Anyone else educated by FCPS and sees the decline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked by how little my kids are learning. Also by all the distruptions caused by kids who probably aren't being well served by a general ed classroom. One kid wears headphones all day because he gets stressed by the noise and starts throwing a fit when he is stressed. Why would you put him in a classroom of 30+ kids? He can't hear what the teacher is saying at all.

Because the law dictates that he must be in the least restrictive environment (LRE), or in other words, a classroom of 30 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went through FCPS schools in the 1990s with many brilliant and dedicated teachers. At the time, elementary school teachers were largely Boomer and Greatest Generation women who had fewer career options, which meant that more of the best students became teachers. Now teachers are often just sweet, middling girls from Longwood, etc. and they aren’t able to teach what they don’t have themselves.

If teaching became a higher paid job perhaps it would start attracting better candidates again.

Mean, but true, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

But that’s highly unlikely. We have a Republican in the Governor’s office and there’s not been a peep about it moving forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

But that’s highly unlikely. We have a Republican in the Governor’s office and there’s not been a peep about it moving forward.

I disagree with your assessment that it’s highly unlikely. It’d happen at the state level, which is much more purple than Fairfax. I’m guessing they’re just waiting for the blowback from the upcoming boundary changes to pounce. It’s a great strategy for them. All they need are some disgruntled Fairfax families to be able to push vouchers through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

But that’s highly unlikely. We have a Republican in the Governor’s office and there’s not been a peep about it moving forward.

I disagree with your assessment that it’s highly unlikely. It’d happen at the state level, which is much more purple than Fairfax. I’m guessing they’re just waiting for the blowback from the upcoming boundary changes to pounce. It’s a great strategy for them. All they need are some disgruntled Fairfax families to be able to push vouchers through.

NoVa dem voters will convince themselves that the current and future state of FCPS is the right path.

They are incapable of admitting that unmitigated immigration and an equity-driven agenda are bad policy positions for fear of being called racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

But that’s highly unlikely. We have a Republican in the Governor’s office and there’s not been a peep about it moving forward.

I disagree with your assessment that it’s highly unlikely. It’d happen at the state level, which is much more purple than Fairfax. I’m guessing they’re just waiting for the blowback from the upcoming boundary changes to pounce. It’s a great strategy for them. All they need are some disgruntled Fairfax families to be able to push vouchers through.

It’s not the upcoming boundary changes in Fairfax that are going to accelerate the Republicans attempting to push through vouchers. It’s going to be the change in accreditation standards, which are going to result in large numbers of FCPS schools (and at least 25% of the high schools) being labeled as “failing” because they are risk of losing their accreditation. When that happens the Republicans will start saying people deserve alternatives and use that as the pretext to support vouchers and defund public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

But that’s highly unlikely. We have a Republican in the Governor’s office and there’s not been a peep about it moving forward.

I disagree with your assessment that it’s highly unlikely. It’d happen at the state level, which is much more purple than Fairfax. I’m guessing they’re just waiting for the blowback from the upcoming boundary changes to pounce. It’s a great strategy for them. All they need are some disgruntled Fairfax families to be able to push vouchers through.

NoVa dem voters will convince themselves that the current and future state of FCPS is the right path.

They are incapable of admitting that unmitigated immigration and an equity-driven agenda are bad policy positions for fear of being called racist.

Since when does FCPS establish immigration policy? They are required by law to educate the kids who show up at their doors.

[Anonymous]

You can thank No Child Left Behind and introduction of standardized tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can thank No Child Left Behind and introduction of standardized tests.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

That’s a Republican wet dream. Underfund schools for decades, complain about the quality, and then defund for the final nail in the coffin.

Why do they hate public schools so much? I don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

That’s a Republican wet dream. Underfund schools for decades, complain about the quality, and then defund for the final nail in the coffin.

Why do they hate public schools so much? I don’t get it.

Because FCPS is trying to bring everyone down to an equally mediocre level. It ain’t rocket science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

That’s a Republican wet dream. Underfund schools for decades, complain about the quality, and then defund for the final nail in the coffin.

Why do they hate public schools so much? I don’t get it.

There is nationally billions of taxpayer dollars going into public schools that private charter schools can profit off of. Think about all of the government contracting we see in this area and all of the money made off of that. It’s the same concept. I don’t hate charter schools but they are not automatically better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

That’s a Republican wet dream. Underfund schools for decades, complain about the quality, and then defund for the final nail in the coffin.

Why do they hate public schools so much? I don’t get it.

The Republicans see public schools as an opportunity to build opposition to Democratic policies at the national level relating to immigration and DEI. Youngkin's administration is on path now to deny accreditation to a slew of FCPS schools in a year or two, declare them "failing schools," blame others for the problem, and offer vouchers (and lower funding for public schools) as the "solution."

It's opportunistic and unfortunate, but one reason that it resonates with some people is that the Democrats in charge of systems like FCPS have also made it clear that they resent wealthier public schools and communities. They do plenty on their own to reduce support for public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If school choice/vouchers becomes a thing we are going to see enrollment drop to the floor.

But that’s highly unlikely. We have a Republican in the Governor’s office and there’s not been a peep about it moving forward.

I disagree with your assessment that it’s highly unlikely. It’d happen at the state level, which is much more purple than Fairfax. I’m guessing they’re just waiting for the blowback from the upcoming boundary changes to pounce. It’s a great strategy for them. All they need are some disgruntled Fairfax families to be able to push vouchers through.

NoVa dem voters will convince themselves that the current and future state of FCPS is the right path.

They are incapable of admitting that unmitigated immigration and an equity-driven agenda are bad policy positions for fear of being called racist.

Sadly, this is exactly what will happen. It happened to MoCo schools. Same thing in NYC, and now Seattle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went through FCPS schools in the 1990s with many brilliant and dedicated teachers. At the time, elementary school teachers were largely Boomer and Greatest Generation women who had fewer career options, which meant that more of the best students became teachers. Now teachers are often just sweet, middling girls from Longwood, etc. and they aren’t able to teach what they don’t have themselves.

If teaching became a higher paid job perhaps it would start attracting better candidates again.

Mean, but true, unfortunately.

Yes unfortunately, the people becoming teachers not are the bottom of the barrel in terms of skills. Most people that are capable would rather take a job that pays better.