Howard County is no Baltimore City. Its public schools are some of the best in Maryland and the nation.
So the fact that one child is being forced by the county school board and the State Board of Education to attend a lower-performing Columbia elementary school than the one his parents prefer is no big deal. Right? Wrong.
The case of Timothy and Michelle Wood and their son Alex shows that a child will be sacrificed to the indecipherable goals of the system and that parents live at the mercy of the education bureaucracy.
The Woods moved to Howard County in 2006 in large part so that their children could attend the county’s high performing public schools. They were excited to live within walking distance of one of those schools – Clemens Crossing Elementary – where they hoped their son Alex would start kindergarten.
Student test scores at Clemens consistently outpace the state and county average and their academic excellence is recognized throughout the state. In 2008, students won first place in the Maryland/DC Stock Market Game; in 2007 students won first place in the Howard County Blackademics competition; and in 2006 one of its students won a prestigious Ben Carson Scholar Award. Plus, it has space available for new students.
Instead of Clemens, Howard County assigned Alex to Bryant Woods. At least three schools are closer to the family’s home than Bryant Woods, a Title I school that gets extra federal money for closing the achievement gap for low-income and minority students with their wealthier, white peers.
Bryant Woods’ test scores are significantly lower than those at Clemens; its teachers have fewer higher education degrees; fewer parents are involved in PTA; and the school starts earlier – a problem for Alex, who has a medical condition that disrupts his sleep.
The Woods applied for a transfer, but were rejected by the Howard County Board of Education, whose members said the parents’ argument that Bryant Woods was an inferior school for the reasons noted above held no merit. The Woods appealed the decision and were rejected again. Notification came too late to appeal to the State Board of Education prior to starting the school year, so Alex started at Bryant Woods.
Last week, the State Board of Education affirmed the county decision, rejecting reams of evidence that it is much harder to transfer out of lower performing schools than higher performing ones.
Through a public information act request, the Woods found that seven of 10 schools with the highest minority population in the county had below-average transfer rates, while nine of 10 schools with the lowest minority population had above-average rates.
And while the Howard County school board had called a moratorium on transfers, it left open an exception for medical conditions and also allowed students in one of the wealthiest districts to choose between two high schools.
Alex Wood may be white, but the evidence points to the fact that Howard offers students in poorer, minority schools fewer educational options. Only multiple years of failing federal progress guidelines would give parents in underperforming schools the option to move their child to a higher quality one.
While the Howard County school board may strive to “ensure that each school provides a rich and diverse learning environment in which every student can receive a quality education regardless of socio-economic status,” it certainly makes it harder for those on the bottom rung of that economic ladder to get the best education.
But that doesn’t really matter to the education bureaucrats, because “The State Board has long held that there is no right to attend a particular school or a particular class.”
In an overcrowded situation that pronouncement might be understandable. But how does it make sense when space exists at a parent’s desired school? As Michelle Wood said in a documentary last year for the Maryland Public Policy Institute, “If you live in a particular county and there is a school you want your child to attend that has space and there are not more people requesting that assignment than there are spaces … you should be entitled to take your child there.”
Parents also deserve to know what rights they hold in a school system that so arbitrarily decides what is best for their children.
Those wealthy enough to afford a private school don’t have to worry about a parents’ Bill of Rights. For everyone else, it is the only way to fight a system rigged to meet questionable system goals at the expense of the children in it.
Examiner columnist Marta H. Mossburg is a senior fellow at The Maryland Public Policy Institute.
