Second community meeting on Choice Study?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's laughable that someone would think the magnet program should reflect the demographics of the county. If that's what mcps is after, then those programs should be removed indeed.

I'll translate - we don't need to spend resources outside of what benefits my child.
Or more to the point -I don't care about brown kids. If the program is 100 % white and Asian all the better.

Bingo.

NP, I don't think that's what people are saying. I, for one, think they should offer more free after school academic programs for low income kids. I think people just feel that kids of all races should be treated equally regarding admissions to these programs.

[Anonymous]

So why should the demographics of the magnet reflect the demographics of the county? Should special ed? Should ESOL? Should sports teams? How about the juggling club?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have Special Ed programs? Why have ESOL programs? Why have sports in school?

All of this costs money and if we remove ESOL and Sp Ed programs then we will have more money for general education.

Of course they do and money is always tight and people have to fight for special programs in every budget cycle. But ESOL and Special Ed have mandates and federal money behind them. Anyone who wants to maintain or expand magnets needs to have a better argument than money is spent other places why not here. Anyway, the costs and justifications are spelled out in the Choice Study.

If it's because the funding is so tight that MCPS have to decide between special education programs and gift programs. I support SE wholeheartedly. If there is funding allocated for gifted program, I want it be a fair game by that I mean the county can decide whatever criteria to use for admission, or allocate more funding to support the preparation of the URM group, but the criteria must be objective, and skin-color be out of the picture completely. My 5 grader Asian boy thinks he is "black" in summer and "white" in winter, call him dumb but the fact is kids are not born with race consciousness. It's the adults who keep reminding and reinforcing they each belongs to a specific group. One of my friends of mixed Asian/Black always fills "black" for their kids race because a simple thing as to check a different box will instantly broaden the opportunities of their kids. Some may think it's fair and is as the compensation to the black/latino's suffering in the past. I just think it's absurd.

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

Fill it in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why should the demographics of the magnet reflect the demographics of the county? Should special ed? Should ESOL? Should sports teams? How about the juggling club?

How do you think that the demographics of sports teams (overall, not individual teams) compare to the county demographics, and why do you think that is so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

If your history is so great, tell us about what happened to Asian Americans in the history of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

If your history is so great, tell us about what happened to Asian Americans in the history of the country.

This is not History Day at the Suffering Olympics. Plenty of groups have had plenty of suffering, which plenty of people are ignorant about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

If your history is so great, tell us about what happened to Asian Americans in the history of the country.

This is not History Day at the Suffering Olympics. Plenty of groups have had plenty of suffering, which plenty of people are ignorant about.

Right, so no need to base admissions criteria on which group historically suffered the most in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

If your history is so great, tell us about what happened to Asian Americans in the history of the country.

This is not History Day at the Suffering Olympics. Plenty of groups have had plenty of suffering, which plenty of people are ignorant about.

Right, so no need to base admissions criteria on which group historically suffered the most in this country.

Nobody is proposing to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

If your history is so great, tell us about what happened to Asian Americans in the history of the country.

This is not History Day at the Suffering Olympics. Plenty of groups have had plenty of suffering, which plenty of people are ignorant about.

Right, so no need to base admissions criteria on which group historically suffered the most in this country.

Nobody is proposing to do that.

I think we've come back full circle. There are some who are arguing that mcps should do this very thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why should the demographics of the magnet reflect the demographics of the county? Should special ed? Should ESOL? Should sports teams? How about the juggling club?

How do you think that the demographics of sports teams (overall, not individual teams) compare to the county demographics, and why do you think that is so?

I have no idea. I assume they reflect the interest and abilities of the students as all programs should. That is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why should the demographics of the magnet reflect the demographics of the county? Should special ed? Should ESOL? Should sports teams? How about the juggling club?

How do you think that the demographics of sports teams (overall, not individual teams) compare to the county demographics, and why do you think that is so?

I have no idea. I assume they reflect the interest and abilities of the students as all programs should. That is the point.

But do they? You don't know. Also, why would the interest and abilities of the students vary by demographic group? And, if they do, for [reasons], are those [reasons] acceptable, or do they suggest problems that MCPS should address?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Latinos suffering?!?! When? Don't recall that...

Then there is a gap in your knowledge of history.

If your history is so great, tell us about what happened to Asian Americans in the history of the country.

This is not History Day at the Suffering Olympics. Plenty of groups have had plenty of suffering, which plenty of people are ignorant about.

Right, so no need to base admissions criteria on which group historically suffered the most in this country.

Nobody is proposing to do that.

I think we've come back full circle. There are some who are arguing that mcps should do this very thing.

Who is arguing that MCPS should base admissions criteria on which group historically suffered the most in this country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have Special Ed programs? Why have ESOL programs? Why have sports in school?

All of this costs money and if we remove ESOL and Sp Ed programs then we will have more money for general education.

Of course they do and money is always tight and people have to fight for special programs in every budget cycle. But ESOL and Special Ed have mandates and federal money behind them. Anyone who wants to maintain or expand magnets needs to have a better argument than money is spent other places why not here. Anyway, the costs and justifications are spelled out in the Choice Study.

I think having special programs is great. It really makes a school district attractive to parents that want more than just a standard education for their kids. It's one of the reasons we moved here. I like that we have different options, whether we use them or not. I hope they don't gut it. Our previous school district has very little in the way of magnet, gifted, special programs, yet it's a pretty wealthy area.

So far, nothing about the Choice Study has been about eliminating the programs. Still similar programs have been slashed across the country and the privates and the expensive summer camps are expanding into gifted education.

And this hurts low/middle income kids more than the wealthy kids, which would probably increase the achievement gap. Even more reason to expand programs in public schools.

In theory yes, but in reality the magnets are mostly populated by kids who already have outside enrichment and who's parents would only do more if the school programs were to disappear. If the Choice Study were worth anything it would have examined these issues instead of just re-hashing demographics. I've had kids in magnets and I believe in them, but there's no question that the kids in those programs are mostly from a different cross section of the county than the ones you're worried about. They were attending writing workshops and youth orchestras and themed summer camps to say nothing of tutoring. These are all good things, but the question remains at this point how possible is it for a bright student with nothing but a plain jane MCPS education to get an offer from SMAC or RM?