TESTIMONY
OF THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCIL OF PTAs
Presented at the Public
Hearing on FY 2007 Operating Budget Priorities
Before the County Council by
Cindy Kerr, President
September 13, 2005
Good Evening Mr. Perez
and members of the County Council. I am Cindy Kerr,
President of the
the 54,000 members of MCCPTA,
I thank you for the opportunity to share our
budget priorities. MCCPTA
strives to give voice to the needs of all children
attending Montgomery County
Public Schools. Without question, our highest budget
priority is
education. We applaud the Council’s efforts over the past
years to fund education
generously. Tonight we are here to focus on what more
is needed.
I have attached for your
review, a copy of MCCPTA’s 2004 Advocacy Priorities
as well as our FY 2006
Operating Budget Compact. These documents outline in
great detail the budget
priorities determined by our delegates last year. In
the time allotted, allow me to
highlight but a few:
·
Dollars should follow student need. We must identify all
students
who are not reading by grade
three; who are not passing algebra by grade
nine; who are not reaching
their educational potential and —no matter where they
live—provide them with
targeted resources and support.
·
Extensive research has documented what we all understand
intuitively, that student
success depends upon parent involvement. We must direct our
dollars to reach those parents
for whom barriers of language, culture;
access; and illiteracy stand
in the way of full participation in their child’s
education. Your own
legislative Oversight Committee’s report points the
direction dollars should
flow. Investing in bi-lingual parent community
coordinators is imperative.
·
Last year MCCPTA delegates passed a resolution decrying the
tremendous gap in achievement
between African American and Hispanic students and
their white peers within
special education. Data produced by the State of
Maryland in response to No
Child Left Behind reveals that fewer than 1 in 10
African American and Hispanic
students with disabilities passed all the High School
Assessments in 2003-04
whereas white students with disabilities performed
significantly better on the
same High School Assessments despite the fact that
each student, regardless of
race, has an individualized education plan.
Allocation of resources to
meaningfully address this unacceptable gap is one of
our budget priorities.
·
As we increase expectations and rigor in our middle and high
schools we will also need
to ensure a certified teacher in every classroom. As we
encourage and support
all students to reach and to begin taking high school
courses in middle school
such as algebra in 8th grade; we must be ready to pay
for teachers certified
in these subjects. Similarly, as we support more
students in Advanced
Placement courses, we must pay for the training and resources
to support our teachers.
At MCCPTA, we have reports that our AP courses are
"busting at the
seams" while this is wonderful - we cannot expect teachers to
meet the needs of all
AP students – some of whom may not have had an
adequately rigorous
foundation-- without ensuring that the academic supports and
resources will be forthcoming
to ensure every student’s success.
·
MCCPTA has and continues to prioritize the need for safe, clean,
healthy and modern school
buildings for our children. The FY2006 budget
recognized the critical need
for infrastructure maintenance – maintenance of our
schools is imperative to the
health and safety of children as we await the
implementation of a painfully
slow modernization schedule. We urge you to make
it a budget priority to
eliminate mold from our schools; to provide every
child with a clean
functioning bathroom in their school house and a building that
supports learning.
·
We also urge funding to provide enough permanent classrooms and
plan realistically for the
future classrooms needed to accommodate the students
presently enrolled in our
schools. Before approving new homes and
increasing our student body,
let's make sure we have the infrastructure to provide
incoming students all of the
resources that they need to be successful including
bricks and mortar, adequate
teachers and appropriate educational supports.
·
MCCPTA has long been an advocate for greater accountability in all
aspects of MCPS
operations—including oversight of the programs that we run
through short term
grants. We support efforts to identify and promote
successful programs as well as
efforts to identify and eliminate programs which are
not producing the desired
results. There is an administrative cost to
providing this oversight, but
it can have a great long term payback both financially
and for our
children.
·
Finally, MCCPTA adds its voice to the chorus of concern regarding
the cancer of gang violence
that threatens the well being of our school
children. As Latino
Youth voices spoke out before in the last weeks, they called
for an increase in after
school programs and in the number of bilingual
counselors as a lifeline to
safety and an alternative to the lure of gangs. MCCPTA
embraces these as urgent
budget priorities as well. The high rate of
academic ineligibility
among student populations most vulnerable to gang recruitment
also requires our
immediate attention—we must re-examine the policies which
bar the most vulnerable
from meaningful participation in extracurricular
activities with access
to role models and mentors and we must fund the programs
that can link the
students to positive alternatives.
Thank you for beginning
this crucial dialogue. MCCPTA, as always, stands
ready to work side by side
with the Council to serve the best interests of all
our students.