Q.: Do we care about these kids that are being excluded, or not? A.: In MCPS, we do not.

Ohio schools charge a wide variety of fees for students to take part in activities such as sports, band or other clubs, and those fees prevent some students from participating, a report issued Tuesday by State Sen. Cliff Hite, R-Findlay, concludes.
“The question we must ask ourselves is, do we care about these kids that are being excluded, or not? As a former coach and professional educator for 30 years, I believe this is egregious and something needs to be done,” Hite said in the report....

 http://thecourier.com/local-news/2016/02/10/school-activity-fees-report-released/

"fees are one of the many barriers in these children’s lives that keep them from accessing experiences to be successful" And that's the way we like it in MCPS!

This article is about an Ohio public school system. The majority of Montgomery County voters do not care about this issue.

...Low-income students already face issues such as lack of support at home and lack of job opportunities. “Life is hard, and we’ve made the mountain a lot steeper if we don’t start to knock down some of these barriers,” Husted said. “These fees are one of the many barriers in these children’s lives that keep them from accessing experiences to be successful.”...

 http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/01/21/pay-to-play-bill-not-happening-for-now.html

MCPS will no longer sponsor service trips

Every year, students trade the comforts of home to live with high school students abroad. They explore new languages, tastes and cultures as a part of MCPS sponsored exchange programs.

But starting this year, MCPS will no longer sponsor any foreign exchange trips. Schools used to be required to cover costs for any students who couldn’t afford the trips, but due to the heavy financial burden this puts on schools, MCPS cut all programs. The decision will also help MCPS cope with budget cuts because it will no longer have to pay liability insurance for the trips, principal Alan Goodwin said...

http://www.theblackandwhite.net/2015/10/20/mcps-will-no-longer-sponsor-service-trips/ 

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Note the part of the article that has been highlighted.  Who was requiring "schools" to do this? As local schools are not given a budget for this expense, how was a local school supposed to find the money to pay for these trips?  Illegal curricular fees perhaps?

MCPS Increases School Activities Fee - Only 24,000 Participating in After School Activities

Montgomery County Public Schools students will have to pay a bit more to be involved in extracurricular activities next school year.
The School Board voted unanimously on Monday to up the Extracurricular Activity Fee from $30 per year to $32.50.
The increase will generate about $30,000 for the school system.
Students who pay the annual ECA fee are entitled to participate in one or more programs during the school year. The ECA fees help to offset the costs for operating after-school programs and for the transportation costs for activity buses.
In FY 2014, more than 24,000 students paid the ECA fee and generated $706,216.00 in revenue to support the programs. Students whose family income is below $35,000 and pay the reduced ECA fee of $15 per student would not be subject to the increase, according to Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers’ proposal...

 http://www.mymcmedia.org/mcps-increases-school-activities-fee/

657 Homeless Students in Montgomery County

Thanks to The Baltimore Sun for investigating the number of homeless students in the state of Maryland and passing along the Montgomery County information to the Parents' Coalition.


In 2011, there were 657 students in Montgomery County that were classified as homeless.  


In 2005, there were 475 students in Montgomery County that were classified as homeless. 


In 2011, Montgomery County had the 6th highest number of homeless students in the state of Maryland out of 24 counties. At the top of the list was Prince George's County, then Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Wicomico County, Anne Arundel County and then Montgomery County.

Help Turn the Tide Around at Richard Montgomery HS

Financially, that is.  

More financial woes reported at yet another Montgomery County Public School.

This time its Richard Montgomery, and now its the school's acclaimed newspaper, The Tide, that is subject to a shortfall of cash.

What happened this year?  Why now, at the end of the school year?  Did the school forget to pay some other bill?

And a better question, why take it out on the kids?

Note: This message is redacted to remove the last name and phone number of the student.

RM Tide Obituary

Update: Student Debtors Removed from Internet

Yesterday, this blog reported on the listing of the names of students who owed money to MCPS on the Internet.

As of this afternoon that posting has been removed from the Internet.

Now let's see the practice of making MCPS student debtors names public end permanently.

Student Debtors Posted in Public Place - Again

Once again we see a MCPS school posting the names of students who owe fees in a public place. This time on the Internet.

Articles have been written documenting that names of student debtors are posted and the Whitman High School school news program even did a segment that included video of the lists on the wall at Whitman High School. Walter Johnson High School has posted student identification numbers on their website to identify student debtors.

And then there was this incident reported on by The Examiner.

In December 2008, Delegate Brian Feldman questioned Board of Education member Shirley Brandman about the practice of listing the names or id numbers of student debtors in a public place. Board member Brandman feigned no knowledge of this practice, even though the practice of posting lists of student debtors was occurring at the school her children attended. The video of her response is here at minute 2:12.                                       

And so it continues. Again we see a public listing of students who owe MCPS fees. See screen image at left.

The MCPS Board of Education and MCPS Superintendent have failed to establish a firm policy against the practice of posting student debtor names, and have failed to respect the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

***

The Parents' Coalition has blocked out the names of the students on this list and we aren't providing a link to this blog. We expect that the listing of these student's names will be removed from the Internet within the next 24 hours, hopefully sooner. 


Thanks to the county parent that forwarded us this information. Maybe someday the MCPS Superintendent and Board of Education will resolve to protect the privacy rights of students.


UPDATE 3/26/10: Student Debtors Removed from Internet

What does it cost to attend a MCPS high school?

There was an interesting post on this blog the other day that cited a New York newspaper article about how much parents were paying to send their children to public schools. At one school the "suggested donation" was $600.

What are families in Montgomery County paying per child in fees for our children to attend their local public high school?

Here is a snapshot of the average amount of fees paid per high school student for each of the MCPS high schools listed.

Churchill $872
Whitman $795
Bethesda-Chevy Chase $741
Seneca Valley $554
Quince Orchard $547
Wootton $544
Blake $538
Poolesville $532
Paint Branch $514
Sherwood $507
Richard Montgomery $506
Rockville $472
Northwest $451
Magruder $418
Damascus $408
Walter Johnson $408
Clarksburg $400
Blair $377
Gaithersburg $372
Springbrook $350
Wheaton $350
Watkins Mill $340
Kennedy $338
Einstein $295
Northwood $295

Please note that this was based on 2006-07 school year financial information put out by MCPS for all fees collected at each school. That means that these averages include both extra-curricular fees and curricular fees paid by students to their local school.
This does not include funds paid in to PTAs or school foundations.

Here is the document that gave rough estimates of how much each local middle school and high school collected during the 2006-07 school year in fees from students. The amounts were only shown on a graph and exact figures were not provided. The averages above are based on estimates only. Contact your local high school principal for the exact amount of fees collected for any given school year.
2006-07IAFDATAMCPSmanagementreport

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