| If you had to pick 1 thing that the BOE could actually do to improve education in MCPS, what would that be? |
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Prioritize safety in classrooms- that means quick removal of students demonstrating physical and verbal attacks of other students or teachers. If students cannot demonstrate safety in the classroom, they don’t return until they can.
This would make all stakeholders happier. |
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I agree with PP.
- Former special education teacher. |
Cut their wasteful spending and hire more teachers. |
YES please. |
And when it’s disproportionately black and Hispanic kids and everyone starts crying racism what do you do then? |
I've heard great things about restorative justice. |
You reiterate that safety is the priority for all children regardless of color. You expect that all kids have the ability to meet the standard of safety (high expectations) and you have the data to back it up. |
Stop listening to cry babies. |
This is the correct answer. |
Actually the best answer is to ignore the RWNJ's that post on DCUM |
I'm the PP you referenced. I'm more of a progressive than you are because I believe that the people who are more likely to suffer from crime and violence in schools are the vulnerable people who deserve to be protected and are entitled to a calm and peaceful environment in which they will thrive. You are a closet racist who believes poc are just violent and/or bad people who will never learn so you put false ctep stools under them to prop.them up and push them through with meaningless degrees. Your stance is a knee-jerk, simple minded reaction. You believe more poc are going to be violent and will be herded out of mainstream population schools and that is unfair. The more complex answer is that more poc are the victims of school violence and deserve more protection from it. You also believe that the non main stream schools will necessary be out of control holding cells for the student offenders. In fact, they are an opportunity for the district to intervene with funding and true-believer admins and teachers. They can offer small class sizes, mental health support and parenting counseling. At the same time, removing violent students allows the rest of the student body to actually excel in a peaceful environment. |
No. Real progressives believe that Black and Brown kids are simply victims of a racist system that is designed to keep Black and Brown people down. I know that because my kid read Kendi in MS and did several MCPS lessons on the principles of BLM. The whole premise is that the entire ‘system’ is stacked against Black and Brown kids and the only reason Black and Brown kids are suspended more is due to racist teachers and administration. |
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A few things:
1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps. 2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off. 3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings. |
This sounds wonderful. What will it take to make this happen? Is there any way to try to get this proposed? |