We Get Letters

A reader writes in:

After discovering your website, I would love to read your take on the FCPS Budget proposing reducing and then eliminating Focus School programs, K-2 Initiatives, etc.

Schools deeply affected?: Forest Edge Elementary, Lake Anne Elementary, Dogwood - all Title I school, well hell, all of the schools are being affected by this craziness.

Imagine that. Or, for that matter, this. Dollar for dollar, early childhood programs are among the best money spent in public schools, and one of the best indicators of future success. At least full-day kindergarten is continuing to be rolled out, but if these kinds of programs were available everywhere, then six or seven or eleven years down the road, people wouldn't be able to brandish dog-eared copies of the latest "dismal" test scores from Westfield High School, or maybe Oakton or Madison -- or whatever school might be considered the new "troubled" high school feared by parents and Realtors alike at that point.

Imagine the scene. Tempers would flare. Emotions would be high on all sides. Parents from the now-desirable South Lakes district, where property values have skyrocketed because of the awesome new Metro stations and the school's universally acclaimed IB programs, will protest redistricting like hell, saying it's all about the band programs, or the football team, or maybe even come up with some tenuous, half-baked Margaret Mead comments about Bratz dolls. They might start their own friendly website talking about how much they support the schools while quietly threatening to sue them in the same breath. If they get really desperate, they might even start questioning 10-year-old student census numbers and suggest that school officials don't know how to count.

Nah, that's crazy. That would never happen.