Is the solution for parents to move to small towns?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved back to a small town. No one really talks about politics. Most people vote. But politics isn’t the center of our world like it was in DC. I rarely hear anyone mention it. I have no idea how most people voted. We have an LGTBQ family member. Openly gay. No one cares. Our schools are open. No threats to close. Masks are not required anywhere, although many people choose to wear them. Most people are vaccinated. But, there is a lot of skepticism on the effectiveness.

We talk about family, travel, sports, weather, ……. Politics just doesn’t come up. I’m a very liberal dem living in what is a fairly conservative area. I’ve never felt uncomfortable.

The only real downside is lack of diversity. This is the whitest place I’ve ever lived. I don’t think I would have wanted to raise my kids here simply because of that.

Could you please share the approximate location of your town?

Please "very liberal Dem"s, don't move to the fairly conservative areas. You have made your beds, now lie in them.

Don’t worry. Your craphole is safe from invasion by intelligent people.

Rich liberals ran like hell to places where schools were open and life went on much as normal.

Either that or they were among the high-SES types who had enough bandwidth to accelerate their kids past where they would have been if they'd been in school. This luxury applies primarily to the parents of lower elementary kids of course.

Only the poor and middle class liberals who couldn’t afford to retreat to a new house (or second house) in a nice purple or red spot still believe the propaganda lol.

Sad.

Or Funny, depending on your mood.

[Anonymous]

If jobs weren’t an issue, we’d probably consider suburbs of a small-midsize city in the northeast. I grew up in a district like that. There are trade offs of course, districts are at the town level, which has its positives/negatives. Budgets can vary widely, diversity can be limited. But I’ve just been so envious of the lower Covid drama, both last year and this year. Even before Covid I was feeling like this area was wearing on me- I’m not type A enough, I tire of having to register for things so early, the traffic, the commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Democrat, not only would I consider moving to keep my kids in school and keep my job from being threatened by being unable to focus and perform, but I'm also enraged at the betrayal by the party. Just look at the dialogue on this forum. The party that is supposed to be concerned with social issues vilifies mothers struggling to balance work and remote learning as "shrieking" for free child care and not taking personal responsibility before deciding to have children. Sexist. They would rather signal that they take the virus more seriously the Republicans with extremist school closure policies than be concerned about working families, learning loss, child development, and low income families. They put the pajama/zoom class that can whether closed schools and unemployment and public health zero covid bureacrats before everyone else. It's disgusting. I've pretty much become an independent.

+ 1 million.

Most Democrats did not for extended school closures and most Democratic led areas did not have them. FCPS struggled more than many areas, likely due to the size of the district and less strong leadership. You're conflating problems you had in a particular situation with broad party politics. Or you're faking it.

[Anonymous]

Mmm-hmm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God forbid. The first thing people do when they move to a new town for socio-economic reasons is start voting for the same sort of politician that implemented all the things they hated about their old town.

Not true. Dem all my life but had enough. Moved to Virginia, voted Youngkin! Moving was the best thing ever. Nice, normal people. Cheap/excellent private school, etc.

I know the cheap/excellent private schools in NoA, and they are excellent but not cheap and not really cheaper than MD or DC. Sorry. Graduated from one, and oldest attended another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dems have empowered unions for decades and even this year Biden was heavily supporting workforce unionization. Works out well until they turn against you.

Lets see unions ensure that teachers get paid well and get good benefits. Where do good teachers want to teach, perhaps where they get paid well and have good benefits. Where do I want my children to attend school, perhaps where they are good teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a small Southern town. Today, my HS is 75% FARMs. My HS offered 2 AP classes: Lit and Calc AB. My year, I was the only student to pass either one. By senior year, I was driving to the community college for classes because my HS was out— 45 minutes each way during the school day.

More kids enlisted than went to a 4 year college, and no one in my graduating class left the state for college. The level of instruction was very, very poor.

DH had the same experience at a different HS in a different small town.

