Is it time for private school vouchers in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look MCPS failed when they got in bed with a multinational corporation (Pearson) for Curriculum 2.0 and stayed with it per the contract for 10 years even though they knew in first year it was utterly dismal. Dear DCUM - do you believe selecting a curriculum and training teachers in selected curriculum is a core mission of a school system? If so then they failed miserably….just wait. Dr McKnight came from Discovery Channel as a consultant. She will be purchasing Discovery Channel Shark video curriculum next because your smart Moco people aren’t minding the store.

+1 PP so sad but true. Ethics means nothing in MCPS. Money is flying out the window with special contracts but very little is being done to hire more teachers.

MCPS asked for and the BOE approved close to a $3 billion budget with a lot of bs pork spending. Hopefully the County Council won’t approve the MCPS budget as quickly. After all, MCPS is still loosing students because it is a sh$t show of an institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look MCPS failed when they got in bed with a multinational corporation (Pearson) for Curriculum 2.0 and stayed with it per the contract for 10 years even though they knew in first year it was utterly dismal. Dear DCUM - do you believe selecting a curriculum and training teachers in selected curriculum is a core mission of a school system? If so then they failed miserably….just wait. Dr McKnight came from Discovery Channel as a consultant. She will be purchasing Discovery Channel Shark video curriculum next because your smart Moco people aren’t minding the store.

+1 PP so sad but true. Ethics means nothing in MCPS. Money is flying out the window with special contracts but very little is being done to hire more teachers.

MCPS asked for and the BOE approved close to a $3 billion budget with a lot of bs pork spending. Hopefully the County Council won’t approve the MCPS budget as quickly. After all, MCPS is still loosing students because it is a sh$t show of an institution.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup and divert all the public schools funding to private schools

You must want to cripple a already failing MCPS

Versus what? Should we continue to throw more taxpayer money at this failing system? No thanks. Families deserve an alternative.

What is so humorous about this is that these many private schools, particularly for sns students, don't exist. There are only a few really good private schools for neurotypical students and even with vouchers, they will be out of reach for most. The privates that support sns students are often much worse than public school. They have a much harder time getting good teachers.

Except religious schools, these schools are $50K+ so what will happen is the schools will just raise their prices to match the voucher.

The vouchers won't cover the cost of these schools.

No, but they will help with the cost.

Then that's a hard no on vouchers. The way you envision vouchers, it will allow those of means, e.g. UMC, who otherwise could not afford to go to private school to take a voucher and send their kids to private. The point of public schooling is to provide guaranteed schooling for everyone, including those of low or poverty level income. If the voucher amount is not enough to allow a child of low income to have the same benefits as children of high income, then the voucher money needs to stay in the school district to ensure that everyone gets the benefit of those public funds. Vouchers could be a supportable cause if anyone of any means could use that money to go to a specialty school that was better suited for them, but public funds should not be used to create greater disparity between the haves and the have nots. All that does is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots.

In any event, vouchers should be a non-starter. Taxation is not a cafeteria plan where you get to pick and choose where your tax dollars go and what benefits you get from them. Taxes are taken so that public agencies and institutions can be funded to fulfill a public responsibility. Public schools are guaranteed education. They are not the education of your choice. If you are not satisfied with the education your children get in public school, you are welcome to pay for private school tuition out of your net income. You are no more entitled to take your money out of the public schools that you don't use than I can take money out of the public works programs that pave the streets in your neighborhood just because I don't drive in your neighborhood. Tax payers don't get to take tax money out of the system for a firehouse, police station or public library in another part of the county where they don't live. You are a tax payer just like your childless neighbor or your empty nester neighbor neither of whom uses the public schools, but their taxes still go to provide public education for children who live in their community. You all benefit from having a better educated population in your community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look MCPS failed when they got in bed with a multinational corporation (Pearson) for Curriculum 2.0 and stayed with it per the contract for 10 years even though they knew in first year it was utterly dismal. Dear DCUM - do you believe selecting a curriculum and training teachers in selected curriculum is a core mission of a school system? If so then they failed miserably….just wait. Dr McKnight came from Discovery Channel as a consultant. She will be purchasing Discovery Channel Shark video curriculum next because your smart Moco people aren’t minding the store.

