I am an Arlington Resident and parent of a three year-old, and my husband and I pay a fortune for child care.
You should be aware that the Arlington Public School System provides free child care (infant through age 4) to APS employees via The Children's School, which is described by APS as follows:
"Arlington Public Schools provides, for a minimal fee, space, utilities, and custodial services to The Children's School, a day care facility for the children of school system employees. The Children's School is an employee-owned and run cooperative. It is located at Reed School, 1644 N. McKinley Road, across the road from the Westover Shopping Center".
If anything in Arlington Government should be audited it should be The Children's School. The 'minimal fee' the cooperative pays to APS is reportedly $30 per year. The board of directors of this cooperative is controlled by the Arlington Democratic Party. Several million dollars are given to The Children's School yearly, directly and indirectly, with no accountability whatsoever for how tax dollars are spent.
What's worse, admission of the children of non-residents to this and other facilities and programs of the Arlington School System is out-of-control. All non-residents have to present as proof-of-residence are old mortgage papers for the condo they are currently renting to others. And APS looks the other way when it comes to allowing non-resident employees to enroll their kids in Arlington's schools, when it isn't giving out residency exemptions to favorite non-resident employees.
This costs more than $21,000 per non-resident student per year (total school budget divided by total students).
There is no way I am going to vote for any incumbent School Board member. No way. Replace them all.
Rebecca
37 comments:
Rebecca, go the the APS Web site and take a look at the laundry list of the other benefits APS employees receive.
Regarding APS and employee benefits, APS employee and Fortune 500 executives are alike except APS doesn't own corporate aircraft.
How do I find the names of the board of the Democratic Party controlled cooperative that owns The Children's School?
FYI - even Chris Zimmerman was furious when the School Board demanded a supplemental tax increase when the County Board and School Board held a work session last month.
At least 300 non-resident students attend Arlington schools because their parents use the mortgage papers or phoney lease (to an apartment where their relatives live) scam to keep their kids enrolled in Arlington schools after they move out of the County.
How did we get to the point where the election for a non-partisan office became a Democratic Party event where approximately 1% of Arlington's voters will vote?
FYI - After the School Board demanded more money, Chris Zimmerman and Barbara Donnellan left the room and debated whether to say no, but decided to give in.
The tax revenue lost from waste, mismanagement, and fraud, in Arlington County Government could run two small counties downstate. The tax revenue lost from waste, mismanagement, and fraud at APS could run the school systems in four small counties downstate.
Last night the Greens were told by Zimmerman that they would be arrested if they continued collecting signatures for their housing authority ballot initiative outside the Democratic School Board caucus.
Told you the entire County Government is just another big corrupt regime.
Should be an Inspector General for the School System as well as one for County Government.
No wonder Barbara Donnellan is playing 3 Card Monte with the revenue and bond accounts. County is living hand-to-mouth.
APS Superintendent Patrick Murphy has repeatedly exercised his self-proclaimed perogative for awarding 'athletic scholarships' to non-resident students of 'exceptional athletic ability' to attend Arlington's schools.
So, you are saying that there is, essentially, no control over how many and how often non-resident students are admitted to Arlington Public Schools?
Well, $hit, how much is THAT costing us?
Something like $25 million every year.
Time to kick Pat Murphy's a$$ over the goalpost on his way out of APS.
We would never allow our Board of Supervisors to behave as yours does.
Vote early and often in today's Dem School Board Caucus...it's the Arlington Way.
Surrogate voters...what are they?
Is it even legal to give tax dollars or services funded by tax dollars to employees' non-profit ventures? How can I get some educational funding for our Harley owner's vintage motorcycle restoration club?
Can paretns of teenage APS students form a cooperative to obtain funds from APS for a 2014 student-parent tour of Europe, if parents volunteer to chaperone?
How many other programs and activities owned and operated by and for parents are being funded by APS?
Some example set for our school children when an election is determined by how many surrogate votes a candidate receives.
Did someone mention Three Card Monte? If you dumb enough run as a candidate in a party caucus you deserve to be defeated by surrogate votes.
If they are corrupt enough to allow allow hundreds of non-resident parents to illegally enroll their kids in Arlington schools, they are corrupt enough to steal elections.
How many non-resident parents who the Regime allows to enroll their kids in the school system voted in the caucus? They have "valid" addresses in Arlington County, right?
Zimmercrats told all the non-residents who have kids in the school system, and who use some Arlington address to enroll the kids, to go vote in the caucus.
Put even more simply: If you are dumb enough to be a non-incumbent in an ACDC caucus you deserve to be defeated.
ACDC leadership had to know that many of the YDs who voted don't live with Mom and Dad in Arlington anymore.
Total non-resident families who enroll their kids illegally are more like 500. Why do I not wonder why the homeless population is increasing and we a headed for more dogs than humans and more bicycles than motor vehicles in a tiny county that's losing open space?
Agree, the people who make these decisions are also non-residents and if they are residents they have their escape plans already in place.
Wonderful. Non-residents not only make the decisions they get to vote.
I would not be surprised if there are more party caucuses because ACDC won't have to worry about state election laws and matters like legal residency.
We're also headed for an Aquatic Center and a Live Theater in every neighborhood, thanks to the non-resident voters who do Arlington's 'planning'.
Local media support the status quo, no matter what the consequences.
I am a parent and we pay tuition to the co-op. I don't know where the money goes from there.
What is the monthly fee paid by teachers for the childrens school?
There are many false statements in this article. The author is grossly misinformed.
"free child care" - Completely false. Parents will pay $1250 per child per month next school year. This is comparable to child care in Falls Church or Fairfax County. It is a slight discount compared to other day cares in Arlington.
"The board of directors of this cooperative is controlled by the Arlington Democratic Party." - Zero truth to this statement. The co-op board of the Children's School is comprised of parents of current children at The Children's School.
"Several million dollars are given to The Children's School yearly, directly and indirectly, with no accountability whatsoever for how tax dollars are spent" - The Children's School is an independent non-profit organization renting space from APS. I'm pretty sure their tax forms for a non-profit organization is plenty of accountability.
"What's worse, admission of the children of non-residents..." - You're confused. Admission to the Children's School is open to the children of any APS employee or Arlington resident. Priority is given to APS employees as the school is an employee benefit that APS uses to reduce turnover, teacher absenteeism, as well as a recruiting tool. You're confusing APS allowing non-resident K-12 students to attend their schools which is not connected in any way to the Children's School.
This type of facility is used by many other school systems throughout the country as it is shown to effectively reduce teacher turnover and absenteeism. You are correct, that some of the children of the APS employees are "non-residents," but only because most teachers cannot afford to live in Arlington County. This benefit is one that APS offers in hopes to keep some of its best teachers in the system.
Next time, please do some research for publishing an angry rant. At least have the facts.
Tired of these special interests connected to ACDC. Let them open their books and show us.
And how about the 500 K-12 students attending Arlington schools when both parents aren't Arlington residents?
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