Dear soon-to-be MCPS Superintendent:
Recently, when cleaning out my office, I found a 1983
article I co-wrote about test score differences between black and white
Montgomery County students. It might be one of the first published
academic articles written about the MCPS achievement gap.
Since
1983, I’ve probably written more about MCPS achievement gaps than any
other individual in the nation. I’ve penned letters to editors,
countless newspaper columns, a book chapter and endless blog pieces. And
so writing what I’m about to write is difficult and a little painful,
but it needs saying — and you need to hear it before you buy a home in
Montgomery County (maybe you should rent):
Starr just whined about the hand he’d been dealt. But he was correct that underlying the achievement gap are housing issues. The next MCPS Superintendent must proactive on the issue of fair and equitable distribution of subsidized and low-income housing in our County. He/she must push back against Montgomery County, loudly and publicly, each time the County attempts to direct more and more subsidized family housing within the boundaries of already high FARMS rate schools (sometimes substantially more, w/close to 500 units planned for the Springbrook HS area now), and when it encourages through its absence of code enforcement and other policy decisions the promulgation of what it calls “naturally occurring low-income housing.”
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