MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

DP. You lack a good sense of the demographics of this county, have an overactive imagination and seem mentally stuck in the past.

Let me fix it for you. De facto economic segregation.

Wealthy areas not wanting to agree to pay enough taxes to bring all schools up to the levels their schools, alone, with their less challenging demographics, coild achieve if self-funded with existing taxes. Same for other infrastructure (roads, parks, etc.).

We can get high quality schools/programs on a pan-county basis, but it takes the political will both to fund that and to keep opportunities roughly equivalemt across the geography.

I’m all for fully funding public schools, but if money alone was all that determined educational outcomes, DCPS would be the best public school system in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The report you linked says no such thing. In fact, it identified TWELVE publicly owned sites that are candidates for schools and recommended one of those, the MCPS owned former Forest Grove ES as the site for a new ES.

I'm not the PP but I read that report. What struck me was how improbable/costly a lot of those options were. Costly both monetarily (Parkside) and in terms of the community (Silver Spring Intermediate Park, Wheaton Forest Park, Nolte Park). Between them, there are a bunch of neighborhood parks that have been used by the community for 80 years, a medical clinic, a historic site, a social services provider, and multiple childcare centers.

If these are being offered as "proof" that there is plenty of land for development, I'm not convinced. Further, there was one site on that last that could even possibly be used for anything but an ES and that site is suboptimal in about 15 different ways.

No school space, yet the County Planning board seems to want more high-density housing? Limits SFH zoning in the Thrive 2050 plan?

Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program and other affordable housing programs to provide price-regulated units appropriate for income levels ranging from deeply affordable to workforce.
https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/master-plan-list/general-plans/thrive-montgomery-2050/

Couldn't find any plans about schools though?

Thrive is not aimed at homeowners, except for those who plan to sell to developers. It's aimed at the future voting base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

DP. You lack a good sense of the demographics of this county, have an overactive imagination and seem mentally stuck in the past.

Let me fix it for you. De facto economic segregation.

Wealthy areas not wanting to agree to pay enough taxes to bring all schools up to the levels their schools, alone, with their less challenging demographics, coild achieve if self-funded with existing taxes. Same for other infrastructure (roads, parks, etc.).

We can get high quality schools/programs on a pan-county basis, but it takes the political will both to fund that and to keep opportunities roughly equivalemt across the geography.

I’m all for fully funding public schools, but if money alone was all that determined educational outcomes, DCPS would be the best public school system in the country.

We don't need to provide equivalent outcomes, just equivalent opportunities. And that means considerably more funding for a highly heterogenous demographic school (especially socio-economically)than for a highly homogeneous one. It's more costly to address the needs of outliers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that will fix MCPS is breaking it up into smaller districts.

No child should be in a building with 2000 other children on any given day.

The other students didn't care enough about the Magruder victim to let anyone know he was dying alone. Jailyn was left out in the woods under a bridge without a word from the school about him missing.
No one helped him at school.

Mcps is a machine that cates about tests and lowering the achievement gap and doesn't have a single God damn about the kids.

Children need schools that can space kids 3 feet apart.
Children need schools that know or care if they have been left for dead in a bathrooms or if their body is out in the woods for weeks.

Children need classrooms with connections and mentors.
There should be no 30 kids in a kindergarten class.

This doesn't even make any sense. Even if you broke MCPS into smaller districts, it would not mean the schools themselves are smaller. Let's say you make BCC, Whitman, and WJ and all of their feeders into one district. That does not actually make each individual school any smaller, nor does it reduce class size.

You are on a rant here, it's obvious, but you haven't even thought about it long enough to come up with a suggestion that would make a lick of difference.

Its not going to fix things and in schools, like down county where there is a consortium, it would then take away school choice. All it would do is seperate them under different leadership, but you'd still have the same everything except if they built more schools.

Right, and you can't build more schools in the places that need them the most badly because there are no appropriately-sized lots for sale.

I mean, if folks want to use their precious time on planet Earth to try to change the Maryland state constitution and break up county schools, they can. They probably won't succeed, but they can try. However, folks need to understand that even if they get a smaller district, they won't get smaller schools.

