The coronavirus pandemic will not stop LGBTQIA+ activism in public education, at least in the liberal Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) system. The county, which is located north of the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., moved forward with plans to have a social studies pilot program on LGBTQIA+ history.
MCPS described the curriculum as an “exploration” of LGBTQIA+ issues related to identity, history and culture. It is not meant to exclude students who do not identify as LGBTQIA+.
Ten high schools agreed to host the semester-long pilot program. The participating schools are in various parts of the county, which is one of the richest counties in the country. The last estimate was that the median income for Montgomery County is in the top twenty in the country.
As Accuracy in Academia reported last spring, the county’s board of education unanimously approved the pilot program to start in the 2021-2022 school year for juniors and seniors in high school who already took a required U.S. history class. The same county also hosted an online LGBTQ town hall to celebrate the pilot program and the county’s inclusivity.
MCPS indicated that the pilot program will not stop with the social studies pilot program, but will likely expand to mathematics and science to include LGBTQIA+-friendly curriculum in these academic fields.
It is the same county which spent $450,000 in taxpayer funds for an anti-racism audit after the 2020 social justice protests and riots. Montgomery County is one of the most liberal and left-leaning counties in the state of Maryland. It has not elected a Republican county executive since 1978, a period of forty-two years. MCPS serves over 160,000 students and has 31 high schools throughout the county.
