MCPS: trial by flier

Every year, community groups in Montgomery County send hundreds of thousands of fliers home in students' backpacks. Now, however, MCPS has practically silenced these groups - ironically, under the pretext of protecting free speech.

In MCPS's legal battle this summer with a local evangelical group, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the county's flier policy unconstitutional. But rather than addressing the First Amendment issue head-on, MCPS's solution was to institute a new policy that limits non-profit organizations to a mere two to four fliers per school year.

The Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) sued MCPS in 2001 because it was barred from distributing fliers that advertised an after-school Bible study session. The court ruled in favor of CEF, saying that the policy gave the school system too much discretion in deciding whose messages could be distributed, leaving room for viewpoint discrimination. MCPS then tried again, creating a new policy under which only materials of "educational value" could be sent home. This similar policy was also thrown out by the court.

In August, MCPS decided to ban fliers in schools altogether. This caused uproar from PTSAs throughout the county, so MCPS revised the policy to allow only parent-teacher groups to distribute fliers freely.

This new policy does little to solve the problem. Groups like CEF are still unable to express their views or disseminate information. MCPS is no longer actively preventing any one organization from sending home fliers, but has instead restricted all organizations.

Youth organizations throughout the county have suffered from the policy change. Howard Kohn, commissioner of Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer, previously sent home fliers in backpacks to get information to prospective soccer players; he used to send home some 20,000 every year. Following the policy change, enrollment is down at least 15 percent, according to Kohn, even after volunteers took it upon themselves to get the word out through listservs and community gatherings. "My concern is that the families who aren't connected to e-mail and the middle-class grapevine will be the ones left out," says Kohn.

The Montgomery County Department of Parks and Planning found in 2003 that 19 percent of Montgomery County residents were most likely unable to afford Internet access. This means that the new flier policy effectively cuts off working-class families.

MCPS's flier policy was declared unconstitutional the first two times because it gave the county too much leeway in censoring fliers. In response, MCPS has created a solution that does more harm than good. It is a temporary solution at best, and the Board of Education would do well to replace it with a less restrictive one. One flier per marking period is not enough for community organizations to supply timely information to parents. To truly end viewpoint discrimination, MCPS must realize that muffling community voices is not tantamount to a real flier solution.