So much lies in just one post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup and divert all the public schools funding to private schools

You must want to cripple a already failing MCPS

Versus what? Should we continue to throw more taxpayer money at this failing system? No thanks. Families deserve an alternative.

What is so humorous about this is that these many private schools, particularly for sns students, don't exist. There are only a few really good private schools for neurotypical students and even with vouchers, they will be out of reach for most. The privates that support sns students are often much worse than public school. They have a much harder time getting good teachers.

Except religious schools, these schools are $50K+ so what will happen is the schools will just raise their prices to match the voucher.

The vouchers won't cover the cost of these schools.

No, but they will help with the cost.

Then that's a hard no on vouchers. The way you envision vouchers, it will allow those of means, e.g. UMC, who otherwise could not afford to go to private school to take a voucher and send their kids to private. The point of public schooling is to provide guaranteed schooling for everyone, including those of low or poverty level income. If the voucher amount is not enough to allow a child of low income to have the same benefits as children of high income, then the voucher money needs to stay in the school district to ensure that everyone gets the benefit of those public funds. Vouchers could be a supportable cause if anyone of any means could use that money to go to a specialty school that was better suited for them, but public funds should not be used to create greater disparity between the haves and the have nots. All that does is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots.

In any event, vouchers should be a non-starter. Taxation is not a cafeteria plan where you get to pick and choose where your tax dollars go and what benefits you get from them. Taxes are taken so that public agencies and institutions can be funded to fulfill a public responsibility. Public schools are guaranteed education. They are not the education of your choice. If you are not satisfied with the education your children get in public school, you are welcome to pay for private school tuition out of your net income. You are no more entitled to take your money out of the public schools that you don't use than I can take money out of the public works programs that pave the streets in your neighborhood just because I don't drive in your neighborhood. Tax payers don't get to take tax money out of the system for a firehouse, police station or public library in another part of the county where they don't live. You are a tax payer just like your childless neighbor or your empty nester neighbor neither of whom uses the public schools, but their taxes still go to provide public education for children who live in their community. You all benefit from having a better educated population in your community.

Except MCPS is doing a terrible job educating the poor, middle class, and wealthy students in MCPS. School choice - for all students - will give opportunities for an education that simply no longer exists in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look MCPS failed when they got in bed with a multinational corporation (Pearson) for Curriculum 2.0 and stayed with it per the contract for 10 years even though they knew in first year it was utterly dismal. Dear DCUM - do you believe selecting a curriculum and training teachers in selected curriculum is a core mission of a school system? If so then they failed miserably….just wait. Dr McKnight came from Discovery Channel as a consultant. She will be purchasing Discovery Channel Shark video curriculum next because your smart Moco people aren’t minding the store.

So much lies in just one post

Don’t you get tired posting the same drivel?

Curriculum 2.0 was a terrible experiment of a school system who thought they could write their own curriculum and use their once stellar reputation to sell it. It didn’t work and a generation of students have the educational gaps 2.0 created.

[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

Again, please provide a list of secular private schools that will accept the voucher for the entire tuition.
Maybe add to that the number of available openings.
Are you really suggesting that if ALL families want private school choices, the options are there?

I'll happily open one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another reason to vote for school vouchers

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/school-board-gives-first-approval-to-mcps-2-96b-budget/

With less kids, MCPS wants more money to spend on frivolous pet projects vs. educating students. Pay teachers more. Hire more teachers. That is a sure fire way to improve education.

Well, so long as society expects schools to raise kids, the school system has to fill these needs.

Now, when we fund medical care, mental health, nutrition, child care, etc, outside the school system, then we can let schools focus on teaching without worrying about those things. Until then, we've left the schools holding the bag, trying to figure it out as best they can.

We are funding all these things. Do you even know what you are talking about? The issue is parents want schools do do everything for their kids.

We're asking schools to do too much of those things. Schools should be in the teaching business, not all the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup and divert all the public schools funding to private schools

You must want to cripple a already failing MCPS

Versus what? Should we continue to throw more taxpayer money at this failing system? No thanks. Families deserve an alternative.

What is so humorous about this is that these many private schools, particularly for sns students, don't exist. There are only a few really good private schools for neurotypical students and even with vouchers, they will be out of reach for most. The privates that support sns students are often much worse than public school. They have a much harder time getting good teachers.

