Is it time to break into smaller school districts in MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing happened in MKE.

Someone is conflating the City of Milwaukee public schools district with the town districts throughout Milwaukee county. Property tax rates per $100 of home value are indeed high in Milwaukee and Chicago.

Many many states do not do the asinine huge 500k-5 million+ population county thing for the school district level. That doesn’t serve anyone well and results in $$$$ billion mismanaged budgets and one size fits all curriculum fails. Too many students, too many admins, too many teachers, too many zip codes, too many cities/villages, too many square miles, to many dollars flying around.

OK, but Maryland does, and MCPS is in Maryland.

That’s OPs point: huge county level public school districts are highly ineffective and worse. Township model is better.

500 sq miles
220 schools
160,000 students
600-800 students per MS and HS grade
Biggest employer in the county
5 weather zones
Takes 90 minutes to drive across in rush hour

DCPS is the real turnaround story since 2004. charter school success, NW DC schools kicking @$$ academically and athletically, free PK for all for decades, everyone walks to school, strong Pk-8 curriculum, great ECs in ES. Only downside is the $2k per kid pta fees for non title 1 schools since DC doesn’t give those schools much of the kitty.

LOL
What DCPS turnaround you're talking about?

DCPS is a turnaround story. Michelle Rhee successfully broke the Teacher’s union, awarded more pay for better teacher performance, fired poor performing principals, lotteried off the extra seats in schools that we’re not at full capacity in places like Cleveland Park (because those kids attend privates). After she left, her lieutenant, Kaya Henderson continued with these reforms for many, many years. DC also allowed charter schools which gave parents a choice.

+1000

Meanwhile MCPS 2011 onward:
Paid itself to make the failed k-8 Curriculum 2.0
Ramped up MAP and Pearson annual testing
Got rid of finals in HS
Rounded grades for MS and HS
New cohort driver to go to Center for Excellence (fka Gifted centers)
50% of students test below grade level in math and reading
Scrapped discipline for restorative justice conversations
30 mins a week gym class (national minimum, DCPS has 3 PE/week for ES)
Made 90 min blocks of reading and math by getting rid art, PE, music frequency
Severely overcrowded schools with trailer classrooms

Meanwhile DCPS 2011 onward:

90% of the students test below grade level in math and reading
Over 50% of HS graduates can't read
0ver 75% of HS graduates can't do basic math
No discipline whatsoever
Truancy is rampant.
No gifted programs .
It's McDonald's or jail for the vast majority.

That’s all false, get the update. And it’s Yale or jail. Plus all the free GW, AU, Gtown college course you can take for free and for credit if you’re gifted. What does mcps do, send you to moco community college?

Dcps is the same barbell as MCPS: tons of good performing students, and tons of terrible performing students. But mcps really takes the cake for self-imposed destruction of the whole system for everybody. Dcps doesn’t do that.

And why does mcps only have even gifted programs or magnets seats for 1% of its students and not 4-5% like other districts in VA, NY, ma, etc. Must not have enough talented students that need a bigger challenge, right?

It's all true.

Nope, no Tons of good performing students in DCPS.

MCPS programs are for the truly Gifted, not for the above-average students or the delusional parents. That's why even though it is small, it is one of the best programs in the nation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS blows. It was once a good school district. It is no longer.

Still no one in the DC area can compete with MCPS.

[Anonymous]

My Public HS way back out town had our own school district and had mansions with no kids and lucrative commercial property tax base. We had maybe 15-16 minorities in my 1,000 person HS.

We had an equestrian team, go kart racing, Olympic pool, 32 tennis courts, free drivers Ed, free SAT tutors was glorious not sending out tax dollars to support deadbeats in other towns

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. You guys just want all the rich white people in one school district and all of the poor people in another one. Not happenin' captain.

please explain to me how a south/north split would have all the "rich white people" in one district and all the "poor people" in another when the southern district would include Bethesda and Potomac (which I assume you mean to indicate is full of rich white people) and DCC which has a lot of "poor people".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Public HS way back out town had our own school district and had mansions with no kids and lucrative commercial property tax base. We had maybe 15-16 minorities in my 1,000 person HS.

