LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

common denominator
n 1: an integer that is a common multiple of the denominators of
two or more fractions
2: an attribute that is common to all members of a category
(from here)

When politicians must cobble together a compromise, they will not necessarily come up with the best solution or even a good solution.  When politicians must add together a bunch of different factions to gain a majority, what they look for is the least disruptive solution that serves their cause. In politics, the least disruptive solution is the lowest common denominator.

That need for compromise is why people can find politics so abhorrent.   Too often, in addition to practical compromises, politics seem to require moral compromises.  If we want to do something the right way, or whatever we personally think is the right way, we do not want a political solution.  We want our own solution, but where government is involved, such is not possible.

As we have recently seen with respect to controversy of over Math Investigations,  the education of children is a particularly delicate task for political compromise.    Because parents care so much about their children, parents want their own solution, and they don’t give up easily.

What follows is a email from one of my readers.  Since I have not called Delegate Bob Marshall or Nicole Cheuk, I do not claim to have verified the accuracy of the email.  What I can verify is that charges have been made before the School Board and the story below is being spread over the Internet.  This website explains  the charges in more detail.   In addition, the person who sent me the email has sent me material on Math Investigations before, and I believe she believes what she wrote is true.

For over a year a group of concerned parents have been fighting with the Prince William County school system over the county math program.  In the course of our research we uncovered what appeared, to us, to be evidence that PWCS failed to follow state law in selecting Investigations in Number, Data, and Space for use as the primary textbook series in all county elementary schools.

Various representatives of the school system, school board, and VA DOE seemed unconcerned with what we discovered.  Employees with the VA DOE even stated that local school districts should follow their local procedures rather than state procedures, and that failure to follow state procedures was no big deal.

I asked my state Delegate, Bob Marshall, to look into the issue for me and provided him with a summary of our findings.  Delegate Marshall forwarded my summary to Nicole Cheuk, a staff attorney with the Division of Legislative Affairs.    Ms Cheuk responded as follows to Delegate Marshall’s request:

Delegate Marshall,

Based on the facts presented by your constituent, it seems clear that the Prince William County Public Schools may be in violation of 8 VAC 20-230-30 which governs local school division adoption of nonstate adopted textbooks because they allegedly did not have the criteria to be used by the evaluation committee in the review and assessment of textbooks approved by the local school board. This regulation does indeed currently apply to all school divisions and has the force of law.  Section 22.1-238 of the Code of Virginia states that any school board may use textbooks not approved by the Board provided the school board selects such books in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Board, thus PWCPS should have complied with the aforementioned regulation. Whether or not they complied with their own local school division regulation is of no importance here, as state statute and regulation trump local regulations.

However, if the Board of Education (or Virginia DOE) decides not to enforce their own regulation (through reprimand or forcing compliance), as seems to be the case per the facts presented by Ms. Simons, there is really nothing for a citizen to do other than continue to put pressure on the state agency, perhaps even writing a letter to the Secretary of Education.  There are no remedies or civil penalties listed in the relevant statute or regulation.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions.

Delegate Marshall then forwarded her response and my summary to the PWC School Board.  Below is a copy of the email Delegate Marshall sent to the PWC School Board.

The Prince William County School Board DID NOT follow state regulations with respect to choosing the 2008 version of Investigations in Number, Data and Space, a non-state adopted text book. This is the considered conclusion of Nicole S. Cheuk, Staff Attorney for the Division of Legislative Services.  Nikki draws up the education bills for General Assembly members, so I must give some weight to her assessment.

I will be sending the correspondence below to the Attorney General for comment.  I am asking for an expedited review because of the necessity for PWC Schools to have books ready for the upcoming school year.  This means the opinion may be an informal one as formal opinions normally take a longer time for completion.  I will discuss that with the Attorney General’s Office.

You may wish to suspend or delay any purchase orders for this series until further review.  But that is your decision.

Delegate Bob Marshall

I am one of the parents who has been leading the charge for instructional choice in Prince William County.  Because of my involvement in this issue, I, and other parents have been harassed, called liars, and been accused of defaming the reputations of PWCS employees.  All because we dared to tell the truth.  PWC did, it appears, violate state law in selecting Investigations for use county wide.

Whether failing to follow state law will have any impact on the math program depends largely on the public outcry associated with it.  That’s the reason I’m writing to you.  I hope that you will consider this issue as a topic for an upcoming article. I’d be more than happy to provide you with a copy of our findings should you be interested.

Either way, contrary to popular belief, the math wars in Prince William County have not ended.