The "More" Child

People spilled out the doors at Wednesday night’s MCPS Board of Education budget hearing.  (Click here for a MCPS landing page on the 2011 budget process. You can see the agenda here.)

I got there just as things were getting underway and managed to sidle into a spot along the back wall.  The room was packed with advocates.  The pro-magnet/against transportation cuts folks were down in front wearing yellow to symbolize school buses.  MCPS Media Specialists were out in force, sporting neon buttons and waiving 7 Keys to College Readiness signs.  (Not sure about that…the point being that one of the keys to being college ready is having access to a library?) MCPS suits principals were also out in force.  (I spied Miss Umbridge.)

Speaker after speaker came to the podium, thanking the Board for listening, etc. etc.  They have such tough decisions to make, etc. etc.  It wasn’t until we were 12 speakers in that we finally heard some real meat.  The representative to the Northwest Cluster suggested cuts to the MCPS PR Department, Central office staff and MCPS warehouse operations as a way to begin to meet the budget shortfall.  Then came the consortium magnet middle schools (these are whole school, by lottery magnets).  Unfortunately the testimony has not been posted to the MCPS website and I didn’t see paper copies floating around, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.)  The students were particularly effective in describing how the programs have benefited them.  Others noted how the consortium has raised student achievement among FARMs, minority students…and that this would all be threatened by cuts transportation and magnet staffing positions.

The evening wound up with wrenching testimony from a completely under the radar target of Superintendent Weast’s proposed budget cuts:  Montgomery Primary Achievement Center or MPAC.  Here’s the issue in a nutshell, as blogged by Special Needs Truth ’08. (There are follow up posts here, here and here.)

After a 35-year partnership with the public school system, the Arc of Montgomery County, which oversees the Montgomery Primary Achievement Center (MPAC) found out about the plan to move preschoolers only through a small line item in the county’s operating budget.

The change, while characterized as a “realignment” by Superintendent Jerry Weast, is actually a radical change in the way the county provides specialized instruction to preschoolers who need intervention. For three decades, the county has referred students to MPAC, which serves children ages 2 to 4 with developmental delays, autism, and intellectual disabilities. While Dr. Weast and the Board of Education acknowledge that MPAC has provided these services effectively, with measurable outcomes, he seems to have decided to sneak in this major change with no collaboration with MPAC, the Arc, or the parents of students who will be affected. Ellen Widoff, director of children’s services for the Arc, said the school system is “trying to do this under the radar by not replicating our program in any way. At a time when there’s no cost benefit at all, they’re cutting a very appropriate program for high-risk kids.”

Yes, that’s the way.  Cut an effective program for handicapped preschoolers while MPCS central office types attend far flung conferences and convene book groups.  Possibly the highlight of the evening was testimony by special education advocate Lyda Astrove in which she donned a Snuggie–yes, a Snuggie–to demonstrate the absurdity of one-size-fits all education.

GT advocates would be wise to pay close attention to the special ed community in the county, as they have long warned that gifted education was in for the same treatment:  a homogenizing drive to the middle, the closure of programs with assurances that everyone’s needs could be met in a differentiated classroom.

I think GT advocates need to step up their game and break out the video cameras.   There’s another public budget hearing on Wednesday.

UPDATE: Oh the hypocrisy.  Late next week the good Dr. Weast is headed to Kentucky to give a keynote address on the topic Leading for Equity Begins with Preschool.

“Learn about his ambitious comprehensive reform effort designed to raise academic standards and narrow the achievement gap — an effort that includes an investment in preschool education for both public and private providers. Hear how this effort has paid great dividends as the district’s most disadvantaged young children have demonstrated text-level reading skills comparable to those of their peers in wealthy suburbs and how your school board can play a critical role in quality preschool education in your district. (Hat tip to the Parents’ Coalition.)