A Montgomery County deputy superintendent told parents that its plan to turn poor-performing schools into magnet schools was drafted specifically to draw affluent, white students.
“The purpose of the grant is to attract white students, or higher socioeconomic students, into schools with high minority enrollment,” Eric Lang, associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said at a meeting of the public school system’s Special Education Advisory Committee.
The $3.3 million Magnet Schools Assistance Program federal grant would transform three high schools: Gaithersburg’s Watkins Mill would become the International Baccalaureate School of Engineering, Digital Design, and Performing Arts at Watkins Mill; and Wheaton High would absorb neighbor Thomas Edison, a vocational school where nearly one-third of students have special needs, to become Montgomery County High Tech High School.
The U.S. Department of Education awards the grants every three years to “assist in the desegregation of public schools,” according to its Web site. School officials say the results will be announced by Sept. 30.
About 80 percent of students at Wheaton, 70 percent at Watkins Mill and 67 percent at Thomas Edison are black or Hispanic. At Wheaton, one in 10 students is white, and 57 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
The problem, parents say, is that the county’s desire to bring rich white students into poor-performing schools comes at the cost of the students who already attend the schools.
Laura Swerdlin, co-chairwoman of the Special Education Advisory Committee, said Edison’s graphic design program “saved” her daughter, who attends college. “Why don’t we go back to busing?” Swerdlin sarcastically suggested.
Lang said that only programs with low enrollments at Edison would be cut — sparing graphic design — but he agreed that counselors often do not advertise Edison as an option to parents.
Joan Sabacca, another co-chairwoman, responded, “Why would you want to change the whole thing when you know the reason [for underenrollment] is that no one is told their kids can go there?
“I know why: Wheaton is failing and you need to shore Wheaton up, and this has nothing to do with Edison,” Sabacca said.
Parents were angry that they did not learn of the application until June; local businesses such as German engineering corporation Siemens and Adventure Theatre provided letters of support for the application in April.
Lang apologized to parents for excluding them from the grant application. “We were rushing to get things done,” he said, “and when you’re rushing, things always fall through the cracks.”
