Schools by county versus town

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, where I'm from, each town has its own school district, and we all compared them to each other. This one is better than that one, ours is better than theirs for this reason or that reason... I would be surprised if there were no comparisons where you were from. Parents are concerned about the quality of their child's education.

I get what youre saying, but I feel like it happens more when every town in the county is one district. But that wasnt really the point of the post. I guess im just wondering from people who have experienced both, which system do you think works better and why? This is purely just me being curious since Im new to the county district thing.

We moved from a town based school system to county.

Pros: services are better in the county system because, yes, the budget is bigger, and you have economies of scale.

Cons: larger district has a wider range of kids with different needs.

For us, the town based school didn't have the type of service my DC needed. The county one did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, where I'm from, each town has its own school district, and we all compared them to each other. This one is better than that one, ours is better than theirs for this reason or that reason... I would be surprised if there were no comparisons where you were from. Parents are concerned about the quality of their child's education.

I get what youre saying, but I feel like it happens more when every town in the county is one district. But that wasnt really the point of the post. I guess im just wondering from people who have experienced both, which system do you think works better and why? This is purely just me being curious since Im new to the county district thing.

We moved from a town based school system to county.

Pros: services are better in the county system because, yes, the budget is bigger, and you have economies of scale.

Cons: larger district has a wider range of kids with different needs.

For us, the town based school didn't have the type of service my DC needed. The county one did.

Hi PP do you mind sharing what kind of services the county offered that the town school district didnt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, from new England and some towns had great schools because that's what the residents focused in, some had crappy schools. Fwiw the facilities and staff where I grew up (Newton MA) put ffx and MoCo to shame. Yes even at Whitman.

Newton is like Chevy Chase wealthy, not surprising

Yes, so the schools are like those Chevy Chase and McLean would have if the parents there weren't also subsiding the education for the kids in Wheaton and Annandale.

It's kind of bizarre how the liberals from New England seem to think that system is admirable.

Yes, I second this. The town system seems fantastic if you're in a rich town, but many more kids live in middling or poor towns. With a county system, the rich subsidize the poor so you get less of a vicious circle where the poor stay poor.

I agree with this too. I grew up in Fairfield County, CT and while many of the school districts are fantastic, Bridgeport, CT is a poor town (surrounded by wealthy ones) and their schools were TERRIBLE. They would have benefitted greatly from a county system.

Is that somehow different than a Bethesda school vs. a Wheaton or poor Silver Spring school....?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved the town school system where I grew up in NY state. My siblings loved it too. They send their kids to the same schools we attended. But they pay 5 times what I pay in property taxes in order to support those schools.

And the town imposes no income tax, as the county does. Comes out about the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, from new England and some towns had great schools because that's what the residents focused in, some had crappy schools. Fwiw the facilities and staff where I grew up (Newton MA) put ffx and MoCo to shame. Yes even at Whitman.

Newton is like Chevy Chase wealthy, not surprising

Yes, so the schools are like those Chevy Chase and McLean would have if the parents there weren't also subsiding the education for the kids in Wheaton and Annandale.

It's kind of bizarre how the liberals from New England seem to think that system is admirable.

Yes, I second this. The town system seems fantastic if you're in a rich town, but many more kids live in middling or poor towns. With a county system, the rich subsidize the poor so you get less of a vicious circle where the poor stay poor.

I agree with this too. I grew up in Fairfield County, CT and while many of the school districts are fantastic, Bridgeport, CT is a poor town (surrounded by wealthy ones) and their schools were TERRIBLE. They would have benefitted greatly from a county system.

Is that somehow different than a Bethesda school vs. a Wheaton or poor Silver Spring school....?

No, it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, from new England and some towns had great schools because that's what the residents focused in, some had crappy schools. Fwiw the facilities and staff where I grew up (Newton MA) put ffx and MoCo to shame. Yes even at Whitman.

