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MD Public Schools other than MCPS
Reply to "PG is changing start and dismissal times with less than 6 months notice"
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What PGCPS needs to do (and no one wants to talk about) is eliminate the specialty programs at elementary school level. That eliminates a ton of bussing and the county would have more than enough drivers. [/quote] As someone who works at one of these specialty programs, I 100% agree. These programs tend to perform higher academically that the regular public schools and its free! The least the parents can do is provide transportation. [/quote] Correct. Its INSANE to me that kids who attend their boundary school dont get transportation but "specialty program" kids do. It is "in the name of equity" but I would be really interested to see how many FARMS kids actually attend the specialty programs and furthermore, how many kids who are walkers are FARMS. Removing the waivers means PGCPS would only provide transportation to 50% of the student population and I wonder what percentage of it is specialty program kids and how much impact they have on the routes/times/distance. [/quote] You can compare the FARMS rates on the Great Schools and the MD Report Card. There is a huge disparity. The FARMS rate of elementary schools with no specialty programs is [b]double [/b]the schools that are specialty programs with no comprehensive kids. FARMS Rate: PGCPS Elementary as a whole: 63.5% Specialty Program only schools: 35% Non-Specialty Program Elementary Schools - 70% [/quote] Wowwww thats some BS. [/quote] I'm a teacher at a specialty elementary school. If we required parents to transport their kids to school, our already low FARMS rate would plummet. As it is, low income parents have a tendency to prefer neighborhood schools, just because of the difficulty of picking kids up from aftercare or after school activities, and a distrust of schools that are a further distance away. I mean, higher income parents also prefer neighborhood schools for the same reasons, but they generally are more willing to tolerate the difficulties of a far away school as a tradeoff for a program they like. [/quote] Be that as it may, I dont want to hear about transport issues when 50% of the student body is NOT going to be receiving transportation but the higher income lottery families are. The problem with your viewpoint is that the reality ALREADY isnt addressing equity and transportation is provided. But transportation for the system overall is not equitable. I would bet dollars to donuts that a majority of the walkers in most PG schools are FARMS. And its not safe to walk so how are they getting to school? These "leaders" need to walk these routes themselves and actually make real improvements in pedestrian safety. In my own higher income neighborhood, people wont stop for pedestrians, there are no crossing guards, and the pedestrian crossings dont have stop signs. So I can only imagine the lack of safety in lower-income, more urban settings. I am not really sure what the purpose of the specialty programs are to begin with, its essentially a private school education funded by taxpayers. It is a liberal take on vouchers IMO. [/quote] OK but truthfully? Have you ever noticed that most of the specialty programs in our county are located in low income areas? The transportation is bringing students from wealthier areas to the less advantaged neighborhoods. One of the purposes of the specialty programs is to bus around richer kids to poorer schools, basically. If you dismantle the specialty schools, especially the TAG programs, you will be removing the well off children from the schools. Now all the kids at that school will be FARMS again. Congratulations, I guess? [/quote] So, two of my kids go to TAG centers that are in neighborhood schools. For one of the schools, the TAG kids make up about half the student body and the other school the TAG kids make up about 60% of the student body. - The schools are able to provide some things to the non-TAG students that other schools might not offer. More affluent kids often have parents who have the bandwidth to volunteer and donate money so things like after school clubs and field trips. TAG parents are often squeaky wheels and they advocate for the schools to things like repairs, playgrounds etc. - Both schools lost Title 1 status because of the TAG kids so the neighborhood kids do not get universal free breakfast and lunch like the Title 1 schools do. They also lost the other additional funding that Title 1 schools get. -The language immersion schools and the Montessori programs do not have any comprehensive students so the neighborhood doesn't benefit from the school at all. [/quote] This is not PP, but an additional benefit would be that neighborhood students could enter the lottery and still be walkable to the lottery school (and also more likely to be aware of the school if it is local).[/quote] Im not connecting the dots here but okay. Walking is dangerous in most of the county. The lottery is county-wide and a numbers game (available slots:applications) so unless the neighborhood kids get priority then its a moot point. [/quote]
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