Just when I was thinking how great it was that Incline Elementary cut back on the paper waste coming home, my children bring home a four-page flyer titled:  “Why Support Education in Incline Village?”  The flyer is promoting the “Food for Thought” fundraiser and IBIV.

The flyer begins with “American Education Experts Support IB” quotes.  All are quotes that were repeatedly posted online at tahoebonanza.com by Incline Village Taxpayer (IVT).  When they first started appearing last summer, I decided to call a few of the schools to see if these were accurate quotes.  I talked to Princeton first.  Fred Hargadon has not worked at Princeton for years.  The admissions officer I talked to said that Princeton does not consider IB more prestigious than AP, nor does Princeton give more consideration to IB students.  AP students are just as well prepared for Princeton as IB students.   I received similar responses from other “prestigious” universities.

The second page of the flyer asks:  “Why Support IB?” and states “IB brought Spanish classes to our children.”  It fails to add that this was at the expense of core subjects.  Fifth graders at Incline Elementary don’t have daily math instruction to make room for this “special” class.  Math and science are needs, Spanish is a want.  We should be addressing the needs of our students, not the wants.

The more I read, the more the writing seemed very similar to IVT from the online Bonanza comments.  In June, IVT posted this:  “Facts are facts – the 3.5 NEW FULL TIME TEACHERS are for PE, music and art.”  IBIV website states this as well.  IVT’s facts were wrong:  the new teachers are two Spanish teachers and a part-time IB coordinator – and IBIV still wants us to pay!

There is a half-page about the UN ideology not being forced on students.  The IBO website explains the IB connection to the UN.  As long as there are no curriculum options for K-10 students, then the UN ideology is forced on our students.

The final page addresses the rumor that AP at Incline High will be eliminated by IB.  The author repeatedly confuses combining IB and AP classes with offering both options.  The flyer states, “that 6 of the top 10 schools in the nation combine IB and AP.”  This is not accurate.  Six of the top 10 schools as ranked by Newsweek offer IB.  Some offer AP alongside IB, but most don’t combine the two.  Of the top 10 schools on this list, only one is a neighborhood school – Corbett High.  Corbett offers 17 AP courses and no IB.  All other schools on the list have selective enrollment, meaning students must apply and be accepted.  Incline doesn't have the luxury of selecting its students.

To have the public school send home a flyer suggesting that in order to support education in Incline Village one must financially support IB is outrageous.  To have IBIV continue to ask for money after deceiving the public about where the money is being spent is equally outrageous. 

Teresa Eppolito
Incline Village, NV