education?

Again, the question is where is the Board of Education with regard to Outdoor Education? Parents are constantly paying illegal fees for that event. On May 11, 2004, the Board of Education voted to set the fee for Outdoor Education at $76 effective July 1, 2004. But local schools are free to charge parents any amount they choose and parents are none the wiser. When parents are billed $85 for Outdoor Education they assume and trust that this is the fee set by the Board of Education. Those that are ignorant of the law have no idea that the Board of Education actually set the fee at $76. Further, parents are often ignorant of the fact that Outdoor Education is an optional activity and not curriculum based.

IV. BusRadio - Where was the Board of Education?

In December we saw yet another example of the Board of Education absent from a decision when it was revealed that MCPS had contracted with a company that piped in pre-recorded music and advertisements directed at children on MCPS buses. The Board of Education and Superintendent had been notified about the use of this product in November, but still no Board members spoke up to inquire about the use of this product during subsequent Board meetings. What else is going on in our schools that had not been approved by the Board of Education?

It is time for the elected Board of Education members to take seats at the Budget table on behalf of all of the unrepresented families and students, and participate in the budget and policy decisions that impact MCPS students.

Janis Zink Sartucci
Parents' Coalition, member