Should MCPS start busing or open enrollment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But seriously folks, if MoCo keeps botching curriculum 2.0, there won't be any good students or property value left.

Oh? Are property values in Montgomery County declining? Is enrollment in MCPS declining?

an excellent point - property values are going up and enrollment is going up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After read through all 10 pages, I conclude that most people complained about lack of diversity in W schools because they think low income families don't have any chance, rent or buy, to live in the community. A few people who actually live in red zone said they are happy with the education their children received and the school. They don't think their kids receive less education.
There are a lot of good teachers and a few bad teachers in each school. MCPS put a lots of special programs in less affluent HS that are not available to most of the W school. There were three HS programs in my W HS five years ago but only one left now.
Erasing achievement gap between schools by busing kids around will not erase the achievement gap between the up an d low perform students academically. You need to change the culture of some family to let kids believe academic achievement is more important than become a football or basketball player, or a pop star. Math is boring but will get you a decent life if you work hard.
Not all the kids from high SES wear brand named shoes or clothes or carry a fancy bag, nor all the kids has a smart phone. If you go to a MS/HS in red zone, you may find a lot of kids wear brand named jackets/shoes and carry smart phones. I am not sure many of them came from low SES families or on FARM. It is a choice of life style, or style.

Last time I checked the SES families all have smartphone, brand new sneakers, north face and more. But yet, we pay for their kids meals. Like you said, it is a lifestyle. If you are taught that you don't have to work hard to succeed, you never will. Welfare will help you get the things you need so you can have your money for things that you "want." The system is broke. That is the issue. Kids mimic their families, families are attached to a system that caters to them and never forces them off or watches what they do/spend with the money they do have. That will never ever change unless government assistance starts to offer mandatory volunteering or educational training for assistance received. See that you have applied to x amount of places and follow up. If these are done, your assistance starts going down off a sliding scale. Then maybe there will be more people accountable for themselves and start teaching their kids the same thing.

Checked with who? I work in a Title 1 school, very few of my kids have any of the things you describe, nor do their parents. It is not uncommon for families not to have phones at all, or to have phones that only have texting privileges and can't make calls.

Volunteering or job training is mandatory for families who receive TANF, unless they meet very specific requirements such as a mother with a newborn, or a person with certain disabilities. The job training is often very inflexible, and I'm often in the position of calling a mother to pick up a sick child, and having to fill out documentation to prove that the mother had a valid reason for leaving "work". I've also had parents "fired" from job training, which means a period of no cash benefits, because they came to school for a meeting after being told no by a supervisor.

I should also add that things are changing, there has been a dramatic decline in this country in the number of families receiving cash benefits, even while supports such s food stams that are aimed at the working poor have increased.

Honestly, when people talk about how they know that all Low SES families have smart phones or North Face, I have to wonder if they're just noticing a few black or brown people with smart phones or North Face and adding their own personal stereoptypes to assume that they must be on TANF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens to the social imbalances? The county can allow/force people to move between school districts. But that doesn't change where you come from.

So for example, if you live in a DCC cluster and are not wealthy and end up in a W district, how do you address some of social/financial inequities? Does your child just learn to feel left out? Does the local PTA take responsibility for paying for things like prom tickets that your family might not be able to afford?

Conversely, what about the W child who now goes to a DCC school. For years the child dreamed of HS in a certain manner--a car to drive, a limo to prom, the most fashionable clothes. Her neighbors go to the local W school and have this lifestyle. It's what she was brought up with and what she expects. But now her reality is very different and she is teased and mocked for her fashionable clothes. Her prom is not a high end production as her friends have but rather a lower cost dance.

That's not a real problem.

[Anonymous]

I have a high achieving kid who is bussed to GTLD center in a DCC MS that has 75% FARMS. There are no textbooks, no music program, no sports, three extracurriculars offered, no clubs, three ancient computers in the media center. There are daily incidents of violence, and MS13 recruitment efforts are strong. So my high achieving kid is lost in the shuffle because this school, which is under enrolled and utterly mismanaged, is singularly focused on discipline and control. He has been beaten up three times. We are leaving for private.