First, you are completely missing the reason why people would want to break MCPS up. MCPS as a district is too big to be appropriately administered and this actually used by an excuse by MCPS itself and people on here for why things cannot be better. It’s in the top 20 largest school districts in the country by enrollment. None of the districts with higher enrollment are known for high quality education.

Second, this is a red herring but there are actually ridiculously a lot unutilized school facilities and MCPS property that can be reclaimed and used for schools, if that is the goal (it’s not). In the Bethesda alone off the top of my head there are: Radnor (unused), Lawton Rec Center (MCPS owned and former junior high), Lynnbrook (unused), Ayrlawn (rented to YMCA), Fernwood (leased to Woods Academy), Rollingwood (leased to Lycee Rochambeau), and Randolph Junior High (leased to Charles E Smith Jewish Day School).

Most of those sites are really small, not up to the 750 ES, 1200 MS and 2700 HS sizes we have now.

First you say there is no land for schools and when it’s pointed out that there is a lot of MCPS land for schools all over, you excuse is a lane statement that the sites are too small?

The SCMS site was smaller than MCPS standards, which is what the neighbors used to complain about site selection and loss of a neighborhood park. But wow, they were able to actually build a functional school there without problem.

Whatever your point is, trust me it’s wrong. Give it a rest.

This was a land survey done in Silver Spring for potential sites for future elementary schools or middle schools. They would likely have to take over another community park

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/facilities/rem/Cluster_Report_Downcounty.pdf

So many MCPS properties in tight/already developed areas were given to private interests, even if educational. And they got them for a song -- some on highly favorable terms (e.g., below market rents worth millions, cumulatively) and/or with penalty clauses in case the county ever tried to take them back for public use (also amounting to many millions). Getting them back becomes a sacred cow/third rail. That's what set us up for sacrificing very limited parkland in these areas.

The county effectively gives the common wealth to a small number of favored groups, and they absolutely don't (and didn't) need to do so. Same is happening for new developments that are being given exemptions from development obligations toward public infrastructure (or rebates to the same effect). Think of that, and the related positions among candidates for County Council/Executive, when going to the ballot box.

+1000 This.

From property to impact taxes to consulting contracts, MCPS’s resources have been systematically attacked and hollowed out by soft corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

DP. You lack a good sense of the demographics of this county, have an overactive imagination and seem mentally stuck in the past.

Let me fix it for you. De facto economic segregation.

Wealthy areas not wanting to agree to pay enough taxes to bring all schools up to the levels their schools, alone, with their less challenging demographics, coild achieve if self-funded with existing taxes. Same for other infrastructure (roads, parks, etc.).

We can get high quality schools/programs on a pan-county basis, but it takes the political will both to fund that and to keep opportunities roughly equivalemt across the geography.

I’m all for fully funding public schools, but if money alone was all that determined educational outcomes, DCPS would be the best public school system in the country.

We don't need to provide equivalent outcomes, just equivalent opportunities. And that means considerably more funding for a highly heterogenous demographic school (especially socio-economically)than for a highly homogeneous one. It's more costly to address the needs of outliers.

DP. Sure. Fine with that. It happens now here in this county where high FARMS schools get significantly more than non FARMS. What's the outcome been like??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

DP. You lack a good sense of the demographics of this county, have an overactive imagination and seem mentally stuck in the past.

Let me fix it for you. De facto economic segregation.

Wealthy areas not wanting to agree to pay enough taxes to bring all schools up to the levels their schools, alone, with their less challenging demographics, coild achieve if self-funded with existing taxes. Same for other infrastructure (roads, parks, etc.).

We can get high quality schools/programs on a pan-county basis, but it takes the political will both to fund that and to keep opportunities roughly equivalemt across the geography.

I’m all for fully funding public schools, but if money alone was all that determined educational outcomes, DCPS would be the best public school system in the country.

We don't need to provide equivalent outcomes, just equivalent opportunities. And that means considerably more funding for a highly heterogenous demographic school (especially socio-economically)than for a highly homogeneous one. It's more costly to address the needs of outliers.

DP. Sure. Fine with that. It happens now here in this county where high FARMS schools get significantly more than non FARMS. What's the outcome been like??

Sure, but that's why we need more funding overall. If we need to address high-FARMS/Title I with differential funding, it comes out of the overall MCPS budget pie. So...more taxes. Or less spending elsewhere.