Except religious schools, these schools are $50K+ so what will happen is the schools will just raise their prices to match the voucher.

The vouchers won't cover the cost of these schools.

No, but they will help with the cost.

Then that's a hard no on vouchers. The way you envision vouchers, it will allow those of means, e.g. UMC, who otherwise could not afford to go to private school to take a voucher and send their kids to private. The point of public schooling is to provide guaranteed schooling for everyone, including those of low or poverty level income. If the voucher amount is not enough to allow a child of low income to have the same benefits as children of high income, then the voucher money needs to stay in the school district to ensure that everyone gets the benefit of those public funds. Vouchers could be a supportable cause if anyone of any means could use that money to go to a specialty school that was better suited for them, but public funds should not be used to create greater disparity between the haves and the have nots. All that does is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots.

In any event, vouchers should be a non-starter. Taxation is not a cafeteria plan where you get to pick and choose where your tax dollars go and what benefits you get from them. Taxes are taken so that public agencies and institutions can be funded to fulfill a public responsibility. Public schools are guaranteed education. They are not the education of your choice. If you are not satisfied with the education your children get in public school, you are welcome to pay for private school tuition out of your net income. You are no more entitled to take your money out of the public schools that you don't use than I can take money out of the public works programs that pave the streets in your neighborhood just because I don't drive in your neighborhood. Tax payers don't get to take tax money out of the system for a firehouse, police station or public library in another part of the county where they don't live. You are a tax payer just like your childless neighbor or your empty nester neighbor neither of whom uses the public schools, but their taxes still go to provide public education for children who live in their community. You all benefit from having a better educated population in your community.

Except MCPS is doing a terrible job educating the poor, middle class, and wealthy students in MCPS. School choice - for all students - will give opportunities for an education that simply no longer exists in MCPS.

How would you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup and divert all the public schools funding to private schools

You must want to cripple a already failing MCPS

Versus what? Should we continue to throw more taxpayer money at this failing system? No thanks. Families deserve an alternative.

What is so humorous about this is that these many private schools, particularly for sns students, don't exist. There are only a few really good private schools for neurotypical students and even with vouchers, they will be out of reach for most. The privates that support sns students are often much worse than public school. They have a much harder time getting good teachers.

Except religious schools, these schools are $50K+ so what will happen is the schools will just raise their prices to match the voucher.

The vouchers won't cover the cost of these schools.

No, but they will help with the cost.

Then that's a hard no on vouchers. The way you envision vouchers, it will allow those of means, e.g. UMC, who otherwise could not afford to go to private school to take a voucher and send their kids to private. The point of public schooling is to provide guaranteed schooling for everyone, including those of low or poverty level income. If the voucher amount is not enough to allow a child of low income to have the same benefits as children of high income, then the voucher money needs to stay in the school district to ensure that everyone gets the benefit of those public funds. Vouchers could be a supportable cause if anyone of any means could use that money to go to a specialty school that was better suited for them, but public funds should not be used to create greater disparity between the haves and the have nots. All that does is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots.

In any event, vouchers should be a non-starter. Taxation is not a cafeteria plan where you get to pick and choose where your tax dollars go and what benefits you get from them. Taxes are taken so that public agencies and institutions can be funded to fulfill a public responsibility. Public schools are guaranteed education. They are not the education of your choice. If you are not satisfied with the education your children get in public school, you are welcome to pay for private school tuition out of your net income. You are no more entitled to take your money out of the public schools that you don't use than I can take money out of the public works programs that pave the streets in your neighborhood just because I don't drive in your neighborhood. Tax payers don't get to take tax money out of the system for a firehouse, police station or public library in another part of the county where they don't live. You are a tax payer just like your childless neighbor or your empty nester neighbor neither of whom uses the public schools, but their taxes still go to provide public education for children who live in their community. You all benefit from having a better educated population in your community.

Except MCPS is doing a terrible job educating the poor, middle class, and wealthy students in MCPS. School choice - for all students - will give opportunities for an education that simply no longer exists in MCPS.

How would you know?

