Is it time for private school vouchers in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how big of an exodus we would see from the DCC form all those parents who say they love those schools if the had a life line out they could honestly afford? I bet all that Blair love would fly out the window if they could afford better or get out. It always comes off as sour grapes

Points for the savvy attempt to drive a wedge there.

We are down county and we can comfortably afford to move today. I went to one of the schools that are "good" schools and had several friends transfer out and I would have if my parents allowed it. My parents were too selfish to care. We deliberately bought a house to avoid those schools. I'd do private over those schools. And, I wouldn't do Blair either. Its a bit funny how W school parents move out of the area to avoid the schools to drive their kids to Blair.

Smart kids will do well anywhere. But, smart kids at a "lesser" school will have an easier time with college acceptances.

Sure they will because the high SES school kids are known for struggling to keep up the outcomes of the low SES schools that is like the “real rich people are the ones with the cheap house on the poor side of town compared to those people struggling with their million dollar mortgages” argument. Sure I am sure it happens but not 99.9% of the time. Rich schools produce rich outcomes and rich people live on the rich side of town. You’re just rationalizing your station like it was part of your plan. Hopefully your kids will get that good outcome at that “lesser” school and do better than you…. If they are lucky

I'd rather save the money for college and graduate school vs. pay more for a house. You have high achievers at the lower SES schools. Don't kid yourself. We make more than many of the W families we know but they are house poor and we aren't. They worry about paying for college and we've had ours funded fully for college and graduate school. We can afford to supplement, pay for tutors and what ever we want because we aren't house poor. Its just self segregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how big of an exodus we would see from the DCC form all those parents who say they love those schools if the had a life line out they could honestly afford? I bet all that Blair love would fly out the window if they could afford better or get out. It always comes off as sour grapes

Points for the savvy attempt to drive a wedge there.

Not going to be Whitman parents jumping at vouchers.

Actually some will be. Whitman is great for some kids, not for others. Its about the students needs, not the zip code.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the economics. Where does 16k a kid go? Seems that 4 kids pay the teachers salary but class sizes are 20-25.

MCPS wastes an enormous amount of money. It’s insane. Plus the salaries of Central Office employees.

Look through DCUM for some threads about the enormous waste in MCPS.

Part of the issue is that MCPS is just too big and doesn’t have any oversight.

Yeah. But how much would hiring a lot of people and doing lots of audits cost?

How much do MCPS meetings that are never followed up on cost?

Privates are smaller and therefore more flexible to meet the needs of students.

MCPS is huge and doesn’t give a damn if children are educated. Leaders are constantly vying for that next promotion or lucrative contract hire after they leave MCPS. Even MCPS leadership doesn’t think that the schools are good enough for their children who are enrolled in private schools.

MCPS is fine. I think the real problem is bad parents. Their children would fail pretty much anywhere.

You definitely work for the schools. I swear I got this line from DC’s teacher back in first grade after dyslexia diagnosis (although county would not and still won’t use that word).

What did you do to fix it? Anyone with a child who needs help, knows not to rely on MCPS

Oh I fixed it…left, thank you very much teacher! Now, what do YOU do for these children for your salary as a public servant for the hours you have them? I’ll take my answer off the air. Don’t have a lifetime to wait…

I don't do anything for your kids as I am not their parent, MCPS employee, babysitter or anything else. I am a parent tired of complainers. I have a child who had some SN and we dealt with it. If you wait for MCPS to deal with it, you will be waiting a long time.. These kids are YOUR kids. Stop trying to dump them off on someone else.

I mean, why do we even have public schools if it's all the parents' responsibility? We're throwing $3B a year at MCPS. That's a total waste of money if they don't actually have any responsibility for educating kids.

