3.2 million dollars. What could you do with 3.2 million dollars? More importantly, what could MCPS do with 3.2 million dollars? MCPS has paid for high school students’ AP exams for the past two years and is continuing to do so this school year. They spend roughly $3.2 million each time they cover students’ AP exams all across the county when they should be putting this money towards hiring new teachers.
MCPS is currently struggling with overpopulated schools, leading to classrooms that exceed capacity and teachers with the burden of taking on more students than they can handle. While it is all fun and games for students, year after year, MCPS announces that they are paying for AP exams and teachers are continuously overwhelmed and overworked.
The millions of dollars that MCPS has allocated to AP exams could be used for a much greater purpose: hiring more teachers. Classrooms with no empty desks and a huge pile of assignments for teachers to grade become overwhelming very quickly. MCPS needs to take this issue more seriously in order to keep their teachers happy. The best way to deal with it is to hire more teachers.
According to Devilan Peck, 44 percent of teachers who work in grades K-12 often feel burnout, which can ultimately lead to them quitting teaching altogether. Over the three years that MCPS has paid for AP exams, they could have spent $9.8 million on hiring new teachers and helping specific schools that need extra support. Instead, they have spent nearly $10 million on students who may have just bubbled A for every multiple-choice question (MCQ) and wrote the song that was stuck in their head for the free-response question (FRQ).
This means that hundreds and thousands of AP exams that MCPS is paying for go to waste. Many students fail to unenroll from the AP exams before the November deadline, leaving them with the option of either a $40 fee or to just take the exam. This ultimately leads to students who never wanted to take the exam taking the exam just not to be charged.
According to the Search Institute, 40-60 percent of high school students do not put in much effort into their schoolwork. This translates into how much effort they put into their AP exams. If MCPS went back to students paying for their own exams, many students would not sign up, as they do not do anything extra to prepare for the exam.
This would cut down the amount of students taking the exam and leave the ones left who take it more seriously. This would motivate students to perform better because when they look around the exam room, they would see everyone working as opposed to if half the heads in the room were down on their desks.
AP students dedicate themselves to their studies, working hard to learn everything they need to know in time for their exam in May. Paying $90 for each exam is their commitment, giving each student a form of motivation towards it. Without this transaction, students do not need to put in any extra effort in the thought that they need to be enrolled in their AP exams which makes them unaware of what they have committed too.
Although some may argue that students that do not have as many resources are unable to take AP exams, College Board has fee waivers and reduction applications are available to students who need that assistance. Prior to Covid-19, all AP exams were to be paid by students. This system worked because it allowed students to truly decide if they wanted to take their AP exams without any outside influence by the county.
MCPS should stop paying for high school students’ AP exams in the future. Students can make more justified decisions for themselves about whether they actually want to take their AP exams or not when payment is required and MCPS will be able to refocus its attention and budget towards more large-scale issues such as the teacher shortage.
