The trailer can be viewed here:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPvVlzjjKR0)
The full length documentary can be viewed by going to:
http://www.mdpolicy.org/research/pubID.216/pub_detail.asp
or
http://bretigne.typepad.com/free_world_media_center/
As you watch, please keep the following in mind:
Employees should not lose their ability to get out of district placements for their children, but citizens should be given the same opportunities.
The current school board chooses to look only at overall (countywide) statistics and refuses to acknowledge that there are large disparities between individual schools. Students from EVERY county school need to be able to compete and attain the same achievement levels as the county average. If the board won't acknowledge that there are problems, it will never address them.
Consider this: the official position of the school system appears to be that every school in this county can be all things to all students. Parents are told that test scores are not a meaningful measure of a school and that all schools are equal. Yet school system employees requested over 600 transfers over the last 8 years, and 95% of those requests were approved. Employee requests for schools whose test scores averaged at least 5% higher than their assigned school outnumbered requests for schools with scores that were at least 5% lower than the assigned school by a margin of 2 to 1. Since the school system’s own employees favor schools with higher test scores when selecting their children’s schools, do you think it is fair that this option is not available to all citizens?
The troubles that struggling schools face are not the fault of the administrators or teachers at those schools, but rather that of the Board of Education and its policies.
A recent public information request for data on all school transfer requests since the inception of the county’s so-called “moratorium” on transfers has revealed disturbing trends toward: families with special needs children, low income families, minorities, and more. Meanwhile, 82% of requests from school system employees to send their children to schools where they did not work were approved, in direct contradiction with written policy! Should employees be granted school choice while ordinary citizens are denied reasonable requests for transfers on behalf of their children? The School Board and Administration have colluded to create this situation. Allen Dyer summed it up in his comment at the Meet the Candidates forum hosted by the Atholton High School PTSA on 10/23/08, saying that the biggest problem with the BOE is that it doesn't recognize that its function is not to be the cheerleader of the administration. I wanted to stand up and applaud him! Diane Butler voiced her concern about the Board's lack of responsiveness to parents as well as her opposition to their ridiculous districting policies at that meeting as well. Both of these reform candidates have been endorsed by the Columbia Flier/Howard County Times as well as Howard County Issues (http://howardcountyissues.org/).
You may be interested to know that long-time School Board member Sandra French stated during a televised public board meeting on June 12, 2008 that she did not want certain policy reports sent to board members by email: “That’s a public information issue; it would be better to be given orally.” She and other sitting board members apparently feel that the public doesn’t have the right to know what the board is doing on our behalf. No doubt this was the result of her indignation that the HCPSS was forced to release damning information about the school system's arbitrary and discriminatory implementation of the so-called transfer moratorium (because of a public information request).
The sitting board members have shown depraved indifference toward children's needs and parents' concerns. They also have no regard for rule of law, applying one set of standards (such as adhering to appeal deadlines) to citizens and another to the administration. Not to mention their abuse of power in districting where they choose to gerrymander the district lines to boost test scores, rather than allowing students to attend their neighborhood schools. Even if you are happy with your current school districting, don't get too comfortable because they can change that any time they want. In fact, they are notorious for doing just that. The only neighborhoods that never get redistricted seem to be those like ours, which for over 30 years have been bussed away from our closest schools into distant, lower performing schools.
You can check out a related Baltimore Examiner article at: http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/local/Larger_debate_centers_on_Howards_school_transfer_policy.html
Our school system could be eligible for additional federal funds if it were willing to participate in a voluntary public school choice program. See: http://www.ed.gov/programs/choice/index.html "This program supports efforts to establish or expand intradistrict, interdistrict, and open enrollment public school choice programs to provide parents, particularly parents whose children attend low-performing public schools, with expanded education options."
We owe it to our children (and society at large) to take the time to look critically at the conduct of the Board of Education and determine whether or not they have been serving the best interests of citizens and their children. Keep in mind when you vote that you do not have to vote for three candidates. If you vote for fewer, it is equivalent to voting more than once for the candidate(s) of your choice.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HOWARD'S TRANSFER MORATORIUM
Sadly, we can forget about any form of school choice as long as the sitting board members are in place. Our county used to have an open enrollment program, which gave parents the option to enroll their children in the public school of their choice (as long as there was space available and the parents provided their own transportation).
Eight years ago, the board put a moratorium in place, claiming that the purpose was to get a handle on school enrollments. In truth, it was a response to two things: impending No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation (they initially thought it would exempt them from having to offer choice to children in underperforming schools) and the embarrassment they suffered when a group of families in the Clemens Crossing neighborhood of Columbia enrolled their children in Lime Kiln Middle School (instead of Wilde Lake Middle). Those parents got together and hired a bus, causing great humiliation to the school board and the county.
See the June 11, 2002 article in the Baltimore Sun: "Bused Columbia pupils finish middle school; Wilde Lake parents sent children to Lime Kiln; Action spurred system change; Bused Columbia pupils finish middle school." In the words of the former board Chairwoman Jane B. Schuchardt: "I'm sorry it took those steps to get a school straightened out. I would have preferred to see Wilde Lake get worked out without having parents have to get a bus and take their kids out of there." "I'm not sure I approve of all the reasons why they ran," Schuchardt said of the parents who chose to bus. "But they've stopped running. Sometimes you've got to do something drastic to bring about the change. I don't think it's a problem anymore, and I don't think we'll see that happen again."
Well, of course they wouldn't see that happen again, THEY MADE SURE of it by putting an end to open enrollment! Why would they do this when even they admit that it was the impetus for positive change in the school system? Because they care more about their reputation than improving struggling schools, and because they cling to the status quo and don't want any pressure put on them to fix problems.
In the years since the so-called moratorium was enacted, what we have found is that it is better described as a "transfer policy for some" than a "no transfer policy." Consider the fact that the county has been double bussing students (at taxpayer expense) in an area of Western Howard county to their choice of two high schools, under the so-called "Greenbridge Exception." The BOE claims it was done to spare that community from another round of redistricting. What they DO NOT say is that this practice has been going on for five years already - longer than it takes to complete high school - and there has not been any redistricting in that time. In fact, the practice will go on for at least two more years, until the county plans to do the next round of redistricting. All the while, parents in the rest of the county are not permitted to send their children to alternate schools, even if they provide their own transportation at no cost to the taxpayer. There have been other such exceptions, such as the "David Drown exception" (affecting the Gaither Farm community). That neighborhood was redistricted once (not frequently), but the residents somehow managed to get an exception for their children. Not surprisingly, both of these areas are inhabited by wealthy families.
There are numerous examples of how HCPSS Policy #9000 has been applied unfairly. It is criminal that the Board of Education is picking and choosing when, and to whom, it will apply its moratorium.
Remember to check out the eye-opening full-length documentary: "Choice Denied: The Politics of Failure in Howard County Public Schools."