Totally agree (NP), this is just a bizarre argument and it shows up all the time here. Sure, your kids are ultimately your responsibility. The legality of your actions are also your responsibility, but if you pay a lawyer to defend you in court, you expect a service to be rendered. You are greatly responsible for the state of your own health, but if you pay a doctor, you expect medical services. Somehow, MCPS thinks they should be paid billions of dollars, and yet have no obligation to provide effective services, i.e. an education... because "your kids are your responsibility."

Pay us, but don't "dump" your kids on us. ???

I mean even beyond the politics, I don't even get the logic of this "defense."

I never get the logic of your argument, when MCPS is an entire district not one person. Some doctors are great, some okay, and some you hate and switch. Same with lawyers and law firms. Guess what, same is true with teachers, and principals, and specialist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you take your child out of MCPS if there was a private school voucher program so Montgomery County residents had school choice?

Sure, if you want to ruin any chance of an average family getting their kids a great education.

yeah, giving families MORE choice really ruins that

I've lived in areas with school choice. There is a lot less choice involved than you seem to think. Especially for SN kids. My friends here in the DMV who exercised school choice with charters, then moving on to small private schools, etc?

All of their school "choices" ended up wrong. Wrong fit, or counseled out. So their kids ended up going to multiple schools, which made a lot of the issues worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you take your child out of MCPS if there was a private school voucher program so Montgomery County residents had school choice?

Sure, if you want to ruin any chance of an average family getting their kids a great education.

yeah, giving families MORE choice really ruins that

I've lived in areas with school choice. There is a lot less choice involved than you seem to think. Especially for SN kids. My friends here in the DMV who exercised school choice with charters, then moving on to small private schools, etc?

All of their school "choices" ended up wrong. Wrong fit, or counseled out. So their kids ended up going to multiple schools, which made a lot of the issues worse.

One is now homeschooled, and another is at Fusion, which as I understand is like homeschooling for 45k.

We stuck with Moco for our 2e kid and they're thriving in IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how big of an exodus we would see from the DCC form all those parents who say they love those schools if the had a life line out they could honestly afford? I bet all that Blair love would fly out the window if they could afford better or get out. It always comes off as sour grapes

Points for the savvy attempt to drive a wedge there.

We are down county and we can comfortably afford to move today. I went to one of the schools that are "good" schools and had several friends transfer out and I would have if my parents allowed it. My parents were too selfish to care. We deliberately bought a house to avoid those schools. I'd do private over those schools. And, I wouldn't do Blair either. Its a bit funny how W school parents move out of the area to avoid the schools to drive their kids to Blair.

Smart kids will do well anywhere. But, smart kids at a "lesser" school will have an easier time with college acceptances.

Sure they will because the high SES school kids are known for struggling to keep up the outcomes of the low SES schools that is like the “real rich people are the ones with the cheap house on the poor side of town compared to those people struggling with their million dollar mortgages” argument. Sure I am sure it happens but not 99.9% of the time. Rich schools produce rich outcomes and rich people live on the rich side of town. You’re just rationalizing your station like it was part of your plan. Hopefully your kids will get that good outcome at that “lesser” school and do better than you…. If they are lucky

I'd rather save the money for college and graduate school vs. pay more for a house. You have high achievers at the lower SES schools. Don't kid yourself. We make more than many of the W families we know but they are house poor and we aren't. They worry about paying for college and we've had ours funded fully for college and graduate school. We can afford to supplement, pay for tutors and what ever we want because we aren't house poor. Its just self segregation.

Yes, there are strong high-achieving cohorts at almost every school in the county. The big difference is whether you school offers 4 sections of AP English or 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you take your child out of MCPS if there was a private school voucher program so Montgomery County residents had school choice?

Sure, if you want to ruin any chance of an average family getting their kids a great education.

yeah, giving families MORE choice really ruins that

I've lived in areas with school choice. There is a lot less choice involved than you seem to think. Especially for SN kids. My friends here in the DMV who exercised school choice with charters, then moving on to small private schools, etc?

All of their school "choices" ended up wrong. Wrong fit, or counseled out. So their kids ended up going to multiple schools, which made a lot of the issues worse.