[Anonymous]

Should mcps start busing or open enrollment?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Last time I checked the SES families all have smartphone, brand new sneakers, north face and more. But yet, we pay for their kids meals. Like you said, it is a lifestyle. If you are taught that you don't have to work hard to succeed, you never will. Welfare will help you get the things you need so you can have your money for things that you "want." The system is broke. That is the issue. Kids mimic their families, families are attached to a system that caters to them and never forces them off or watches what they do/spend with the money they do have. That will never ever change unless government assistance starts to offer mandatory volunteering or educational training for assistance received. See that you have applied to x amount of places and follow up. If these are done, your assistance starts going down off a sliding scale. Then maybe there will be more people accountable for themselves and start teaching their kids the same thing.

Checked with who? I work in a Title 1 school, very few of my kids have any of the things you describe, nor do their parents. It is not uncommon for families not to have phones at all, or to have phones that only have texting privileges and can't make calls.

Volunteering or job training is mandatory for families who receive TANF, unless they meet very specific requirements such as a mother with a newborn, or a person with certain disabilities. The job training is often very inflexible, and I'm often in the position of calling a mother to pick up a sick child, and having to fill out documentation to prove that the mother had a valid reason for leaving "work". I've also had parents "fired" from job training, which means a period of no cash benefits, because they came to school for a meeting after being told no by a supervisor.

I should also add that things are changing, there has been a dramatic decline in this country in the number of families receiving cash benefits, even while supports such s food stamps that are aimed at the working poor have increased.

Honestly, when people talk about how they know that all Low SES families have smart phones or North Face, I have to wonder if they're just noticing a few black or brown people with smart phones or North Face and adding their own personal stereoptypes to assume that they must be on TANF.

PP read it on the Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/woman-a-leading-authority-on-what-shouldnt-be-in-p,35922/

With her remarkable ability to determine exactly how others should be allocating their limited resources for food, local woman Carol Gaither is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on what poor people should and should not have in their grocery carts, sources said Thursday...

[Anonymous]

I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

[Anonymous]

The comments about all the stuff FARMs kids have remind me of the overtly racist letter circulated by a "doctor" who talks about the crime of people coming to his emergency room and claiming to be poor, yet having fancy sneakers and hip-hop ring tones on their phone. It was part of an anti-Obamacare campaign and was intended to appeal to the basest most racist instincts of the reader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

What is your job that you know the identity of the FARMS kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But seriously folks, if MoCo keeps botching curriculum 2.0, there won't be any good students or property value left.

Oh? Are property values in Montgomery County declining? Is enrollment in MCPS declining?

an excellent point - property values are going up and enrollment is going up.

Property values are going up in certain sections (good school zones) but most are not. Enrollment is going up because of the big welcome mat MC offers illegal aliens. It is the #2 location in the country (not state, COUNTRY) that illegal aliens establish "residency." And that is why a dumbed down curriculum like 2.0 was put in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash."
John Berger

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash."
John Berger

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

What is your job that you know the identity of the FARMS kids?

Not the pp, but the FARMS kids also tend to be obese, that is because of all the starvation from poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

What is your job that you know the identity of the FARMS kids?

Not the pp, but the FARMS kids also tend to be obese, that is because of all the starvation from poverty.

Nope - because McDonald's is more cost effective than fruits and vegetables at the Supermarket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at Seneca Valley and can tell you first hand, the farms kids have iPhones and designer sneakers, jackets and jeans. The PP is right. Nothing but a crutch out taxes pay for to help people mismanage money. I 100% agree with Dr Ben Carson.

What is your job that you know the identity of the FARMS kids?

Not the pp, but the FARMS kids also tend to be obese, that is because of all the starvation from poverty.

Nope - because McDonald's is more cost effective than fruits and vegetables at the Supermarket.

+1. A pack of strawberries costs about 2.65. You can get a big mac for $1 or something close to this. When I was a young kid 35 years ago, a big mac was more expensice than a piece of fruit.