We love learning about new candidates, and we don’t mean the same names running for new positions. Fitzgerald Mofar is a true newcomer and has recently received official certification as a candidate for the MCPS Board of Education for the upcoming 2024 elections. We sat down and asked him a few questions to learn more about him and what he hopes to bring to MoCo if elected.
Can you tell us a little more about yourself?
As a lifelong Montgomery County resident, I am very familiar with the area. Having grown up on Georgia Avenue, I am a native of the area. After I was born at Shady Grove Hospital in Gaithersburg, my family moved to Silver Spring and eventually settled in Brookeville, MD. I attended Montgomery County Schools throughout my grade school years. Schooled at Burnt Mills Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, Rosa Parks Middle School, and graduated from Sherwood High School. I am a paralegal working for my father at his Silver Spring law office, which is what my technical job title is. The de facto career I have chosen is one of public service, civic engagement, and community building. I have dedicated my life to community building after obtaining my master’s degree in law at a prestigious law school.
What motivated or inspired you to run for the Board of Education?
The availability of a quality education can aid in social and economic mobility. Lack of a good education is one of the main causes of economic marginalization. The absence of a good education makes it virtually impossible for someone to have the essential skills required to succeed in the workforce. As a result, I recognize from a fundamental point of view that it is incumbent upon individuals like myself to speak out on behalf of students in underserved communities and insist that they have access to a quality education. Every educational statistic shows that children in these communities are behind. I felt inspired to take part in this race by dismal proficiency in reading, mathematics, and university readiness scores. “An average of 54.2% of MCPS students demonstrated proficiency between 2018 and 2019, with 54.6% demonstrating proficiency in 2019. However, there was a large decrease in 2021, with only 22.4% of students achieving proficiency. The average decrease in proficiency was 31.8%. The 20 elementary schools with the largest decreases were spread throughout 14 clusters.” Pupils lost intellectual ground as a result of school closures and virtual instruction. Schools such as Kennedy High School suffer a 50% absenteeism rate while grappling with a 9% dropout rate. Not to mention the evident partisan divide, the absence of transparency, and the refusal to pay para-educators a living wage. The operating budget of MCPS is on a par to or substantially greater than that of nations that are autonomous in the global south. The complete indifference and disregard for said educators is unfathomable. Para-educators are vitals members in our educational system. They must be compensated accordingly.
Have you ever run for public office before?
This will be my first campaign as a candidate engaging in the electoral process. Naysayers will insinuate that naiveté and inexperience will diminish my chances of delivering educational prosperity. The community at large has different perspectives. Our political apparatus here in Montgomery County is in need of fresh blood with innovative ideas. The electorate has a longing for a new candidate that has origins outside the establishment and isn’t insulated from the community. Perennial candidates are mundane as well. In essence, even in the context of education, I have a nuanced understanding of governance and its functionality.
What do you feel are the major issues facing youth in Montgomery County today?
A major obstacle for the youth in Montgomery County is the lack of substantive and compulsory extracurricular activities. The lack of vocational learning and economic viability also plagues the youth in Montgomery County. Let’s begin with extracurricular activities. I started my career in the public educational system in a different jurisdiction as an ISS (in school suspension) teacher and football coach. Students who participated in extracurricular activities during my career had a tendency to get accepted into prestigious educational institutions. Additionally, extracurricular activities can be a way to extend learning hours in order to get students back on track with competency standards. Said students were ultimately productive members of society. This isn’t just an anecdotal narrative. Empirical data and evidence corroborate this claim. In a study conducted by the United States Department of Education, it was found “that students who participate in extracurricular activities are three times more likely to have a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.” To address the second issue that the youth in Montgomery County are facing, we must confront our crisis of a lack of economic viability and a lack of vocational learning. This is more germane to high school students.” From 2017 through 2022, violent crime rose by 17% in Downcounty, 0% in Upcounty, and 11% in the rest of the county. Upcounty, however, led the other two regions in violent crime rates, largely because of Germantown, Montgomery Village, and Gaithersburg’s zip code of 20877.” According to an article in the Washington Post that addresses youth crime in Montgomery County, “homicides involving guns, victims and suspects under the age of 21 have more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, according to data from the Montgomery County Police Department.” This is a byproduct of frustrated youth who have been consumed by despair and hopelessness. With more access to vocational learning, the youth in Montgomery County will be economically enfranchised. This will also mitigate the surge in crime. It is incumbent on the public education system to directly confront these issues. It isn’t incumbent on the police department or lawmakers to draft tough crime policies that only lead to the incarceration of black and brown people. Holistic approaches are more prudent.
If you could change one thing about public education in Montgomery County, what would it be?
Transparency and parental involvement idealistically speaking. If I could choose one thing about MCPS I want to fundamentally reform, it is the accentuation of parental involvement. Unfortunately, parental involvement has turned into a dog whistle for the collective right, and those who are ideologically leaning to the left are apprehensive about the idea of increasing parental involvement due to this policy idea being usurped by the alt-right. When I labor on the point of parental involvement, I am not harping on book banning and other platitudes that do not speak the language of the county. My advocacy for parental involvement is grounded in giving parents more substantive powers by electing principals. Subsequent to the Inspector General’s findings from its investigation, they determined members of the board were not privy to the relative principal’s impropriety. It seems that parents and concerned citizens have a better pulse of the community than their elected officials. Therefore, I want parents to be involved in the election of principals and see small-scale elections by parents that have children in that particular school. Principals are quasi-politicians. Holding special elections for an administration in a school isn’t particularly a fringe idea.
Can you tell us a little more about what you hope to accomplish if you are elected? What do you hope to bring to the Board of Education?
If elected, I’ll provide the Montgomery County Educational Board with a new perspective. It is essential for there to be an opposing voice in the school system that is prepared to change the existing status quo. I envision a multiethnic educational system that is fair to all pupils, regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances. For English language learners, adequate accommodations, such as smaller class sizes, are required. Robust programs for homeless students and students with developmental difficulties. Vocational learning mechanisms, the expansion of the international baccalaureate program, the WINGS program, and wage parity for para-educator can be proliferated through innovative budget solutions, which include fighting for all of the revenue from property tax hikes to go strictly into education. The county has gotten away with not using all of the cash authorized for the instructional salaries budget and using those funds for other school expenses for far too long. If elected, I’ll make sure that teachers are compensated fairly by collaborating closely with MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight. In addition, I will consider it my responsibility to prevent job loss or other negative consequences for coming forward with information on malfeasance by MCPS staff. To reduce the achievement gap and make sure that our minority students are no longer suffering from an educational epidemic will be my top goal. Last but not least, reducing political polarization finally returns us to the bipartisan centrist consensus where academic achievement is prioritized over political instruction in our educational system.
You can follow Fitzgerald on X (Twitter) @FitzgeraldMofor or via email at fitzgeraldmofor4mcpsboe@aol.com
