MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

It fell apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Bannon's (and Russia's) Ultra-Right propaganda strategy. Focus on local politics. Undermine from within. If you don't feel safe at home, you're more likely to support using violent measures. It works. It's how Hitler rose to power.

That sounds a lot like what the Democrats are doing!

Keep the public in a constant state of fear and ‘crisis’ with regards to Covid. Implement as many mandates and useless restrictions as possible. Keep people feeling scared and unsafe so that you can implement whatever policy changes you choose. Censor any opposing ideas.

No. Only one side tried to overthrow the government, and are actively subverting the vote in state after state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Montgomery County Board of Education this week voted to approve a $168.7 million contract to lease hundreds of electric school buses over the next 16 years.

It is reportedly the largest local government bus order in U.S. history.

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/27/montgomery-school-system-deal-to-lease-electric-buses-called-historic/

The worst part is I don't think anyone calculated how much energy that would require on the Montgomery County electric grid? Or if these things can recharge overnight?

Where are the electric buses? Did they ever arrive?

It’s a good question. They were supposed to receive the first 25 for this school year and another 61 next year. This would be a good story for a reporter to follow-up on, considering that the top transportation employees are being investigated for undisclosed reasons.

MCPS really needs an IG to investigate waste, fraud and abuse. It’s a massive failure of governance that it doesn’t, considering the size of its budget. For example, MCPS has a higher budget than US EPA gets for the cleanup of contaminated Superfund sites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

It fell apart.

Agreed. It has already fallen apart. Parents are just becoming more aware of it. Maybe due to COVID highlighting the extreme dysfunction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Montgomery County Board of Education this week voted to approve a $168.7 million contract to lease hundreds of electric school buses over the next 16 years.

It is reportedly the largest local government bus order in U.S. history.

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/27/montgomery-school-system-deal-to-lease-electric-buses-called-historic/

The worst part is I don't think anyone calculated how much energy that would require on the Montgomery County electric grid? Or if these things can recharge overnight?

Where are the electric buses? Did they ever arrive?

It’s a good question. They were supposed to receive the first 25 for this school year and another 61 next year. This would be a good story for a reporter to follow-up on, considering that the top transportation employees are being investigated for undisclosed reasons.

MCPS really needs an IG to investigate waste, fraud and abuse. It’s a massive failure of governance that it doesn’t, considering the size of its budget. For example, MCPS has a higher budget than US EPA gets for the cleanup of contaminated Superfund sites.

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have come to the conclusion that MCPS is incapable of reform.

How can there can reform when people keep voting the same old way?

Yep. The decline in the school system goes hand in hand with the decline in the county. Both are a result of the one-party rule. The ‘progressive’ Democratic politicians have run the school system into the ground. They clearly don’t care about our students and/or our students’ safety. They prefer to espouse progressive policies (Defund the police! Sanctuary county! Eliminate SROs! Restorative Justice!) that have made things so much worse over this past decade. Our kids don’t have a chance.

Sounds like Florida or Texas would be more your speed. Enjoy!

I'd wager the PP is from FL or TX and just paid to post their right-wing views here. The thing is very few people in this county vote for these right-wing policies because they know that's only going to make things worse. As someone who graduated fromMCPS around 30 years ago, my kids are getting a vastly better education today and things seem much better to me. I guess I'm just not one of these half-empty folks that love to complain about everything here.

NP - Why would anyone waste their money trying to persuade people of anything on a MCPS forum?

And, we've read your "vastly better education" on many different threads and have refuted it with data. If you feel that MCPS gives your children an excellent education, why are you on a "MCPS is Broken" thread?

I wrote the “enjoy” post. I went to several grades in TX and know what a joke their public school systems are. Can’t speak to Florida.

I’m a yellow dog Democrat who is pro public schools and anti vouchers. “Enjoy” was sarcasm. The person I was responding to was railing against “the progressive Democrats” ruining MCPS. You seriously need all this explained to you?

And the “paid poster” line is too stupid to merit a response, but no, obviously. Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

This is the story of American education over the past 50 years or so (at least). The country doesn’t spend sufficiently on social services. But we have an educational mandate so these kids are mandated to attend school and the schools are mandated to take them. What exactly are the schools supposed to do with kids that are hungry, traumatized, maybe suffering the effects of various illnesses and/or birth defects, maybe don’t speak English… the schools are forced to fill in the gaps in the social services because these kids are thrust upon them. I remember in the &0s there were al others articles complaining that the per capita cost of education in DC and LA was so high, despite poor performing schools—and I was like, no kidding—-those schools are acting as schools and social services. We just put it all in the school budget as our big fiscal lie.