We had an equestrian team, go kart racing, Olympic pool, 32 tennis courts, free drivers Ed, free SAT tutors was glorious not sending out tax dollars to support deadbeats in other towns

That's nice. Why don't you raise your kids there so they don't have to mix with poor kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. You guys just want all the rich white people in one school district and all of the poor people in another one. Not happenin' captain.

please explain to me how a south/north split would have all the "rich white people" in one district and all the "poor people" in another when the southern district would include Bethesda and Potomac (which I assume you mean to indicate is full of rich white people) and DCC which has a lot of "poor people".

People arguing on DCUM about the imaginary boundaries of an imaginary school district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Public HS way back out town had our own school district and had mansions with no kids and lucrative commercial property tax base. We had maybe 15-16 minorities in my 1,000 person HS.

We had an equestrian team, go kart racing, Olympic pool, 32 tennis courts, free drivers Ed, free SAT tutors was glorious not sending out tax dollars to support deadbeats in other towns

That's nice. Why don't you raise your kids there so they don't have to mix with poor kids?

we try, but some are convinced that if only illiterate poor kids could only wittiness my kids doing algebra and going to lacrosse practice then hundreds of years of being exploited and abused will disappear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing happened in MKE.

Someone is conflating the City of Milwaukee public schools district with the town districts throughout Milwaukee county. Property tax rates per $100 of home value are indeed high in Milwaukee and Chicago.

Many many states do not do the asinine huge 500k-5 million+ population county thing for the school district level. That doesn’t serve anyone well and results in $$$$ billion mismanaged budgets and one size fits all curriculum fails. Too many students, too many admins, too many teachers, too many zip codes, too many cities/villages, too many square miles, to many dollars flying around.

OK, but Maryland does, and MCPS is in Maryland.

That’s OPs point: huge county level public school districts are highly ineffective and worse. Township model is better.

500 sq miles
220 schools
160,000 students
600-800 students per MS and HS grade
Biggest employer in the county
5 weather zones
Takes 90 minutes to drive across in rush hour

DCPS is the real turnaround story since 2004. charter school success, NW DC schools kicking @$$ academically and athletically, free PK for all for decades, everyone walks to school, strong Pk-8 curriculum, great ECs in ES. Only downside is the $2k per kid pta fees for non title 1 schools since DC doesn’t give those schools much of the kitty.

LOL
What DCPS turnaround you're talking about?

DCPS is a turnaround story. Michelle Rhee successfully broke the Teacher’s union, awarded more pay for better teacher performance, fired poor performing principals, lotteried off the extra seats in schools that we’re not at full capacity in places like Cleveland Park (because those kids attend privates). After she left, her lieutenant, Kaya Henderson continued with these reforms for many, many years. DC also allowed charter schools which gave parents a choice.

+1000

Meanwhile MCPS 2011 onward:
Paid itself to make the failed k-8 Curriculum 2.0
Ramped up MAP and Pearson annual testing
Got rid of finals in HS
Rounded grades for MS and HS
New cohort driver to go to Center for Excellence (fka Gifted centers)
50% of students test below grade level in math and reading
Scrapped discipline for restorative justice conversations
30 mins a week gym class (national minimum, DCPS has 3 PE/week for ES)
Made 90 min blocks of reading and math by getting rid art, PE, music frequency
Severely overcrowded schools with trailer classrooms

Meanwhile DCPS 2011 onward:

90% of the students test below grade level in math and reading
Over 50% of HS graduates can't read
0ver 75% of HS graduates can't do basic math
No discipline whatsoever
Truancy is rampant.
No gifted programs .
It's McDonald's or jail for the vast majority.

That’s all false, get the update. And it’s Yale or jail. Plus all the free GW, AU, Gtown college course you can take for free and for credit if you’re gifted. What does mcps do, send you to moco community college?

Dcps is the same barbell as MCPS: tons of good performing students, and tons of terrible performing students. But mcps really takes the cake for self-imposed destruction of the whole system for everybody. Dcps doesn’t do that.

And why does mcps only have even gifted programs or magnets seats for 1% of its students and not 4-5% like other districts in VA, NY, ma, etc. Must not have enough talented students that need a bigger challenge, right?

