The Washington Post: A charter applicant to Montgomery: If not now, when?
By Heidi Mordhorst and Janet Sluzenski
Sunday, June 20, 2010
The decision this month by the Montgomery County Board of Education upholding Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast's recommendation to reject our public charter school application was an unwelcome déjà vu.
Nine years ago, a Post news story headlined "Weast Advises Board to Reject Charter School" [Sept. 7, 2001] reported that Weast called for the rejection of the Jaime Escalante Public Charter School "because the proposed program is not unique."
...Indeed, Weast stated during the board's discussion that already, "choice is . . . in abundant supply in Montgomery County" because of the 150 private schools here -- but private schools are not a viable choice for many families, and MCPS's 200 choice programs are oversubscribed and often are not universally available...
...We were disappointed to realize that MCPS would not take the entire 120 days to complete the review. Nor did the process adhere to the structure described in the school system's own regulation. Apart from a 30-minute question-and-answer session with the review panel, we were not offered any feedback during the application process...
Two comments:
ReplyDeleteFirst, it is not Weast, a public employee, who rejected these charter schools. It is the elected Board of Education, led by BOE president Shirley Brandman. It is not MCPS that did not follow the structured process. It is the elected members of the BOE. They are solely responsible for this decision and every decision that is made about the public school system in Montgomery County. The BOE directs our public employees. Weast is merely a public employee who follows the direction of the elected BOE.
Second, one wonders if Pearson, which has developed curricula in math, science, social studies, and the like, will be applyling any time soon for permission from the BOE to open a charter school, and in that case, will the BOE approve it?
AMF 10 writes:
ReplyDeleteJust read Heidi Mordhorst and Janet Sluzenski’s letter to the Editor of the Washington Post regarding MCPS’s recent outright rejection of their public charter school application as well as the Post's June 9 article regarding the rejection. Not only did MCPS fail to follow its own mission statement regarding public charter schools but it also failed to follow its own procedural guidelines/policy in reviewing this application.
What is even more appalling is MCPS’s unwillingness to work with Global Gardens (globalgardenpcs.org), the non-profit which submitted the charter school application, even though 2 of their founding members/board members are MCPS employees. Janet Sluzenski is the board president as well as a MCPS school counselor and Heidi Mordhorst is the board vice president as well as a MCPS reading initiative teacher.
What is beyond appalling is that MCPS’s rejection and total lack of outreach and cooperation with local community activists trying to get a public charter school up and running is being played out with the backdrop of the Pearson deal, a for-profit that is getting unprecedented access to MCPS curriculum, expertise and resources, all paid for by Montgomery County taxpayers.
Branding, schmanding … don’t we the taxpayers of Montgomery County have a Governor (O’Malley?) or an Attorney General (Gansler?) or a State Superintendent of Schools (Grasmick?) who can intervene and put an end to the MoCo Loco?