Ya they have choice in DC but all the good choices are overwhelmed so almost nobody gets those and your worse off than if they had regular public.

[Anonymous]

The standards of education in MCPS has been in a death spiral since 2.0 and escalated during the pandemic closures. There are no due dates, plenty of redos, and minimum 50% for any attempt. There are not enough magnet slots for the exceptional students who want the opportunity. The needs of students with disabilities are often ignored. Beyond these issues is a failure to provide a safe school environment. Student fights are on the rise, bullying goes unaddressed, students bring knives and guns to school campus, a female student at Springbrook was sexually assaulted, a male student at Magruder was shot, and a Northwest student was murdered.

Enough is enough. MCPS doesn’t listen to the concerns of parents and students. School choice would give Montgomery County residences options for their child’s education. Perhaps MCPS would stop taking parents and students for granted and actually improve education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The standards of education in MCPS has been in a death spiral since 2.0 and escalated during the pandemic closures. There are no due dates, plenty of redos, and minimum 50% for any attempt. There are not enough magnet slots for the exceptional students who want the opportunity. The needs of students with disabilities are often ignored. Beyond these issues is a failure to provide a safe school environment. Student fights are on the rise, bullying goes unaddressed, students bring knives and guns to school campus, a female student at Springbrook was sexually assaulted, a male student at Magruder was shot, and a Northwest student was murdered.

Enough is enough. MCPS doesn’t listen to the concerns of parents and students. School choice would give Montgomery County residences options for their child’s education. Perhaps MCPS would stop taking parents and students for granted and actually improve education.

This.

Though I haven’t heard about the female student at Springbrook. What happened? Is there a link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The standards of education in MCPS has been in a death spiral since 2.0 and escalated during the pandemic closures. There are no due dates, plenty of redos, and minimum 50% for any attempt. There are not enough magnet slots for the exceptional students who want the opportunity. The needs of students with disabilities are often ignored. Beyond these issues is a failure to provide a safe school environment. Student fights are on the rise, bullying goes unaddressed, students bring knives and guns to school campus, a female student at Springbrook was sexually assaulted, a male student at Magruder was shot, and a Northwest student was murdered.

Enough is enough. MCPS doesn’t listen to the concerns of parents and students. School choice would give Montgomery County residences options for their child’s education. Perhaps MCPS would stop taking parents and students for granted and actually improve education.

This.

Though I haven’t heard about the female student at Springbrook. What happened? Is there a link?

Here’s a link: https://mobile.twitter.com/kevinlewis7news/status/1496935481090711556

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how big of an exodus we would see from the DCC form all those parents who say they love those schools if the had a life line out they could honestly afford? I bet all that Blair love would fly out the window if they could afford better or get out. It always comes off as sour grapes

Points for the savvy attempt to drive a wedge there.

We are down county and we can comfortably afford to move today. I went to one of the schools that are "good" schools and had several friends transfer out and I would have if my parents allowed it. My parents were too selfish to care. We deliberately bought a house to avoid those schools. I'd do private over those schools. And, I wouldn't do Blair either. Its a bit funny how W school parents move out of the area to avoid the schools to drive their kids to Blair.

Smart kids will do well anywhere. But, smart kids at a "lesser" school will have an easier time with college acceptances.

Sure they will because the high SES school kids are known for struggling to keep up the outcomes of the low SES schools that is like the “real rich people are the ones with the cheap house on the poor side of town compared to those people struggling with their million dollar mortgages” argument. Sure I am sure it happens but not 99.9% of the time. Rich schools produce rich outcomes and rich people live on the rich side of town. You’re just rationalizing your station like it was part of your plan. Hopefully your kids will get that good outcome at that “lesser” school and do better than you…. If they are lucky

I'd rather save the money for college and graduate school vs. pay more for a house. You have high achievers at the lower SES schools. Don't kid yourself. We make more than many of the W families we know but they are house poor and we aren't. They worry about paying for college and we've had ours funded fully for college and graduate school. We can afford to supplement, pay for tutors and what ever we want because we aren't house poor. Its just self segregation.

