Fairfax County Public Schools -- Article on Demographic Changes

[Anonymous]

I also know that in some cases the DH or DW's decision to stay at home, enables the working spouse to earn much more than they otherwise would have because they can work many more hours, and therefore that working spouse is able to contribute much more in taxes, including ss.

And this working spouse should get more in SS. Just not that larger amount plus another half to their spouse which they never contributed.

[Anonymous]

Isn't bringing a child up to speed because their life circumstances have started them at a disadvantage just considered part and parcel of education's mission?

To what level? A high school diploma when a child starts 10th grade knowing little English and has a 3rd grade education? Who pays for all of this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is almost comical how the pendulum with respect to working women has swung in my lifetime. We used to be so (unjustifiably) critical of women who worked outside of the home, and now we are so (again, unjustifiably) critical of women who work inside the home.

I am a working woman with children, but my mother and one of my sisters was/is not. I suppose that I run in a less affluent circle than many of the posters here because the stay-at-home mothers I know do not stay at the gym and shop all day -- but rather do some or all of the work that you and I hire a nanny, cleaning service, bus service, afterschool service, tutors, cleaners, and lawn service to do. And all of those people will be able to collect some social security benefits for doing their work.

I also know that in some cases the DH or DW's decision to stay at home, enables the working spouse to earn much more than they otherwise would have because they can work many more hours, and therefore that working spouse is able to contribute much more in taxes, including ss.

Well the parent who is working out of the home should pay into the SS system for the parent staying at home doing all the jobs you describe. The legally emptied tutors, nannies, cleaning service, day care workers, etc are paying a portion of the paychecks into the SS system for the work they perform. the SAHP is simply taking, and not giving anything beyond her insular home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is almost comical how the pendulum with respect to working women has swung in my lifetime. We used to be so (unjustifiably) critical of women who worked outside of the home, and now we are so (again, unjustifiably) critical of women who work inside the home.

I am a working woman with children, but my mother and one of my sisters was/is not. I suppose that I run in a less affluent circle than many of the posters here because the stay-at-home mothers I know do not stay at the gym and shop all day -- but rather do some or all of the work that you and I hire a nanny, cleaning service, bus service, afterschool service, tutors, cleaners, and lawn service to do. And all of those people will be able to collect some social security benefits for doing their work.

I also know that in some cases the DH or DW's decision to stay at home, enables the working spouse to earn much more than they otherwise would have because they can work many more hours, and therefore that working spouse is able to contribute much more in taxes, including ss.

SS taxes maxes out at $110k, so that working parent is not paying anything extra beyond that amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great post 8:14! I'm so glad to see posts like yours countering the other posters.

Thanks. Proud to be among the 40 percent of the American population whose ancestors passed through Ellis Island.

[Anonymous]

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

-- Emma Lazarus, "The New Collusus"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These immigrants prepare food, care for children, clean clothes, tend to the landscaping, clean houses, build new homes and renovate old ones, repair cars, maintain commercial buildings -- basically support the lives of the many affluent in this area.

We take care of our own home and yard.
We raise our own kids.
We wash and take care of our own clothing.

We have our cars repaired at local small businesses owned by Americans.
Our house is lovely and old, and well-maintained. It wasn't built by cheap labor and it's going to be standing for ages after the McMansions fall.

We have no use for these criminals. Your attempted guilt trip has no effect on me.

Define "American" for me.

[Anonymous]

Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I'll piss on 'em
that's what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death
and get it over with and just dump 'em on the boulevard

-- Lou Reed, "Dirty Boulevard"

[Anonymous]

They didn't even have social security or much in the way of public schools when that poem was written. You were invited to come. Not get free stuff or more stuff than people already living in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants, like you, also want their children to attend and learn at good public schools so that they can do better than their parents in life -- it is not right to tell immigrants that their children are not deserving of an education because they can only aspire to certain jobs that require no college degree.

No one is saying that. What they are saying is that it isn't right for these children to count as 2 students instead of 1 student and get extra resources. They are certainly deserving of an education, just not special treatment.

How, exactly, are these students who are the children of immigrants counted as two students? Are AAP children or special education students similarly counted as two students because they receive special resources? I really do not know, so please explain. Thank you.

I would like to know this, too, and I am an ESOL teacher. I know ESOL counts are figured differently for staffing, but as far as I know, they do not count as 2 people (I thought it was something like 1.2 or something like that). That said, we need smaller class sizes. I currently have a class of 17 students in ESOL 1. Some of them know a little bit of spoken English and some know absolutely nothing. I don't speak Spanish, but from what others tell me, their spoken and written Spanish is really elementary, too. Many of them have very little education in their home language. They are 16-20 years old, yet they don't know how to act in a school setting because where they came from it was a free for all in school. It is basically like teaching kindergarten or 1st grade in a 17 year old body. How many of these types of students do you think I should have in class so that they could learn and progress and hopefully graduate? We are doing the best we can, but it is nearly an impossible task when these kids come here with so little education at such a late age. This is not all ESOL , of course. We certainly have kids at other levels who are educated and move and progress, but there are certainly many, many students in FCPS who are like the ones I described above.

I am certain that you are a good and devoted ESOL teacher. However, shouldn't ESOL classes generally (where possible) be grouped by native language spoken, and taught by an instructor who is proficient in the students' native language?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These immigrants prepare food, care for children, clean clothes, tend to the landscaping, clean houses, build new homes and renovate old ones, repair cars, maintain commercial buildings -- basically support the lives of the many affluent in this area.

We take care of our own home and yard.
We raise our own kids.
We wash and take care of our own clothing.

We have our cars repaired at local small businesses owned by Americans.
Our house is lovely and old, and well-maintained. It wasn't built by cheap labor and it's going to be standing for ages after the McMansions fall.

We have no use for these criminals. Your attempted guilt trip has no effect on me.

I am certain that you enjoy the bubble you live in.

Unfortunately for you, however, all of your neighbors and friends in the community do interact with, and enjoy the help and services of immigrant labor and businesses.

Immigrants will always seek out opportunity and a better life for their children, and this area is ripe with economic opportunity; so your protective bubble will not change the fact that immigrants are here, that they will continue to come to the Washington metropolitan region in great numbers, and that we must think of the best way to help this new and next generation of Americans learn, integrate, and prosper in the same country that has given your ancestors and your family so much opportunity.

[Anonymous]

You people are stupid , immigrants are great, illegal immigrants which are esol wic and farms are terrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You people are stupid , immigrants are great, illegal immigrants which are esol wic and farms are terrible

These posts are ugly. Illegal immigrants are a fact of life in the United States.

Hopefully, after immigration reform is passed, all of these people who you show so much disdain for will be on their path to citizenship (including social security benefits upon retirement), and you will no longer be able to throw such ugly slurs at them.

[Anonymous]

And yes negative posters, your Virginia Senators will most certainly vote to grant your immigrant neighbors a path to citizenship. Thank goodness!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They didn't even have social security or much in the way of public schools when that poem was written. You were invited to come. Not get free stuff or more stuff than people already living in the US.

Where did your ancestors come from PP? The Irish Catholics started their own schools so as not to contaminate their children with the Protestant heresies taught in America's public schools at the time. NINA