Anytime someone using the but we get free classes or Pre-K as a reason to subject their kids to DC school I always laugh thinking how people forget you get what you pay for. DC Pre-K is so much more yuck compared to private play schools and a nanny

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous

That’s all false, get the update. And it’s Yale or jail. Plus all the free GW, AU, Gtown college course you can take for free and for credit if you’re gifted. What does mcps do, send you to moco community college?

Dcps is the same barbell as MCPS: tons of good performing students, and tons of terrible performing students. But mcps really takes the cake for self-imposed destruction of the whole system for everybody. Dcps doesn’t do that.

And why does mcps only have even gifted programs or magnets seats for 1% of its students and not 4-5% like other districts in VA, NY, ma, etc. Must not have enough talented students that need a bigger challenge, right?

You need to learn more about what MCPS is doing because they're way ahead of you. They announced they're expanding the IB magnet to 2 ti 6 schools a year or two ago. This is being gradually phased in. Expect the same thing to happen with STEM once they learn from this process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You need to learn more about what MCPS is doing because they're way ahead of you. They announced they're expanding the IB magnet to 2 ti 6 schools a year or two ago. This is being gradually phased in. Expect the same thing to happen with STEM once they learn from this process.

It's not being gradually phased in, it's already happened. There's the county-wide (for now) application IB magnet at RM, and there are also regional application IB magnets at Watkins Mill, Springbrook, and Kennedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta get the poors their own district.

It's not about that. It's about how local needs are different. Poolesville has different weather patterns than Silver Spring. They probably need way more school closures than we do in the southern part of the county.

Most of the covid cases are also in the east side of the county. North county is green. They should be able to open at least hybrid, but they can't because we are one school district.

Yep get the poors with their wage-working Covid-carrying parents outta my school district

You can look at it that way, or you could look at it as a way for the poorer areas to be able to address their needs more easily. They would not have to wait in line to get the hvac fixed along with a whole lot of other schools.

Taxes go to the county. The county could provide more funds to the certain districts, much like Title 1 funding.

Our cluster has about 25% FARMS rate, with at least one Title 1 school, so it's not like we have no FARMs kids[/quote

This - even think about distance learning. The needs are totally different. We are all sitting here working remotely while some kids have parents working their hourly jobs. Those schools/districts could think about the best way to accommodate their students. If the $ were divided equitably and dollars were set aside for Title I or high Farms schools, it could make a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Public HS way back out town had our own school district and had mansions with no kids and lucrative commercial property tax base. We had maybe 15-16 minorities in my 1,000 person HS.

We had an equestrian team, go kart racing, Olympic pool, 32 tennis courts, free drivers Ed, free SAT tutors was glorious not sending out tax dollars to support deadbeats in other towns

That's nice. Why don't you raise your kids there so they don't have to mix with poor kids?

we try, but some are convinced that if only illiterate poor kids could only wittiness my kids doing algebra and going to lacrosse practice then hundreds of years of being exploited and abused will disappear.

Yeah, when you speak wistfully of the school that only had 15 minorities, you don’t get to sympathize with the history of the downtrodden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. You guys just want all the rich white people in one school district and all of the poor people in another one. Not happenin' captain.

please explain to me how a south/north split would have all the "rich white people" in one district and all the "poor people" in another when the southern district would include Bethesda and Potomac (which I assume you mean to indicate is full of rich white people) and DCC which has a lot of "poor people".

Because if we split up the district Potomac and bathesda will definitely secede from silver spring/Wheaton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Public HS way back out town had our own school district and had mansions with no kids and lucrative commercial property tax base. We had maybe 15-16 minorities in my 1,000 person HS.

We had an equestrian team, go kart racing, Olympic pool, 32 tennis courts, free drivers Ed, free SAT tutors was glorious not sending out tax dollars to support deadbeats in other towns

Free SAT tutoring for people living in mansions. Totally fair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. You guys just want all the rich white people in one school district and all of the poor people in another one. Not happenin' captain.

please explain to me how a south/north split would have all the "rich white people" in one district and all the "poor people" in another when the southern district would include Bethesda and Potomac (which I assume you mean to indicate is full of rich white people) and DCC which has a lot of "poor people".

Because if we split up the district Potomac and bathesda will definitely secede from silver spring/Wheaton

If they could do this after the split what's to stop them from doing it now? I've already seen posts of them trying to.