Fairfax County, Virginia public schools tell parents not to hire tutors because it is unfair to kids whose parents can’t afford them

If you had any doubt that hard-left ideologues run government school systems in many (most?) places, take a look at Fairfax County, Virginia's most populous county, with over a million residents, one of the richest counties in the United States with an average household income well over one hundred thousand dollars.

The educrats who run the Fairfax public schools have advised parents there not to hire tutors or organize informal homeschool "pods" to replace the shuttered schools because some parents cannot afford to do so, and that would be "unfair."

Fairfax County (map credit: Home By School).

I am not making this up. Here is a link to a memo sent to parents on August 7, with some key excerpts below:

Across the country, many parents are joining together to engage private tutors (who are often school teachers) to provide tutoring or home instruction for small groups of children. While there is no systematic way to track these private efforts, it's clear that a number of "pandemic pods" or tutoring pods are being established in Fairfax County.

We are aware of these tutoring pods, as well as some accompanying community concerns. To be clear, these instructional efforts are not supported by or in any way controlled by FCPS…. (snip)

While FCPS doesn't and can't control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students. Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families can't provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for the service.

We have received some requests from parents who would like to cluster groups or pods of students together with a specific teacher.

So fire the Public School teachers and administrators so that there is equal ignorance. I get it, having 2 kids at grade level and 15 or 16 below is problematic. There is some logic and sound pedagogy to this at the extreme end. Teachers want kids to all be at about the same level. It makes lesson planning easier. But, that’s the job.

Public schools, including the “good” ones are child abuse in the US because they have the wrong educational philosophy.

That said, as a former administrator in a private school in Hong Kong I used to hate it when a parent would come to me near the end of a school year and ask to check out next year’s math and science text for their child. They’d drill and kill little Wolfgang until he had all the answers memorized so that when he returned to class he was bored and disruptive. The difference was that these were kids who already made A’s. The parent wasn’t satisfied with a 95, they wanted 115.

What I did was create a reading list that was matched to grade level in reading and subjects in math and science. These were books like “Flatland,” or, “The Physics of Soccer.” There were three books for each subject and grade level. I wanted the child to read the book and then make a report at the beginning of the next school year. The report had to include 10 vocabulary words relevant to the subject they’d learned in the book, and an essay on how the subject related to the real world. This report was basically a pass/fail assignment. If the student did it they received 5 points on their year end grade. 5 Points won’t turn an F into a C but will often turn an F into a D-. The Tiger parents wouldn’t have it and got the school board to nix the program.

What I know is if I still had children in school:

There would be financial home budget cuts to accommodate a tutor or nanny. A daily nanny could help oversee children are on the virtual system for school. A tutor 2 days a week to help with course work and difficult subjects.

Tutoring pods or groups would definitely be explored as options or working with other local parents in areas of expertise to tutor once a week a group on a basic subject. Reading, writing, math, and American history.

My concern for other kids/parents that fail to organize and participate isn’t my problem.

This situation may be our last best hope to wrestle our future generation away from the socialist/marxist indoctrinations and have them excel to be their best selves.

As conservatives we have an educational crisis in front of us. LET’S STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THE TEACHERS AND START TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE CRISIS. Our children need us to excel right now regarding their education.

Are they going to have people come around and bust the parents and tutors? How do they plan to stop parents who want to hire one?

What they're really afraid of is that minorities MIGHT find a way to hire tutors, or get their kids educated online outside the control of the left, and then maybe they won't be quite so dependent on the left.

The Democrats' view of minorities hasn't changed one iota since the day the party was founded. they still view minorities as property -- THEIR property.

Sorry, Democrat Socialist Teachers of America, but we are a nation where you have chosen to give up the right to educate our children. Furthermore you can teach or get out of the way.

Public education is exactly that, e.g., public education. Private education is an effort and an expense borne by individuals.

Cancel Culture dictates that you canceled your voices when you tried to kill public education.

This from Uno Hu, who posted a comment to this piece from AT on the comments section at AT, deserves recognition here.

Dear School Board Member:

Thank you for your communication regarding the iniquity and inequity of (and, I suppose, systemic and personal racism evidenced by) my arranging for my children to have private instruction while the monopolist government school system is closed down. My first reaction to your communication was somewhat negative (i.e., not giving a small, brown, furry, rat’s but [sic]) about your opinion).

On overnight consideration, I have decided this would be an intemperate response, one that somewhat overstated my lack of concern about your opinion. After all, a small, brown, furry, rat’s but [sic] is quite small, rats themselves being among God’s smaller creatures, and acceding to such a small concession about your concerns I believe is a just indicator that I read and processed your concern; therefore I will concede that I do “give” a small, brown, furry, rat’s but [sic] about the opinion emanating from a small (brown?) (furry? hairless?) social justice warrior-rat such as yourself.

So I am going to proceed with arranging private education for my children while your government monopoly provider is shut down. Depending on the cost, I may continue that practice even after your institutions reöpen, as I will have less concern about what a teacher who owes their paycheck directly to me will try to teach my children behind my back.

Now, other than trying to raise my taxes to the point that I cannot afford private education, just what are you going to do about my efforts to undermine your notions of equality and social justice, Ratatouille?

Sincerely,

An un-reconstructed parent

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