The Montgomery County Students Coalition

Annual Legislative Platform 2012-2013

Ben Feshbach, Chair John Mannes, Executive Director and Founder

Leadership
Chair Ben Feshbach of the Montgomery County Student Advisory Council
Board of Directors -Richie Yarrow, Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations -Zoey Tang, Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association -Quinlyn Spellmayer, Montgomery County Junior Councils -Dave Kunes, Montgomery County Young Democrats -Paul Cheakalos, Montgomery County Youth Advisory Council -Alexander Addams, Rockville City Youth Commission -Hailey Klein and Alexander Song, Greater Washington Key Club -Timothy Hwang, National Youth Association -Jessica Li, Montgomery County Public Library Youth Task-Force -Justin Kim, Students For Fiscal Responsibility Non-Voting Staff -John Mannes, Executive Director -Calvin Yeh, Senior Legislative Aid -Henry Peck, Student Aid -Vyshakh Kandanath, Recording Secretary

Legislative Priorities
1. Board of Education Makeup
For the purpose of increasing the number of members of the Montgomery

County Board of Education; authorizing certain members to reside anywhere in the county; requiring that certain members be elected from each of the board of education districts only by the voters of that board of education district; providing for the terms and elections of certain members; requiring certain members of the Board to be elected in a certain general election; providing for the termination of the terms of certain members of the Board; making certain technical corrections; and generally relating to the membership of the Montgomery County Board of Education. MC 7-13, Montgomery County Delegation Sponsor - Delegate Charles Barkley The Montgomery County Students Coalition opposes this bill under the grounds that it will dilute the power of individual Board members, including the concentration of student input. Under this bill, adult concentration will increase in a year in which an expansion of SMOB voting rights will fail to be introduced. Further, it is felt that this bill will upset the status quo in a very deliberate and unnecessary way. For years the Montgomery County Board of Education has functioned at a nationally recognized high level and we see no need to change what is working. We realize that a larger Board brings about diverse perspectives, but we feel that the already established mix between At-Large and district members already provides an adequate solution to this problem.

2. Education Funding
The Montgomery County Students Coalition desires to focus its energy on establishing a better relationship between the Board of Education LEA, or Local Education Authority and its LFA, or Local Funding Authority, the Montgomery County Council. This means opening up candid dialogue that does not result in micromanagement. We have taken notice of the loss in the percentage of local funding and regardless of the cause we wish to see education funding remain a priority and MOE, or Maintenance of Effort to not be seen as a straightjacket. New Maryland state initiatives will continue to put pressure on the relations between all stakeholder groups but we feel that students should continue to be offered opportunities to increase their involvement and have their voice heard as third parties outside of the stereotypical divide between LEAs and LFAs. We believe in restrained restoration and the concept that restoring a pre-recession budget may do little to progress our top ranked educational system. We acknowledge that our core educational infrastructure has changed and do not see that restoring to an obsolete budget makes scal sense. We need to identify lingering problems within our system, put them on the table, and swing into action to try to solve them with open dialogue with the County Council.

3. Access to School Documents

MCPS will develop My-MCPS to allow students to access their saved documents from school computers at home. MCPS regulation IGT-RA prohibits students from using unauthorized e- mail, instant messaging, or chat rooms." This statement often causes issues when students are assigned a project to work on in the classroom or computer lab by an instructor and must nd a way to nish the assignment out of the classroom. It also creates a barrier between the home and school for students that we have been working to lower for many years. We must look at this, but assuming the regulation does not change, we need to work with the MCPS Chief Technology Ofcer in exploring the possibility of nding a way to create a secure portal in which students could log-in and edit educational documents typically stored on MCPS servers similar to the Board of Education's "Share Point". Share Point is the cloud based document server utilized for holding Board documents online for out of ofce access. MCPS should Work to ensure network infrastructure and security. We also seek to change the actual regulation IGTRA to allow for the use of e-mail, instant messaging, and chat rooms specically for educational purposes.

4. Pedestrian Safety
In light of recent pedestrian safety issues throughout Montgomery County, we support the creation of a workgroup under the County Council made up of both students and adults to discuss ways in which transportation measures could be implemented to increase safety. The County has made strides with its Safe Route to School program but more can be done and we cannot get anywhere without dialogue. Finally, we support countywide initiatives to increase trafc efciency and commercial access.

5. Technology Access
The Montgomery County Students Coalition supports a middle school students right to use cell phone and other electronics access during the non-instructional lunch period. We are open to a compromise the idea of local authority that would give individual school administrations power over electronics during lunch. In addition, regarding technology access, we desire technological equity among students and seek equitable integration of resources across the county. Technology is the core of the modern classroom and should be respected as such.

6. Student Rights and Responsibilities

We support a simplied, more progressive supplement to the MCPS current Student Rights and Responsibilities Guidebook. We feel that it will help students to see the positive side of student advocacy and foster continued involvement and understanding especially at lower grade levels. We support maintaining the current format and simply adding a smaller brochure or guide that can more easily be carried and learned by students.

7. Financial Literacy
A Financial Literacy bill in the Maryland State General Assembly could create a mandatory, minimum semester long course entitled Financial Literacy. Similar to the required Gym, Tech, Art, and Health credits, it would become a graduation requirement. We believe students should be nancially literate. However, under the current bill, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) would be required to draft curriculum for a nancial literacy course and each individual county would be in charge of implementing it with no nancial aid from the Maryland State Government. Although we support the addition of Financial Literacy and would advocate for the eventual implementation of such a program, the addition of nancial literacy should be the countys decision, not the states. We have already seen effective county changes beginning with the proposed Finance Park coordinated partnership with Junior Achievement.

8. Authority Relations
Currently investigating taking a stance. Our Board of Directors will meet in early February to make a determination as to the direction the Montgomery County Students Coalition will take in regards to authority relations.

9. Attendance Intervention
Currently investigating taking a stance. Our Board of Directors will meet in early February to make a determination as to the direction the Montgomery County Students Coalition will take in regards to attendance intervention.

10. Standardized Parking Fees

We support the enforcement of a standardized parking fee at all schools in the county. This issue has been around for many years, but we believe it is time someone said something about it. There should be a at rate paid by students at every school for parking regardless of location or time of the year.

11. Public Initiatives

We believe that the Board ought to seek out a more effective means to evaluate community initiatives, such as the petition to delay Montgomery County Public Schools starting times. We aim to enhance opportunities for stakeholders to be heard using 21st century innovative technological possibilities. We believe this ought to apply to all governmental organizations to better foster involvement and an increase in efciency of vetting ideas.

Contact:
Ben Feshbach Chair 2012-2013 benfeshbach@gmail.com 301-828-8558 John Mannes Executive Director and Founder John.B.Mannes@gmail.com 240-994-2655