Word of the Day - Incentive

Today's word of the day is brought to you from the new MCPS Curricular Fees Guideline.


Yes, Virginia, public schools are still free under the Maryland Constitution and state law, although you would never know it from reading the new MCPS pages on school fees. Tons of verbage - how is any parent /guardian going to understand? MCPS thinks that simply translating the parent letter from English into Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Korean, and Spanish will be sufficient.


Aside from the still not in compliance nature of the policy and the illusive waiver provisions, several terms seems to be left off of the MCPS page on definitions. Lets start with my favorite omission.

INCENTIVE

According to MCPS, secondary school parents can still be charged for incentives.

From the secondary schools Frequently Asked Questions:

5. Can an activity fee be charged for incentives or school activities?

Response: Yes. Each principal may determine, in collaboration with the school and parent leadership committees, if noncourse-related fees for items such as incentives and school activities will be charged to students. The principal will communicate information about such fees and their purpose to all parents.

But what is an incentive? Here is the definition from MSN Encarta Dictionary. Now, tell me, isn't it the responsibility of schools, along with the parents and the community, to motivate our students? If so, why is this now something subject to an additional constituent or user fee?

After all, if its public school and its part of the curriculum, shouldn't it be free?

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incentive
	in·cen·tive [ in séntiv ] noun (plural in·cen·tives) Definition: something that encourages somebody to action: something that encourages or motivates somebody to do something adjective Definition: encouraging or motivating: serving to encourage or motivate somebody [Early 17th century. <> incentivum "something that sets the tune" < incinere "to sound" < canere "sing"] in·cen·tive·ly adverb