Or we could argue for better management, but splitting up the county just leaves more of a haves & have nots on any of these fronts than we do today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

DP. You lack a good sense of the demographics of this county, have an overactive imagination and seem mentally stuck in the past.

Let me fix it for you. De facto economic segregation.

Wealthy areas not wanting to agree to pay enough taxes to bring all schools up to the levels their schools, alone, with their less challenging demographics, coild achieve if self-funded with existing taxes. Same for other infrastructure (roads, parks, etc.).

We can get high quality schools/programs on a pan-county basis, but it takes the political will both to fund that and to keep opportunities roughly equivalemt across the geography.

I’m all for fully funding public schools, but if money alone was all that determined educational outcomes, DCPS would be the best public school system in the country.

We don't need to provide equivalent outcomes, just equivalent opportunities. And that means considerably more funding for a highly heterogenous demographic school (especially socio-economically)than for a highly homogeneous one. It's more costly to address the needs of outliers.

DP. Sure. Fine with that. It happens now here in this county where high FARMS schools get significantly more than non FARMS. What's the outcome been like??

Sure, but that's why we need more funding overall. If we need to address high-FARMS/Title I with differential funding, it comes out of the overall MCPS budget pie. So...more taxes. Or less spending elsewhere.

Or we could argue for better management, but splitting up the county just leaves more of a haves & have nots on any of these fronts than we do today.

What are you going to do with that extra funding that we already aren't doing?? Kids are getting free breakfast, lunches and in some cases weekend meals. There's free tutoring. In some high schools, free health services for students and their families. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Many want SROs back for an extra later of safety but there's no political will to do that and that was coming out of the MCPD budget anyway. We could add more mental health workers but thats already in the budget..they just didn't hire them. What would you do with the extra funding to fix schools exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

DP. You lack a good sense of the demographics of this county, have an overactive imagination and seem mentally stuck in the past.

Let me fix it for you. De facto economic segregation.

Wealthy areas not wanting to agree to pay enough taxes to bring all schools up to the levels their schools, alone, with their less challenging demographics, coild achieve if self-funded with existing taxes. Same for other infrastructure (roads, parks, etc.).

We can get high quality schools/programs on a pan-county basis, but it takes the political will both to fund that and to keep opportunities roughly equivalemt across the geography.

I’m all for fully funding public schools, but if money alone was all that determined educational outcomes, DCPS would be the best public school system in the country.

We don't need to provide equivalent outcomes, just equivalent opportunities. And that means considerably more funding for a highly heterogenous demographic school (especially socio-economically)than for a highly homogeneous one. It's more costly to address the needs of outliers.

DP. Sure. Fine with that. It happens now here in this county where high FARMS schools get significantly more than non FARMS. What's the outcome been like??

Sure, but that's why we need more funding overall. If we need to address high-FARMS/Title I with differential funding, it comes out of the overall MCPS budget pie. So...more taxes. Or less spending elsewhere.

Or we could argue for better management, but splitting up the county just leaves more of a haves & have nots on any of these fronts than we do today.

You are not making a point or at least one that makes any sense. Class sizes through elementary grades at high FARMS schools are capped at about 75% class sizes for low FARMS schools. Funds to support opportunity for these kids are never cut. Beyond Title I schools, MCPS extended this to what they have defined as “Focus” schools, which is essentially schools in Takoma Park so white people can get lower class sizes because some high FARMS kids don’t live near them but close enough.

In ES, there are fully funded programs for ESL. There are fully funded programs for counseling. Fully funded programs to support reading. Etc. MCPS has dedicated significant resources to these kids to provide equality of opportunity. If you talk to teachers, what you would find out is that these resources are not highly effective for many kids because they come to school unprepared. There is only so much you can do in school.

[Anonymous]

How to fix MCPS? Make lying to the Public a crime?

MCPS spent 1.6 M on Kids Museum, 160M on electric buses and has a billion dollar budget. If they say they need more funding overall, or that they can't pay teachers, etc. I don't buy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that will fix MCPS is breaking it up into smaller districts.

No child should be in a building with 2000 other children on any given day.

The other students didn't care enough about the Magruder victim to let anyone know he was dying alone. Jailyn was left out in the woods under a bridge without a word from the school about him missing.
No one helped him at school.

