MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

[Anonymous]

Easy fix. Get rid of charter schools. Let each town run their own schools. Problem solved solved

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easy fix. Get rid of charter schools. Let each town run their own schools. Problem solved solved

There are no charter schools in Montgomery county

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easy fix. Get rid of charter schools. Let each town run their own schools. Problem solved solved

1) There are basically no charter schools in MCPS. One is in development but not yet open.

2) Where is the Town of Somerset going to put its High School?

3) More than half of MoCo is unincorporated. Who is going to run their schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easy fix. Get rid of charter schools. Let each town run their own schools. Problem solved solved

We don’t have charters and we go by county, not towns and majority of our area do not have town governments. You clearly are not mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

They added a charter years ago and it was a hot mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

This has never worked anywhere. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

They added a charter years ago and it was a hot mess.

Except in the most extreme circumstances of an already horrid public school system, charters are not a good answer, and rarely are they a good answer even in those cases except for the small percentage of the population that directly aligns with the underlying, ahem, values that typically drive their individual founding. The vast majority simply see resources sucked away, directly contributing to ongoing failures and creating a cynical support in the argument against public education.

They might work to focus on difficult populations in a large school system, as they have greater flexibility, but the aim of folks trying to establish charters is basically never that beneficent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

They added a charter years ago and it was a hot mess.

Except in the most extreme circumstances of an already horrid public school system, charters are not a good answer, and rarely are they a good answer even in those cases except for the small percentage of the population that directly aligns with the underlying, ahem, values that typically drive their individual founding. The vast majority simply see resources sucked away, directly contributing to ongoing failures and creating a cynical support in the argument against public education.

They might work to focus on difficult populations in a large school system, as they have greater flexibility, but the aim of folks trying to establish charters is basically never that beneficent.

There are some charters/systems that work well but you'd need a lot of oversight. However, MCPS really isn't set up for Charters nor is there a need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think central office employees can all be distributed among offices in schools to be closer to students and in school administrators. They can clearly all work virtually anyway most of the time and they can be a backup for subs and lunch duty if there is a shortage. Some central office space can be maintained but only for major meetings etc.
i would love more and smaller ES so you can gave fewer busses, remove the tiers and have smaller classes. But that is a big $ ask and will never happen.

And that dollar figure is much higher than many think. For these smaller ES you’d need at the minimum: Additional buildings, Additional Principals, additional media center specialist, additional books, additional building services staff, additional counselors, additional teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

This has never worked anywhere. Ever.

Not true.

I have family in Arizona and Florida. Kids attend charter schools. And they are way better than what my kids get here in MCPS. Language starting in elementary school. Better Math curriculum.

Clearly the current system isn’t working. Time to try something else. Model it after an area that has successfully implemented charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer has been right in front of us all along:

Break up the county.
Too big to thrive.

There aren’t too many large school districts that are high-performing.

Most of the large urban public school districts aren’t all that great. And with the push to urbanize MoCo, it will just get worse.

This sounds bad but I actually agree with it. I have not looked too thoroughly but from what I can tell 60,000 students seems to be the limit for high performing school districts, which basically allows for breaking MCPS up into thirds: east, west and north. The benefit of this is that each of the new districts will be better placed to serve the needs of their districts.

Yes. And if we're being perfectly honest, there are cultural differences between TKPK and Poolesville/Damascus.

It would def be more expensive to break into 3 systems, but I do think that's the right decision.

Plus, one major bonus: snow decisions would be regional!

That’s exactly right. It would also allow each district to prioritize their resources as they see fit. The north of the county should be allowed to prioritize funding big time HS football, if that’s what they want. Let the west of the county do more tracking and then allow the east to focus on the achievement gap. It makes sense for everyone.

Sure. Northwest Branch to the 200/370 to Muddy Branch makes a natural cut. TKPK, SS, CC, Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville, Kensington, Aspen Hill, Wheaton together could all be one big HS choice consortium. Break the rest E-W at Rock Creek/dotted line north, with Olney, Ashton, Sandy Spring, Burtonsville Colesville, Fairland, White Oak and Hillandale together -- Layhill, Redland, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Montgomery Village, Clarksburg, Damascus, Poolesville and Urbana make up the rest.

Can't even get mcps parents to agree on a boundary study and somehow think you're going to be able to get mcps to break up into smaller districts without some gigantic legal fight?

Ya missed the wink reply. It was so easy to goad the original break-up-the-county poster into the wrong-side-of-the-tracks comment it was laughable. All it took was the thought of the inner suburbs being grouped together to bring out the "I don't want to be grouped with anything below UMC, and that should be good for everyone. And taxes should support schools, but not for other people's schools, just our own. And by our own, I mean just the UMC people who live near us. Really, how are we supposed to keep our kids ahead based on our wealth, otherwise? We're not quite rich enough to afford highest-end private schooling without some sacrifice. Anyway, we didn't become wealthy to support society, and anecdotes about individuals rising from lower classes to higher classes surely mean statistical certainty that we have a fair system. Isn't it wonderful to be near the Ag Reserve?"

As far as breaking up MCPS goes, MD school systems go by county, not town, excepting Baltimore city (which operates at essentially the same level as a county) so the break would have to be into different counties, not different school systems. Or there would have to be a legislative change at the state level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

This has never worked anywhere. Ever.

Not true.

I have family in Arizona and Florida. Kids attend charter schools. And they are way better than what my kids get here in MCPS. Language starting in elementary school. Better Math curriculum.

Clearly the current system isn’t working. Time to try something else. Model it after an area that has successfully implemented charter schools.

All kids attend charter schools there? Or is it those that do get a better education? What's the experience like for the rest of the population? Does the school system suffer from the charter-associated drains in funding, personnel and, perhaps, children with high potential (if charter assignment isn't a pure lottery)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

This has never worked anywhere. Ever.

Not true.

I have family in Arizona and Florida. Kids attend charter schools. And they are way better than what my kids get here in MCPS. Language starting in elementary school. Better Math curriculum.

Clearly the current system isn’t working. Time to try something else. Model it after an area that has successfully implemented charter schools.

I don't believe you at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add some charter schools to light a fire under the a$$ of MCPS. Make them compete for students. That will change things fast. Our elementary school sucks and nothing changes, year after year.

This has never worked anywhere. Ever.

Not true.

I have family in Arizona and Florida. Kids attend charter schools. And they are way better than what my kids get here in MCPS. Language starting in elementary school. Better Math curriculum.

Clearly the current system isn’t working. Time to try something else. Model it after an area that has successfully implemented charter schools.

The issue is the curriculum, not the schools. Two different issues. Not all charters will provide that.