MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Real UMC can afford private school. But they'd rather fake pretend they are UMC while living in $1-2.5 million dollar homes and screaming poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Break up the "county runs one huge school system" model. We live in suburbs of a major city. Let's go to the suburban local school model, like those used in the burbs of Philly, Pittsburgh, and Westchester County NY. Local schools. Local school boards. Local control and decision making. There is no Apple Ballot or other machine running candidates through. You know who you are voting for, as you seem them at the grocery store, soccer fields, etc. and your kids are in the same schools as their kids. They know the issues. They and their families have to live out the same issues at school that your kids face. The one size fits all here is just not working.

Yep. I had this system growing up. Better accountability when it is town-based.

Never going to happen because, equity

Its not going to happen because we don't have towns.

[Anonymous]

Alright. Give me a damn voucher. I want out. The schools are failing my kids

[Anonymous]

Okay, then I want a voucher for military spending. The military is not meeting my personal security goals. Is that the way government works? I can think of a few more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, then I want a voucher for military spending. The military is not meeting my personal security goals. Is that the way government works? I can think of a few more.

Great plan. And, exactly how would that work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alright. Give me a damn voucher. I want out. The schools are failing my kids

Your voucher is your bank account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alright. Give me a damn voucher. I want out. The schools are failing my kids

Your voucher is your bank account.

I love the trash talk. It’s like that “everything is fine” meme while everything is burning and in flames around us.

Point blank, the deal is that if MCPS cannot reform itself vouchers and charters will be here a lot sooner than you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Break up the "county runs one huge school system" model. We live in suburbs of a major city. Let's go to the suburban local school model, like those used in the burbs of Philly, Pittsburgh, and Westchester County NY. Local schools. Local school boards. Local control and decision making. There is no Apple Ballot or other machine running candidates through. You know who you are voting for, as you seem them at the grocery store, soccer fields, etc. and your kids are in the same schools as their kids. They know the issues. They and their families have to live out the same issues at school that your kids face. The one size fits all here is just not working.

Yep. I had this system growing up. Better accountability when it is town-based.

Never going to happen because, equity

Its not going to happen because we don't have towns.

Well, we do have some but that's not how things work in this state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alright. Give me a damn voucher. I want out. The schools are failing my kids

Your voucher is your bank account.

I love the trash talk. It’s like that “everything is fine” meme while everything is burning and in flames around us.

Point blank, the deal is that if MCPS cannot reform itself vouchers and charters will be here a lot sooner than you know.

MCPS is great right now but if they start doing vouchers and charters you can forget getting an education here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Get out of your bubble. Talk to friends and family in other states. There are plenty of other districts that are doing right by their students. Especially for higher-performing students. MCPS does very little in terms of enrichment for higher performing kids in ES and MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alright. Give me a damn voucher. I want out. The schools are failing my kids

Your voucher is your bank account.

I love the trash talk. It’s like that “everything is fine” meme while everything is burning and in flames around us.

Point blank, the deal is that if MCPS cannot reform itself vouchers and charters will be here a lot sooner than you know.

MCPS is great right now but if they start doing vouchers and charters you can forget getting an education here.

“MCPS is great right now”?

Huh? There is literally nothing great about MCPS right now. The whole district is in chaos thanks to incompetent leadership. Everyone is just hoping to get their kids through before it gets appreciably worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that's broken here is you. MCPS is doing great.

Curious if this poster still feels that way now that we’ve had an in-school shooting and students begging MCPS that they don’t feel safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that's broken here is you. MCPS is doing great.

Curious if this poster still feels that way now that we’ve had an in-school shooting and students begging MCPS that they don’t feel safe.

This poster has their head in the sand. Ask any teacher and principal right now how MCPS is doing and I guarantee not a single one will say great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that's broken here is you. MCPS is doing great.

Curious if this poster still feels that way now that we’ve had an in-school shooting and students begging MCPS that they don’t feel safe.

They probably don't have kids in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Hey everybody! Let's all sing along with the MCPS Theme Song!

When you're living out a dream
Everything is better when we stick together
Side by side, you and I are gonna win forever
Let's party forever
We're the same, I'm like you, you're like me
We are working in harmony
Everything is awesome
Everything is cool when you're part of a team
Everything is awesome
When you're living out a dream