The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Budget Task Force is recommending eliminating AAP Center Schools.  

Technically, they recommend eliminating bus service to all AAP Center schools (gifted and talented magnet schools) at both the elementary and middle school level (grades 3-8) and instead replacing them with “Local Level IV” services (LLIV). What this means in plain English is that students will no longer have a choice to go to a gifted magnet or center school, but rather, will be forced to stay in their local or "base" school, unless they can secure their own transportation.  And it is only a matter of time, once there is no transportation, to close the doors on all AAP Center Schools.  

FCPS says that they will instead create gifted programs in every local school, so they claim no one will be adversely affected. But AAP Center Schools and Local Level IV base programs are NOT equal.  FCPS may also use positive spin terminology like “creating a Center in every school” – which sounds good in theory – but in reality means simply that everyone has to stay at their local school, so there is no longer a choice to go to a “true” Center school - one that brings in AAP kids from multiple schools.  The local schools will not have the same resources nor the same size peer group.  This may end up being a form of discrimination, as students in the poorest schools are likely to be most severely impacted.

 AAP Centers and LLIV (base) schools are not all equal.  Here’s why:

 ·      Resources.  Do we really believe the gifted programs at the poorest schools, in the poorest neighborhoods, will be as good as the gifted programs in the wealthy schools, in the wealthy neighborhoods?  Some schools have wealthier families, with wealthier PTAs donating more resources. Some schools have more stay at home parents, with more time to volunteer at the school.  As a result, some schools have many, many more opportunities for enrichment and clubs, like chess club, debate, model UN, robotics, science fairs, math Olympiads, etc., etc.  These are activities that AAP kids need to thrive.  If FCPS truly believes all Lev el IV Schools in the County are equal, then why not continue to offer the choice and see how many students voluntarily elect to stay at their local school, versus how many opt to take the bus to the AAP Center school, with more resources?  If the two are truly equal, then FCPS would not be saving any money with this proposal, because everyone would choose to stay in their local school anyway.  

·      Peer Groups / "Critical Mass".  Peer group or “critical mass” of like-minded students is important.  Even if you assume two different schools, one Local Level IV and one AAP Center school, can be equal in terms of quality, the number of AAP qualified kids in the school also matters.  Imagine a situation where the LLIV program has only 3 or 4 AAP qualified kids, but the AAP Center, which brings AAP kids from multiple schools, might have two or three CLASSROOMS full of AAP students.  Anyone with an AAP kid knows that they might feel like a “nerd” or outcast when they are in the minority.  But at the AAP Center school, where most kids are like them, they “fit in” and thrive. This is important not only socially and psychologically (for self confidence), but also academically.  When they don’t fit in, they will stop “acting smart” and will start trying to fit in by not standing out academically.  In a Center school the peer group pushes each other academically, so they all strive to achieve more.  Studies show peer groups matter.  Students in Local Level IV schools with small "cohorts" will be disadvantaged.

        This proposal is discrimination, plain and simple.  The poor and the minorities will be disproportionately disadvantaged by this change for two reasons – first, because the poorest schools with the most minorities will be disproportionately affected, and second because the wealthiest families will be most able to secure transportation to keep their options open.

Sign on to this petition if you want to tell FGCPS (the Superintendent, the Board of Supervisors and the School Board) that AAP Centers and Local Level IV AAP Programs are NOT equal, and that AAP Centers should be preserved, along with the right to take a bus to the AAP Center near you.