MCPS is a member of the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC). Clients must pay membership fees to join the APQC program.
APQC uses MCPS, former Superintendent Jerry Weast, and a MCPS administrator in their advertisements. MCPS Policy has a policy about no product endorsements, but it is ignored. APQC uses MCPS and former Superintendent Jerry Weast to endorse their products, including in the letter to the Shelby County Schools shown below.
How much has MCPS paid APQC annually for the last 10 years?
Don't look to anything in the MCPS Board of Education minutes to answer this question. But, thanks to the Shelby County Schools in Tennessee, we now have a hint of what the APQC products cost!
Some APQC products are $4,000 a day, some are $40,000 for six months.
Thanks to Shelby County Schools for giving us a hint of what Montgomery County taxpayers are paying for this vendor's product!
2012 North Star Proposal Membership Cost
We appreciate your passion for education and what’s best for Montgomery County Public Schools.
ReplyDeleteSince APQC was the subject of your post we thought we would provide clarification. APQC is a non-profit education and research institution focused on finding and sharing best practices. www.apqc.org
North Star is a consortium of school districts, supported by APQC, to enable districts to share best practices around process improvement in K-12 education.
MCPS is also a member of APQC, along with 300+ leading organizations from around the world. APQC members and all their staff have access to APQC’s research and database of best practices.
The fee for MCPS’s annual membership is $6,000.
Fred Bentsen
Senior Vice President, APQC Education
Mr. Bentsen,
DeleteThank you so much for your reply. You have already provided MCPS parents more transparency than we receive from MCPS.
However, the question is: how much has MCPS paid APQC annually for the last 10 years? The annual dues fee is just one component of the fees charged by APQC. What other fees has MCPS paid for other APQC conventions, services etc...?
MCPS parents are not aware of what "best practices" are being shared within APQC. MCPS parents are not familiar with APQC as the organization is not discussed by the Board of Education. Maybe you can provide MCPS parents with an overview of what they are getting for their $6,000 a year membership in your organization?
Montgomery County students need teachers in the classrooms. If $6,000 (or more) is going out of the annual budget we need to know why and if the expenditure is worth it to our students.
Thank you for educating Montgomery County parents about your organization.