Newton is like Chevy Chase wealthy, not surprising

Yes, so the schools are like those Chevy Chase and McLean would have if the parents there weren't also subsiding the education for the kids in Wheaton and Annandale.

It's kind of bizarre how the liberals from New England seem to think that system is admirable.

Yes, I second this. The town system seems fantastic if you're in a rich town, but many more kids live in middling or poor towns. With a county system, the rich subsidize the poor so you get less of a vicious circle where the poor stay poor.

Yes and no. The town I grew up in had affluent residents, less-affluent residents, and residents who live in public housing. All of the kids attended the same high school.

MCPS on the other hand is extremely stratified from a SES perspective. Whitman, e.g., has <5% FARMS population whereas many of the schools in eastern MoCo have >70% FARMS population. The effect is the same as if e.g. Bethesda were a different town from Wheaton.

IMO the culprit is housing policy, but that is a different conversation, I suppose.

But the poor area high school is heavily subsidized by the Bethesda residents. Do you really want Bethesda and Potomac to be their own school district?

My point is that rich and poor students don't attend the same schools.

[Anonymous]

Housing policy is correct. Single Family neighborhoods are created and then those neighborhoods fight any denser development near them. The dense development is all concentrated together and as those neighborhoods age, they tend to create poorer neighborhoods that become hard to revitalize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Housing policy is correct. Single Family neighborhoods are created and then those neighborhoods fight any denser development near them. The dense development is all concentrated together and as those neighborhoods age, they tend to create poorer neighborhoods that become hard to revitalize.

And this is how poor and rich students are segregated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this has been discussed before, but I am originally from an area where each town has its own school district. So unless you choose to do private, your kids go to that towns public schools. Theres really no comparisons and connection between one district and another because theres no option to bus your child elsewhere etc, so everyone just cares about their own town and district cersus focusing on what other towns are doing etc. You just live in the town where you want your kids to go to school or at least where youre ok with your kids going to school. Ovbiously in DC area each county is its own school district and therefore all the towns are constantly being compared and discussed, etc. What is the better system? I wonder if county-wide district is better bc ur kids will have more options if they need something thats not offered in their home school? But town districts seems easier to maneuver and more community-ish. I still only have preschool age kids but am starting to wonder about this as I explore school options.

I grew up in the small town system but then moved and taught in FCPS. They both had good and bad. As a teacher, it's easier to get hired in FCPS and easier to move around once you get hired - more places to transfer to, obviously. Also, you don't have to "know somebody" to get hired, like in the town that I grew up in. Best of all, FCPS is big enough that principals are removed from the payroll process, and don't have any incentive to try to get rid of older, expensive teachers so they can hire inexperienced but cheaper teachers. That was a big problem in my small town. I can't say for sure which is ultimately better for students - probably pretty equal in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, from new England and some towns had great schools because that's what the residents focused in, some had crappy schools. Fwiw the facilities and staff where I grew up (Newton MA) put ffx and MoCo to shame. Yes even at Whitman.

Newton is like Chevy Chase wealthy, not surprising

Yes, so the schools are like those Chevy Chase and McLean would have if the parents there weren't also subsiding the education for the kids in Wheaton and Annandale.

It's kind of bizarre how the liberals from New England seem to think that system is admirable.

Yes, I second this. The town system seems fantastic if you're in a rich town, but many more kids live in middling or poor towns. With a county system, the rich subsidize the poor so you get less of a vicious circle where the poor stay poor.

I agree with this too. I grew up in Fairfield County, CT and while many of the school districts are fantastic, Bridgeport, CT is a poor town (surrounded by wealthy ones) and their schools were TERRIBLE. They would have benefitted greatly from a county system.

Is that somehow different than a Bethesda school vs. a Wheaton or poor Silver Spring school....?

No, it is not.

It absolutely is, because the poor districts in states like CT have worse facilities, pay their teachers less, offer fewer courses, etc. Say what you will about schools like Einstein, but they offer the same general opportunities as the Bethesda schools (apart from getting saddled with IB).