Why in the world would we want our kids in one if these environments.

Agree 100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a whole state of whiners. I am from Texas and nobody ever made all this ruckus there. People here whine about nothing too. Teachers make a max of 48k in Texas, have no rights, cover recess, lunch and dropoff/pickup and it is a right to fire state so you can be let go off for no reason. Send these whiny teachers down to Texas and we will fix 'em.

I would prefer my whiny teachers over the TX teachers. I want my children to be taught by good teachers. $48K max is a disgrace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God forbid. The first thing people do when they move to a new town for socio-economic reasons is start voting for the same sort of politician that implemented all the things they hated about their old town.

This.

Small town America is solid red and we like it that way.

Blue voters NOT WELCOME.

You progressives stay in the dysfunctional urban/suburban cesspools you created with your vote.

Agree. We will stay in the blue areas and continue to generate the tax dollars that help subsidize you red area. Good deal for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in MoCo and I do think the large size (both in terms of student population and in terms of geography) makes it a LOT harder to work through a situation such as the pandemic. I grew up in New England, where schools have mostly stayed open through the pandemic primarily because the schools are run on a town-by-town basis. It's a lot simpler when you're not trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution for 165k kids, hundreds of schools and a massively dispersed and complex transportation system. I doubt that will ever happen here since the county government system is how MD and VA are organized overall, but it would enable a lot more flexibility and nuance.

This. Town-based school systems are key. Our schools were virtual for 3 months in 2020, but have been open since then. Blue area in red state, with weak unions (also key).

-alum of MoCo schools, when it was a smaller and more manageable school district

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mmm-hmm.

Context? This pic shows Item 10. Were the students also asked to respond to prompts from any other perspectives, of which this was potentially one? I want my kids to be able to understand and express multiple POVs, even of those that they disagree with. Unclear from the information provided whether this exercise is actually well or poorly designed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in MoCo and I do think the large size (both in terms of student population and in terms of geography) makes it a LOT harder to work through a situation such as the pandemic. I grew up in New England, where schools have mostly stayed open through the pandemic primarily because the schools are run on a town-by-town basis. It's a lot simpler when you're not trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution for 165k kids, hundreds of schools and a massively dispersed and complex transportation system. I doubt that will ever happen here since the county government system is how MD and VA are organized overall, but it would enable a lot more flexibility and nuance.

This. Town-based school systems are key. Our schools were virtual for 3 months in 2020, but have been open since then. Blue area in red state, with weak unions (also key).

-alum of MoCo schools, when it was a smaller and more manageable school district

I also think that a lot of these smaller towns/districts deferred to the state for guidance and didn’t try to reinvent the wheel with their own metrics. States like RI, CT, NY, MA had governors that supported reopening last year and frankly showed more leadership on the issue. MD left districts up to their own devices and Hogan was late chiming in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a whole state of whiners. I am from Texas and nobody ever made all this ruckus there. People here whine about nothing too. Teachers make a max of 48k in Texas, have no rights, cover recess, lunch and dropoff/pickup and it is a right to fire state so you can be let go off for no reason. Send these whiny teachers down to Texas and we will fix 'em.

I would prefer my whiny teachers over the TX teachers. I want my children to be taught by good teachers. $48K max is a disgrace.

Agree. You get what you pay for and 48 k is not enough to get talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a whole state of whiners. I am from Texas and nobody ever made all this ruckus there. People here whine about nothing too. Teachers make a max of 48k in Texas, have no rights, cover recess, lunch and dropoff/pickup and it is a right to fire state so you can be let go off for no reason. Send these whiny teachers down to Texas and we will fix 'em.

I would prefer my whiny teachers over the TX teachers. I want my children to be taught by good teachers. $48K max is a disgrace.

Agree. You get what you pay for and 48 k is not enough to get talent.

It’s all relative to the cost of living.

[Anonymous]

You don't need to live in a small town to live in a small school district. You do need to live in a state where they don't create county-wide school districts.