Remember how Superintendent Weast’s proposed FY 2011 budget cuts included cuts to transportation?
The original proposal listed:
Item H: Transportation for optional regular education programs -
Eliminate transportation to optional regular education programs outside normal attendance zones, including magnet, immersion, IB, high school consortia, and other special programs. Fees are not permitted for these services. This reduction would not impact special education transportation.
FTE – 65 $4,900,000
Well it appears that on Wednesday evening, at the last minute (6:54 pm? 9:54 pm? The details are hazy), word went out that “MCPS has taken the proposed budget cut for the DCC and Northeast Consortium transportation off of the table for this year.”
The MCCPTA’s cluster rep’s message continued:
My understanding is that the proposed transportation cuts for “other special programs” would include the Highly Gifted Centers (ours is located at Pine Crest ES and Oak View ES), the language immersion programs, the middle school magnet programs and the high school magnet/special programs. Transportation for students in the Middle School Magnet Consortium (MSMC), which is Parkland, Loiederman, and Argyle is only provided for students living in the base areas. Students from outside those three middle school areas must provide their own transportation starting with the 2010-2011 school year.
No doubt, someone realized that eliminating transportation for the popular consortium choice programs would have caused all kinds of parental freak out–and effectively kill the consortia. Which may still happen down the road because they were not found to be particularly effective.
Which leaves those (sniff) expendable “boutique programs.” Well, at least we now have some clarity: Proponents of gifted education stand alone.
Question: If the idea was to “save” $4.9 million, and you take out the transportation costs for the consortia, how much is really being “saved” now? Well, there may be a way to check. Please refer to the MPCS Consortia Report 2009-4, prepared at the behest of County Council member Valerie Ervin (press release 11.28.08). Starting on page 28, the report breaks out the cost of consortium transportation, and for FY ’09 it was determined that $856,397 in transportation costs could be saved by eliminating the high school consortia. Even adjusting to FY 2011 dollars, that seems low to me. I would love to see detailed numbers on the remaining programs slated for transportation cuts.
This is a test of the solidarity of the parents/students involved. The way it came out after the meeting is a sign of that. Once you kill or vitiate a program, the parents disperse and it is much harder to get them together for a protest.
I wish that there were stronger identities for the individual schools in the DCC. Basically, every one seems to have every program on a small scale. What, for example, is the difference between Entrepreneurship & Business Management (Blair) and Finance, Business Management, and Marketing (Einstein)? Or Musical Theater (Northwood) and Visual and Performing Arts (Einstein)? Or Bioscience and Health Professions (Wheaton) and Tri-M: Medical Careers, Sports Medicine, and Sports Management (Kennedy)? Or Institute for Global and Cultural Studies (Wheaton) and International Studies (Blair)? No wonder everyone picks based on where their friends are going!
[...] me if I am slackjawed. Consortia programs absolutely are optional. As a commenter posted a few days ago, what really is the difference between Entrepreneurship & Business Management (Blair) and [...]
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