MCPS also stands for . . . Music Choral Programs Slashed

Another boutique program bites the dust - now its Music and Choral Programs Slashed by Dr. Weast and Co. Sorry, I just couldn't resist the irony.

Thanks to Kay Romero, MCCPTA President, and our activist friends in MCCPTA who are helping sort our the curricular fees issue, we now have insight into what curricular fees MCPS will request this September.

Big news - music and the arts have been slashed. No more fundraisers for oranges, cookies, magazines, concession stands, hot dogs, music videos, and the like because music festivals are now optional. Here is the language from the new MCPS Guidelines for curricular fees in high schools:

Please note the following for music students:

• A music festival is considered a field trip and students may be charged transportation and other associated fees but not in advance as a course fee.
• Students cannot be required to go to festivals.
• If a performance before an audience is needed to assess mastery, a concert should be held at the school.

What middle or high school music director wants to spend countless hours directing fundraisers for transportation to the county festivals? More class time for real instructional goals.

My kids middle school music director did not go willingly to the county festivals, now he can keep the kids home and only go to those festivals - Disney, Williamsburg, NY, etc, that he feels have greater benefit.

And - congrats to the high schools that can now tone down their fundraising efforts too. At least one high school that recently sent out a fundraising appeal because MCPS only provides $1000 of the $18,000 needed to run the program can now reassess its needs.

As many of us suspected all along, the value of these festivals was pretty negligible, after all, if participation had a true educational value, like the textbooks, MCPS would have found money in its budget to support participation by all students, not just the ones with the fatter checkbooks.