People forget that 100 years ago, most poor mids only went to school until 3rd grade or 8th grade if they were lucky. In my dad’s class, there were only a few that went to HS. Kids came in with no English skills or with disabilities and were allowed to just flounder for a couple years, then quit to work in the fields, factories, etc. My Dad had an army Sergeant that couldn’t read because he never made it past third grade—but I guess someone passed him through to sign up in Ww2.

These issues might be newer for McpS because it was historically a pretty rich suburb but the world’s population keeps growing and urbanization is spreading everywhere. As a country, we need a better social safety net than our schools. Or if we insist that schools do this, we should at least be honest about it and give them the funding and staffing to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

This is the story of American education over the past 50 years or so (at least). The country doesn’t spend sufficiently on social services. But we have an educational mandate so these kids are mandated to attend school and the schools are mandated to take them. What exactly are the schools supposed to do with kids that are hungry, traumatized, maybe suffering the effects of various illnesses and/or birth defects, maybe don’t speak English… the schools are forced to fill in the gaps in the social services because these kids are thrust upon them. I remember in the &0s there were al others articles complaining that the per capita cost of education in DC and LA was so high, despite poor performing schools—and I was like, no kidding—-those schools are acting as schools and social services. We just put it all in the school budget as our big fiscal lie.

People forget that 100 years ago, most poor mids only went to school until 3rd grade or 8th grade if they were lucky. In my dad’s class, there were only a few that went to HS. Kids came in with no English skills or with disabilities and were allowed to just flounder for a couple years, then quit to work in the fields, factories, etc. My Dad had an army Sergeant that couldn’t read because he never made it past third grade—but I guess someone passed him through to sign up in Ww2.

These issues might be newer for McpS because it was historically a pretty rich suburb but the world’s population keeps growing and urbanization is spreading everywhere. As a country, we need a better social safety net than our schools. Or if we insist that schools do this, we should at least be honest about it and give them the funding and staffing to do so.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

This is the story of American education over the past 50 years or so (at least). The country doesn’t spend sufficiently on social services. But we have an educational mandate so these kids are mandated to attend school and the schools are mandated to take them. What exactly are the schools supposed to do with kids that are hungry, traumatized, maybe suffering the effects of various illnesses and/or birth defects, maybe don’t speak English… the schools are forced to fill in the gaps in the social services because these kids are thrust upon them. I remember in the &0s there were al others articles complaining that the per capita cost of education in DC and LA was so high, despite poor performing schools—and I was like, no kidding—-those schools are acting as schools and social services. We just put it all in the school budget as our big fiscal lie.

People forget that 100 years ago, most poor mids only went to school until 3rd grade or 8th grade if they were lucky. In my dad’s class, there were only a few that went to HS. Kids came in with no English skills or with disabilities and were allowed to just flounder for a couple years, then quit to work in the fields, factories, etc. My Dad had an army Sergeant that couldn’t read because he never made it past third grade—but I guess someone passed him through to sign up in Ww2.

These issues might be newer for McpS because it was historically a pretty rich suburb but the world’s population keeps growing and urbanization is spreading everywhere. As a country, we need a better social safety net than our schools. Or if we insist that schools do this, we should at least be honest about it and give them the funding and staffing to do so.

+1000

This is completely true. Schools are expected to fill every gap, then everyone is upset when schools don’t meet the mandate of providing education.

There also needs to be recognition that at some point, some students are actually dangerous to others and need to be in a separate facility where they can get services and earn the privilege back of being in the regular schools. I understand that these facilities may not have worked in the past but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

This is the story of American education over the past 50 years or so (at least). The country doesn’t spend sufficiently on social services. But we have an educational mandate so these kids are mandated to attend school and the schools are mandated to take them. What exactly are the schools supposed to do with kids that are hungry, traumatized, maybe suffering the effects of various illnesses and/or birth defects, maybe don’t speak English… the schools are forced to fill in the gaps in the social services because these kids are thrust upon them. I remember in the &0s there were al others articles complaining that the per capita cost of education in DC and LA was so high, despite poor performing schools—and I was like, no kidding—-those schools are acting as schools and social services. We just put it all in the school budget as our big fiscal lie.

People forget that 100 years ago, most poor mids only went to school until 3rd grade or 8th grade if they were lucky. In my dad’s class, there were only a few that went to HS. Kids came in with no English skills or with disabilities and were allowed to just flounder for a couple years, then quit to work in the fields, factories, etc. My Dad had an army Sergeant that couldn’t read because he never made it past third grade—but I guess someone passed him through to sign up in Ww2.

These issues might be newer for McpS because it was historically a pretty rich suburb but the world’s population keeps growing and urbanization is spreading everywhere. As a country, we need a better social safety net than our schools. Or if we insist that schools do this, we should at least be honest about it and give them the funding and staffing to do so.

+1000

This is completely true. Schools are expected to fill every gap, then everyone is upset when schools don’t meet the mandate of providing education.

