Least conservative/least MAGA of the top-ranked schools in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are planning our move to Montgomery County. We have two daughters, aged three and five, and a son aged 2. Currently, we are looking at the different top-ranked schools in the county, but we want to make sure to move into an area that is not too conservative or too MAGA. Based on what I have seen here, it appears WJ and BCC might be the best bet? If anyone else has other ideas, it would be great to hear from you all. Or if you could also say which places to avoid (be it even elementary schools), that would be helpful. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County close in is VERY liberal. Your concern is comical given the nature of Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know where you’re coming from but you will not find many MAGA parents at any MCPS school. I’m not saying there are none, there probably are some, but they are an extreme enough minority that they tend to keep it on the DL. I cannot say I have ever encountered a self-identified or admittedly MAGA parent over many years in WJ cluster schools.

[Anonymous]

MoCo is politically to the left across the board. You are correct that the closer-in suburbs of DC will probably be bluest. Takoma Park is known to be very progressive, crunchy type liberal. Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac are the wealthiest areas of MoCo. This means that some families will be rich and conservative (some might send their children to private school, but some will end up in the local publics).

I live in Bethesda, and my neighbors are mostly very anti-MAGA, but there are some conservatives. And you will always find a MAGA kook at some point. My friend near Walter Johnson has such a neighbor, in a deep sea of blue - bad luck.

If you are looking at school quality, the best public schools are where the rich people are (with the exception of middle and high school selective magnets, which were deliberately placed in less wealthy neighborhoods, but I believe changes are afoot because MCPS is restructuring its magnet programs). Walt Whitman is considered the best high school, with all the schools that start with "W" in their name (called the W schools). BCC is an honorary member of that group, even though test scores are ever so slightly lower, because it's in downtown Bethesda and has the full IB program.

If you want diversity in your schools in terms of skin color and economic disparity, that's NOT where the rich people are. The W schools are very white, particularly Walt Whitman, and some like Winston Churchill have a strong contingent of east Asians. There is international diversity in all the neighborhoods close to DC, but in Bethesda it tends to be World Bank, diplomat, scientific research families, and in other areas, immigrants from a less stratospheric walk of life.

The most important criteria to think about, honestly, are commute to your work and price of real estate/rentals.

[Anonymous]

You will be fine at any school.

[Anonymous]

Is this fake?

[Anonymous]

MCPS has 26 high school that all lean left. Not sure where you are coming from, but that is a ridiculous question for this area.

[Anonymous]

MAGAs tend to send their kids to private. I can easily count on one hand the number of people in my Bethesda neighborhood I’ve encountered who are MAGA (and only 1 that’s the yard sign type- the others I found out about through much more subtle avenues).

[Anonymous]

Ditto. I know of two MAGA families because each of my kids came home telling me of a girl in their class whose family is MAGA. It was that unusual that it became a topic of conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone,

My husband and I are planning our move to Montgomery County. We have two daughters, aged three and five, and a son aged 2. Currently, we are looking at the different top-ranked schools in the county, but we want to make sure to move into an area that is not too conservative or too MAGA. Based on what I have seen here, it appears WJ and BCC might be the best bet? If anyone else has other ideas, it would be great to hear from you all. Or if you could also say which places to avoid (be it even elementary schools), that would be helpful. Thanks.

Superintendent is MAGA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone,

My husband and I are planning our move to Montgomery County. We have two daughters, aged three and five, and a son aged 2. Currently, we are looking at the different top-ranked schools in the county, but we want to make sure to move into an area that is not too conservative or too MAGA. Based on what I have seen here, it appears WJ and BCC might be the best bet? If anyone else has other ideas, it would be great to hear from you all. Or if you could also say which places to avoid (be it even elementary schools), that would be helpful. Thanks.

Superintendent is MAGA.

Ignore this troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is politically to the left across the board. You are correct that the closer-in suburbs of DC will probably be bluest. Takoma Park is known to be very progressive, crunchy type liberal. Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac are the wealthiest areas of MoCo. This means that some families will be rich and conservative (some might send their children to private school, but some will end up in the local publics).

I live in Bethesda, and my neighbors are mostly very anti-MAGA, but there are some conservatives. And you will always find a MAGA kook at some point. My friend near Walter Johnson has such a neighbor, in a deep sea of blue - bad luck.

If you are looking at school quality, the best public schools are where the rich people are (with the exception of middle and high school selective magnets, which were deliberately placed in less wealthy neighborhoods, but I believe changes are afoot because MCPS is restructuring its magnet programs). Walt Whitman is considered the best high school, with all the schools that start with "W" in their name (called the W schools). BCC is an honorary member of that group, even though test scores are ever so slightly lower, because it's in downtown Bethesda and has the full IB program.

If you want diversity in your schools in terms of skin color and economic disparity, that's NOT where the rich people are. The W schools are very white, particularly Walt Whitman, and some like Winston Churchill have a strong contingent of east Asians. There is international diversity in all the neighborhoods close to DC, but in Bethesda it tends to be World Bank, diplomat, scientific research families, and in other areas, immigrants from a less stratospheric walk of life.