Mcps is a machine that cates about tests and lowering the achievement gap and doesn't have a single God damn about the kids.

Children need schools that can space kids 3 feet apart.
Children need schools that know or care if they have been left for dead in a bathrooms or if their body is out in the woods for weeks.

Children need classrooms with connections and mentors.
There should be no 30 kids in a kindergarten class.

This doesn't even make any sense. Even if you broke MCPS into smaller districts, it would not mean the schools themselves are smaller. Let's say you make BCC, Whitman, and WJ and all of their feeders into one district. That does not actually make each individual school any smaller, nor does it reduce class size.

You are on a rant here, it's obvious, but you haven't even thought about it long enough to come up with a suggestion that would make a lick of difference.

Its not going to fix things and in schools, like down county where there is a consortium, it would then take away school choice. All it would do is seperate them under different leadership, but you'd still have the same everything except if they built more schools.

Right, and you can't build more schools in the places that need them the most badly because there are no appropriately-sized lots for sale.

I mean, if folks want to use their precious time on planet Earth to try to change the Maryland state constitution and break up county schools, they can. They probably won't succeed, but they can try. However, folks need to understand that even if they get a smaller district, they won't get smaller schools.

First, you are completely missing the reason why people would want to break MCPS up. MCPS as a district is too big to be appropriately administered and this actually used by an excuse by MCPS itself and people on here for why things cannot be better. It’s in the top 20 largest school districts in the country by enrollment. None of the districts with higher enrollment are known for high quality education.

Second, this is a red herring but there are actually ridiculously a lot unutilized school facilities and MCPS property that can be reclaimed and used for schools, if that is the goal (it’s not). In the Bethesda alone off the top of my head there are: Radnor (unused), Lawton Rec Center (MCPS owned and former junior high), Lynnbrook (unused), Ayrlawn (rented to YMCA), Fernwood (leased to Woods Academy), Rollingwood (leased to Lycee Rochambeau), and Randolph Junior High (leased to Charles E Smith Jewish Day School).

Most of those sites are really small, not up to the 750 ES, 1200 MS and 2700 HS sizes we have now.

First you say there is no land for schools and when it’s pointed out that there is a lot of MCPS land for schools all over, you excuse is a lane statement that the sites are too small?

The SCMS site was smaller than MCPS standards, which is what the neighbors used to complain about site selection and loss of a neighborhood park. But wow, they were able to actually build a functional school there without problem.

Whatever your point is, trust me it’s wrong. Give it a rest.

This was a land survey done in Silver Spring for potential sites for future elementary schools or middle schools. They would likely have to take over another community park

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/facilities/rem/Cluster_Report_Downcounty.pdf

So many MCPS properties in tight/already developed areas were given to private interests, even if educational. And they got them for a song -- some on highly favorable terms (e.g., below market rents worth millions, cumulatively) and/or with penalty clauses in case the county ever tried to take them back for public use (also amounting to many millions). Getting them back becomes a sacred cow/third rail. That's what set us up for sacrificing very limited parkland in these areas.

The county effectively gives the common wealth to a small number of favored groups, and they absolutely don't (and didn't) need to do so. Same is happening for new developments that are being given exemptions from development obligations toward public infrastructure (or rebates to the same effect). Think of that, and the related positions among candidates for County Council/Executive, when going to the ballot box.

I feel like these issues used to be a big scandal but at some point in the last decade they were lost from the collective memory and we don’t hear about it anymore. I would guess that it is probably linked to the lack of reporting on local issues due to WaPo closing the Gazette and seemingly no longer assigning a reporter to the local MoCo beat. Also, with more entrenched one party rule there seems to be less concern within the government for oversight. It’s a recipe for disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How to fix MCPS? Make lying to the Public a crime?

MCPS spent 1.6 M on Kids Museum, 160M on electric buses and has a billion dollar budget. If they say they need more funding overall, or that they can't pay teachers, etc. I don't buy it.

I didn’t know they spent $160 million on electric buses. Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I'd like to see MCPS follow MSDE's school size guidelines:

https://pgcabs.org/2015/07/21/smaller-is-better-maryland-state-department-of-education-publishes-school-size-study-pg-high-school-sizes-vary-widely/

The Maryland State Department of Education has released a report on school size and its impact on education. The study finds that after school enrollment reaches a point where economies of scale no longer decrease operating costs, smaller schools are usually better.