There also needs to be recognition that at some point, some students are actually dangerous to others and need to be in a separate facility where they can get services and earn the privilege back of being in the regular schools. I understand that these facilities may not have worked in the past but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.

And that's the beauty of technology. We now have online schooling which eliminates the need for buildings to house dangerous or extremely disruptive students. Kids who are the expelled can attend online school and those suspended can temporarily do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a problem that hasn’t been discussed on this thread. MCPS is losing enrollment, which means that it’s losing state and federal funding. And yet, it spends more and more and more money acting as a social welfare agency instead of teaching. How long is this tenable before things fall apart?

This is the story of American education over the past 50 years or so (at least). The country doesn’t spend sufficiently on social services. But we have an educational mandate so these kids are mandated to attend school and the schools are mandated to take them. What exactly are the schools supposed to do with kids that are hungry, traumatized, maybe suffering the effects of various illnesses and/or birth defects, maybe don’t speak English… the schools are forced to fill in the gaps in the social services because these kids are thrust upon them. I remember in the &0s there were al others articles complaining that the per capita cost of education in DC and LA was so high, despite poor performing schools—and I was like, no kidding—-those schools are acting as schools and social services. We just put it all in the school budget as our big fiscal lie.

People forget that 100 years ago, most poor mids only went to school until 3rd grade or 8th grade if they were lucky. In my dad’s class, there were only a few that went to HS. Kids came in with no English skills or with disabilities and were allowed to just flounder for a couple years, then quit to work in the fields, factories, etc. My Dad had an army Sergeant that couldn’t read because he never made it past third grade—but I guess someone passed him through to sign up in Ww2.

These issues might be newer for McpS because it was historically a pretty rich suburb but the world’s population keeps growing and urbanization is spreading everywhere. As a country, we need a better social safety net than our schools. Or if we insist that schools do this, we should at least be honest about it and give them the funding and staffing to do so.

+1000

This is completely true. Schools are expected to fill every gap, then everyone is upset when schools don’t meet the mandate of providing education.

There also needs to be recognition that at some point, some students are actually dangerous to others and need to be in a separate facility where they can get services and earn the privilege back of being in the regular schools. I understand that these facilities may not have worked in the past but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.

And that's the beauty of technology. We now have online schooling which eliminates the need for buildings to house dangerous or extremely disruptive students. Kids who are the expelled can attend online school and those suspended can temporarily do so.

Woop dee doo.

People forget that 20 years ago, MCPS was the envy of the DC area and had outstanding academic programs and fewer overall issues. People also forget that it took only 20 years to turn MCPS into the state it is in now.

You can try to blame covid or parents or society all you want (if you just moved into this area or don't even live here and are just some troll shooting off their mouth), but those of us who have been here a while know better. Wasting money on electric buses and kids museum instead of fixing deteriorating older schools, bolstering core programs and stronger covid protection measures, infecting 9 percent of the student body, trying to call in the National Guard to bus kids to school, using unqualified subs to teach kids because 2100 teachers got covid, turning the Magnet program into the gambling casino of your kid's future, gerrymandering school boundaries, not having district voters vote for only their own BOE district reps, spendings millions on legal defense instead of focusing on improvement - and the list goes on and on.

Keep singing Happy Happy Joy Joy all you want, but things won't change if you're an apologist and blindly accept what's happening here.

[Anonymous]

Most of these ideas seem terrible. I think things are fine the way they are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Woop dee doo.

People forget that 20 years ago, MCPS was the envy of the DC area and had outstanding academic programs and fewer overall issues. People also forget that it took only 20 years to turn MCPS into the state it is in now.

You can try to blame covid or parents or society all you want (if you just moved into this area or don't even live here and are just some troll shooting off their mouth), but those of us who have been here a while know better. Wasting money on electric buses and kids museum instead of fixing deteriorating older schools, bolstering core programs and stronger covid protection measures, infecting 9 percent of the student body, trying to call in the National Guard to bus kids to school, using unqualified subs to teach kids because 2100 teachers got covid, turning the Magnet program into the gambling casino of your kid's future, gerrymandering school boundaries, not having district voters vote for only their own BOE district reps, spendings millions on legal defense instead of focusing on improvement - and the list goes on and on.

Keep singing Happy Happy Joy Joy all you want, but things won't change if you're an apologist and blindly accept what's happening here.

+1,000,000

Thank you! This is a perfect summation of the mess we are in due to misplaced priorities and poor leadership. I could not agree with you more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of these ideas seem terrible. I think things are fine the way they are now.

LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of these ideas seem terrible. I think things are fine the way they are now.

And if I worked for the MC Board, MCPS Central Office, a paid Office of Communications contractor or a Bannon troll - I'd think so too!