WAPO/Just Up The Pike Blog post: Suggestions for How to Remedy the De Facto Segregation of MCPS

[Anonymous]

Follows up on the subject of another thread and has suggestions for the school district and local government

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/post/will-mcps-get-serious-about-ending-de-facto-segregation/2013/07/03/a0d64ea4-e355-11e2-80eb-3145e2994a55_blog.html

[Anonymous]

Also here:

http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/19361/integration-will-keep-moco-public-schools-competitive/

(Not the OP)

[Anonymous]

He cites one example many people have cited before, about how the town of Kensington kids go to the more affluent Walter Johnson, which is 4 miles away, instead of Einstein, which is 1 mile away. Segregation doesn't just happen -- it's enforced by crazy boundaries like that, by people who stand to benefit.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dan Reed! How's it poppin'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He cites one example many people have cited before, about how the town of Kensington kids go to the more affluent Walter Johnson, which is 4 miles away, instead of Einstein, which is 1 mile away. Segregation doesn't just happen -- it's enforced by crazy boundaries like that, by people who stand to benefit.

I suspect Kensington was a result of history more than anything else -- maybe because it was its own incorporate town/village at first. Anyone know the full story?

[Anonymous]

I feel that in our cluster (in Rockville), MCPS has tried to draw school lines to increase diversity not avoid it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He cites one example many people have cited before, about how the town of Kensington kids go to the more affluent Walter Johnson, which is 4 miles away, instead of Einstein, which is 1 mile away. Segregation doesn't just happen -- it's enforced by crazy boundaries like that, by people who stand to benefit.

That area is crazy. Houses are 200,000-300,000 more in WJ when on the same street as houses zones for Einstein.

[Anonymous]

But it's because of that boundary being so close to Einstein and pulling up the surrounding area that Einstein is indeed, as Mr. Reed avers, "becoming a sought-after school." Moving the WJ boundary even farther west and south, as Mr. Reed suggests, isn't going to help with anything other than making WJ even more homogenous, especially economically.

[Anonymous]

The idea that MoCo schools will get better by spreading a dwindling supply of affluent white students even thinner is patently absurd, as the experience in PG demonstrates. Schoos are a very crude tool to further such social engineering goals. Better to spend money making Silver Spring and Wheaton nicer to attract people, rather than messing around with the neighborhood schools, which will just send families to other jurisdictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea that MoCo schools will get better by spreading a dwindling supply of affluent white students even thinner is patently absurd, as the experience in PG demonstrates. Schoos are a very crude tool to further such social engineering goals. Better to spend money making Silver Spring and Wheaton nicer to attract people, rather than messing around with the neighborhood schools, which will just send families to other jurisdictions.

Though actually we do social engineering all the time. Zoning is a prime example. Also school districts/boundaries, road construction, and mortgage lending policies. But these examples typically help the haves, and so we don't call them social engineering. We only call it social engineering if it's supposed to help the have-nots.

[Anonymous]

I do not care about segregation that happens because of school boundaries. It is not happening because there are different schools for black and whites.

You will not change the poor performance of the kids who come from impoverished backgrounds by sending them to "W" schools. That is crazy thinking. You cannot fix the home situation of these kids. Home-life and level of parents education is a very big factor that MCPS has no control of.

Here is what I think will work -
1) Send kids to their neighborhood schools.

2) Increase the number of HGC and magnet schools around the county.

3) Fail the kids who do not perform well in ES and MS. Let them repeat the class and put additional resources there to make them succeed. If there is no improvement after 2 years of repeating a class - the parents can pay fees for the child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea that MoCo schools will get better by spreading a dwindling supply of affluent white students even thinner is patently absurd, as the experience in PG demonstrates. Schoos are a very crude tool to further such social engineering goals. Better to spend money making Silver Spring and Wheaton nicer to attract people, rather than messing around with the neighborhood schools, which will just send families to other jurisdictions.

Though actually we do social engineering all the time. Zoning is a prime example. Also school districts/boundaries, road construction, and mortgage lending policies. But these examples typically help the haves, and so we don't call them social engineering. We only call it social engineering if it's supposed to help the have-nots.

Quite the reverse logic, for the sake of the whole society, I hope you're not in a govt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea that MoCo schools will get better by spreading a dwindling supply of affluent white students even thinner is patently absurd, as the experience in PG demonstrates. Schoos are a very crude tool to further such social engineering goals. Better to spend money making Silver Spring and Wheaton nicer to attract people, rather than messing around with the neighborhood schools, which will just send families to other jurisdictions.

Though actually we do social engineering all the time. Zoning is a prime example. Also school districts/boundaries, road construction, and mortgage lending policies. But these examples typically help the haves, and so we don't call them social engineering. We only call it social engineering if it's supposed to help the have-nots.

Omit the phrase "social engineering" from the prior post, then, and it still holds equally true.

Places like MoCo are not as liberal as its residents like to think, nor does MoCo exist in a vacuum. The problem with Dan Reed's analysis is that it doesn't acknowledge the other options available to MoCo families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He cites one example many people have cited before, about how the town of Kensington kids go to the more affluent Walter Johnson, which is 4 miles away, instead of Einstein, which is 1 mile away. Segregation doesn't just happen -- it's enforced by crazy boundaries like that, by people who stand to benefit.

Agreed. Einstein is five miles from us, and is our home school, rather than Blair, which is ONE mile from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Places like MoCo are not as liberal as its residents like to think,

I agree.