Yes, there are strong high-achieving cohorts at almost every school in the county. The big difference is whether you school offers 4 sections of AP English or 2.

If you have a high achieving student and there are only 2 classes offered because they don't have the numbers, then again, where is the big deal as long as your child gets a seat in that class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The standards of education in MCPS has been in a death spiral since 2.0 and escalated during the pandemic closures. There are no due dates, plenty of redos, and minimum 50% for any attempt. There are not enough magnet slots for the exceptional students who want the opportunity. The needs of students with disabilities are often ignored. Beyond these issues is a failure to provide a safe school environment. Student fights are on the rise, bullying goes unaddressed, students bring knives and guns to school campus, a female student at Springbrook was sexually assaulted, a male student at Magruder was shot, and a Northwest student was murdered.

Enough is enough. MCPS doesn’t listen to the concerns of parents and students. School choice would give Montgomery County residences options for their child’s education. Perhaps MCPS would stop taking parents and students for granted and actually improve education.

While you are 100% correct in your assessment, MCPS is only partially to blame for the virtual issues as if students/parents didn't log on and do the work, there was nothing MCPS could do but them dumbing down the curriculum last year and taking away class time was terrible.

Even if they gave vouchers it is pretty pointless because there aren't enough schools in the county/area to accept the vouchers. Someone would have to open up more privates and given the cost of land/building that would financially be very difficult. So, the vouchers wouldn't help those of us who want to leave MCPS escape, it would just help those in private or who want Catholic school pay for the programs they are already at.

They need to get rid of the board, and all the MCPS leadership and start over. They need to bring more police into the schools and staff for security. There is zero excuse for this violence to be happening.

[Anonymous]

This is what you get when you place diversity and inclusion over excellence and merit. China has more "honors" students than the US has students. Prepare accordingly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you take your child out of MCPS if there was a private school voucher program so Montgomery County residents had school choice?

Sure, if you want to ruin any chance of an average family getting their kids a great education.

yeah, giving families MORE choice really ruins that

I've lived in areas with school choice. There is a lot less choice involved than you seem to think. Especially for SN kids. My friends here in the DMV who exercised school choice with charters, then moving on to small private schools, etc?

All of their school "choices" ended up wrong. Wrong fit, or counseled out. So their kids ended up going to multiple schools, which made a lot of the issues worse.

One is now homeschooled, and another is at Fusion, which as I understand is like homeschooling for 45k.

We stuck with Moco for our 2e kid and they're thriving in IB.

MCPS will pay for a private for SN kids if they cannot meet the child's needs (and you sue them) but its those middle kids where parents don't feel MCPS is meeting the kids needs and want private. But, there are only a few schools for the SN kids and fusion isn't a real school and is more of a tutoring program. We had to pay for private for a few years as MCPS didn't meet our child's needs.

You have school choice. You just have to pay for it. Publics outside of SN should not have to pay for school choice. However, they are responsible for keeping kids safe and providing an education.

MCPS also offers virtual now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you take your child out of MCPS if there was a private school voucher program so Montgomery County residents had school choice?

Sure, if you want to ruin any chance of an average family getting their kids a great education.

yeah, giving families MORE choice really ruins that

I've lived in areas with school choice. There is a lot less choice involved than you seem to think. Especially for SN kids. My friends here in the DMV who exercised school choice with charters, then moving on to small private schools, etc?

All of their school "choices" ended up wrong. Wrong fit, or counseled out. So their kids ended up going to multiple schools, which made a lot of the issues worse.

Ya they have choice in DC but all the good choices are overwhelmed so almost nobody gets those and your worse off than if they had regular public.

If you think the angst over magnet programs in MCPS is bad, you should see the agonizing over charter choices and admissions in DCPS. It’s overwhelming and stressful and frustrating.