The most important criteria to think about, honestly, are commute to your work and price of real estate/rentals.

Thank you, this is very helpful and I think you’re pushing us to ask exactly the right questions. I do think we would like a balance of diversity with a quality education, so perhaps some of these “W” schools would have to be looked at more closely. I had assumed that Churchill and Whitman might be more red-leaning because of the areas they draw from, but it sounds like it may be less of an issue of such contingents creating a conservative learning environment at the school and more so a question of the extent to which they have diversity. Certainly a more diverse school would be preferred for our family background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is politically to the left across the board. You are correct that the closer-in suburbs of DC will probably be bluest. Takoma Park is known to be very progressive, crunchy type liberal. Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac are the wealthiest areas of MoCo. This means that some families will be rich and conservative (some might send their children to private school, but some will end up in the local publics).

I live in Bethesda, and my neighbors are mostly very anti-MAGA, but there are some conservatives. And you will always find a MAGA kook at some point. My friend near Walter Johnson has such a neighbor, in a deep sea of blue - bad luck.

If you are looking at school quality, the best public schools are where the rich people are (with the exception of middle and high school selective magnets, which were deliberately placed in less wealthy neighborhoods, but I believe changes are afoot because MCPS is restructuring its magnet programs). Walt Whitman is considered the best high school, with all the schools that start with "W" in their name (called the W schools). BCC is an honorary member of that group, even though test scores are ever so slightly lower, because it's in downtown Bethesda and has the full IB program.

If you want diversity in your schools in terms of skin color and economic disparity, that's NOT where the rich people are. The W schools are very white, particularly Walt Whitman, and some like Winston Churchill have a strong contingent of east Asians. There is international diversity in all the neighborhoods close to DC, but in Bethesda it tends to be World Bank, diplomat, scientific research families, and in other areas, immigrants from a less stratospheric walk of life.

The most important criteria to think about, honestly, are commute to your work and price of real estate/rentals.

Thank you, this is very helpful and I think you’re pushing us to ask exactly the right questions. I do think we would like a balance of diversity with a quality education, so perhaps some of these “W” schools would have to be looked at more closely. I had assumed that Churchill and Whitman might be more red-leaning because of the areas they draw from, but it sounds like it may be less of an issue of such contingents creating a conservative learning environment at the school and more so a question of the extent to which they have diversity. Certainly a more diverse school would be preferred for our family background.

I think BCC is your best bet for strong academics and diversity. That would also put you somewhat close to diverse areas of Montgomery County like Silver Spring--soon to be accessible by the Purple Line light rail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is politically to the left across the board. You are correct that the closer-in suburbs of DC will probably be bluest. Takoma Park is known to be very progressive, crunchy type liberal. Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac are the wealthiest areas of MoCo. This means that some families will be rich and conservative (some might send their children to private school, but some will end up in the local publics).

I live in Bethesda, and my neighbors are mostly very anti-MAGA, but there are some conservatives. And you will always find a MAGA kook at some point. My friend near Walter Johnson has such a neighbor, in a deep sea of blue - bad luck.

If you are looking at school quality, the best public schools are where the rich people are (with the exception of middle and high school selective magnets, which were deliberately placed in less wealthy neighborhoods, but I believe changes are afoot because MCPS is restructuring its magnet programs). Walt Whitman is considered the best high school, with all the schools that start with "W" in their name (called the W schools). BCC is an honorary member of that group, even though test scores are ever so slightly lower, because it's in downtown Bethesda and has the full IB program.

If you want diversity in your schools in terms of skin color and economic disparity, that's NOT where the rich people are. The W schools are very white, particularly Walt Whitman, and some like Winston Churchill have a strong contingent of east Asians. There is international diversity in all the neighborhoods close to DC, but in Bethesda it tends to be World Bank, diplomat, scientific research families, and in other areas, immigrants from a less stratospheric walk of life.

The most important criteria to think about, honestly, are commute to your work and price of real estate/rentals.

Thank you, this is very helpful and I think you’re pushing us to ask exactly the right questions. I do think we would like a balance of diversity with a quality education, so perhaps some of these “W” schools would have to be looked at more closely. I had assumed that Churchill and Whitman might be more red-leaning because of the areas they draw from, but it sounds like it may be less of an issue of such contingents creating a conservative learning environment at the school and more so a question of the extent to which they have diversity. Certainly a more diverse school would be preferred for our family background.

.
There are definitely some small-c conservative tendencies among many of the wealthiest families in many of the wealthiest schools. But that doesn't make them MAGA.

[Anonymous]

There is plenty of diversity in the Whitman zone in the sense that people from many different countries around the world live and send children to school there. Different languages, colors, cultures. What is uniform is social and economic status. Are you highly educated and a top earner with a successful career? You’ll be right at home! Welcome upper class global citizen.