The research team recommends that enrollment limits be set according to school level (i.e. elementary, middle, high) with a maximum of 700 students per elementary school, 900 students per middle school, and 1,700 students per high school. The report clarifies that these are recommended maximum limits, not necessarily optimal enrollment numbers.

1,700 in a HS? Not 2500-3000? that would be wonderful!

How will this ever be affordable considering the lastest immigrant influx?

Bingo. Elephant has arrived. Until county leadership is honest about the number of ghost students in MCPS than your district is not going to get better. There is an agenda in the county to ‘grow’ the Democratic Party base that is directly at odds with building a solid school system for current residents. Hard to do without significant funds for these new students from either the Feds or their host countries largely in the Northern Triangle who have successfully transferred the education of many of their young citizens to the tax payers of Montgomery County. Hats off to Casa de Maryland - one of the most successful advocate organizations around. Impressive two step from these poor countries. El Salvador just accepted Bitcoin to increase the speed of their remittances from citizens here back home to their country. Press 9 for brilliant. Although IMF is pressuring them to dump it - due to volatility. It was largely due to save on Western Union fees.

All true. Pretending to ignore the effects of recent immigration trends on MCPS is ridiculous.

Thank you! Finally a rational person enters the debate….your school system is in decline and until you recognize ALL of the factors you have no hope. Calling everyone a racist isn’t a policy change. Also your pols want to grow the Democratic Party because they don’t want to simply stay in their MoCo roles! It’s called ambition. Gosh some of you are dense. If you want to be governor for instance (and you are from Moco) you will need a lot of Hispanic voters let’s say to offset your losses on the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland. Look for your pols to next push for undocumented citizens to vote - just like New York’s recently introduced bill. Betting Casa de Maryland is working on the language (in English and Spanish) as I type. They are absolutely a force to be admired - and your schools are largely at the mercy of their agenda.

[Anonymous]

As far as what to do with extra funding, maybe

Fix the dilapidated structures so that we don't have some kids learning in brand new facilities with ample programming space and others in facilites that lack programming space, have active leaks, terrible HVAC and closed bathroom facilities from sewage backup.

Ensure better access to classes for kids on IEPs with enough specialists so that there isn't a tug on the individual school administration to properly accommodate. Right now, there is a tendency to try to offload kids with special needs.

Ensure that any kid identified as needing accelerated or enriched instruction is afforded that either in situ, if there is a local cohort, or in a nearby center/magnet, if not. Right now, there are schools that don't offer all the options, there are others that don't address the needs of all the kids identified and there aren't even close to the number of center/magnet/special program seats to accommodate the need.

Ensure teacher supplies are funded by the school system instead of by appeals to parent donations (or out of the teachers' pockets).

Pay enough to retain high quality teachers, identify where they are and incentivize serving at schools to roughly equalize their distribution across the county. Pay enough to ensure high quality substitutes, too, so that there's real learning happening on days when a teacher (gasp!) gets sick or has some other life event for which the rest of us normally take leave. (Your enterprise has a continuity of operations plan for such, I hope!)

Ensure meaningful, robust and flexible virtual options for those that need it.

I mean, just look at all the requests and ideas on DCUM, from MCCPTA and from parents or students at the BOE metings. Envision how those get accomplished in a way that is fair to students/families on the basis of serving individual needs with equivalent opportunities. It takes $ to make most of that happen.

Do it well, and think of the effect. We'd be talking about regular boundary changes to address operational needs instead of gerrymandered boundary changes for equity's sake.

[Anonymous]

Kick out the children of citizens who don’t pay taxes and don’t want to be in school. If the parents are on welfare and the kids refuse to act appropriate in school, there’s no use wasting money on educating them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How to fix MCPS? Make lying to the Public a crime?

MCPS spent 1.6 M on Kids Museum, 160M on electric buses and has a billion dollar budget. If they say they need more funding overall, or that they can't pay teachers, etc. I don't buy it.

I didn’t know they spent $160 million on electric buses. Seriously?

DP

There is SO much wasted money in MCPS. Once you start paying attention, you’ll be appalled.