Look at the stats. Look at the information posted on the MCPS website. Look at the results of the recent state testing. Public schools are failing our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look MCPS failed when they got in bed with a multinational corporation (Pearson) for Curriculum 2.0 and stayed with it per the contract for 10 years even though they knew in first year it was utterly dismal. Dear DCUM - do you believe selecting a curriculum and training teachers in selected curriculum is a core mission of a school system? If so then they failed miserably….just wait. Dr McKnight came from Discovery Channel as a consultant. She will be purchasing Discovery Channel Shark video curriculum next because your smart Moco people aren’t minding the store.

So much lies in just one post

What are the lies? The app is correct.

[Anonymous]

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?

No. If you can't afford to go to private school, you shouldn't be able to go.

-Signed a Private School Parent Who Pays Full Tuition for Two Kids

[Anonymous]

I’m constantly amazed that folks trash public schools districts that spend on average $16k or less to educate kids vs private schools that cost 40-50k per student and yet, don’t include transportation, may not have a nurse onsite, support very few special needs, and have the added benefits of selecting each student, only a certain number of students, kicking them out whenever they choose and only worrying about one school.

If pubic schools spent just 25K per kid(about the cost of religious privates) we’d be looking at a 3.89 billion dollar budget and publics would still be providing more services.

That’s not to say MCPS has no faults and needs no improvements, but acting like private schools are even a comparison is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup and divert all the public schools funding to private schools

You must want to cripple a already failing MCPS

Versus what? Should we continue to throw more taxpayer money at this failing system? No thanks. Families deserve an alternative.

What is so humorous about this is that these many private schools, particularly for sns students, don't exist. There are only a few really good private schools for neurotypical students and even with vouchers, they will be out of reach for most. The privates that support sns students are often much worse than public school. They have a much harder time getting good teachers.

Except religious schools, these schools are $50K+ so what will happen is the schools will just raise their prices to match the voucher.

The vouchers won't cover the cost of these schools.

No, but they will help with the cost.

Then that's a hard no on vouchers. The way you envision vouchers, it will allow those of means, e.g. UMC, who otherwise could not afford to go to private school to take a voucher and send their kids to private. The point of public schooling is to provide guaranteed schooling for everyone, including those of low or poverty level income. If the voucher amount is not enough to allow a child of low income to have the same benefits as children of high income, then the voucher money needs to stay in the school district to ensure that everyone gets the benefit of those public funds. Vouchers could be a supportable cause if anyone of any means could use that money to go to a specialty school that was better suited for them, but public funds should not be used to create greater disparity between the haves and the have nots. All that does is widen the gap between the haves and the have nots.

In any event, vouchers should be a non-starter. Taxation is not a cafeteria plan where you get to pick and choose where your tax dollars go and what benefits you get from them. Taxes are taken so that public agencies and institutions can be funded to fulfill a public responsibility. Public schools are guaranteed education. They are not the education of your choice. If you are not satisfied with the education your children get in public school, you are welcome to pay for private school tuition out of your net income. You are no more entitled to take your money out of the public schools that you don't use than I can take money out of the public works programs that pave the streets in your neighborhood just because I don't drive in your neighborhood. Tax payers don't get to take tax money out of the system for a firehouse, police station or public library in another part of the county where they don't live. You are a tax payer just like your childless neighbor or your empty nester neighbor neither of whom uses the public schools, but their taxes still go to provide public education for children who live in their community. You all benefit from having a better educated population in your community.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look MCPS failed when they got in bed with a multinational corporation (Pearson) for Curriculum 2.0 and stayed with it per the contract for 10 years even though they knew in first year it was utterly dismal. Dear DCUM - do you believe selecting a curriculum and training teachers in selected curriculum is a core mission of a school system? If so then they failed miserably….just wait. Dr McKnight came from Discovery Channel as a consultant. She will be purchasing Discovery Channel Shark video curriculum next because your smart Moco people aren’t minding the store.

So much lies in just one post

Don’t you get tired posting the same drivel?

Curriculum 2.0 was a terrible experiment of a school system who thought they could write their own curriculum and use their once stellar reputation to sell it. It didn’t work and a generation of students have the educational gaps 2.0 created.

Where is this entire generation of MCPS with large educational gaps that are failing them in life? Last I check MCPS students were still being accepted to college, vocational training, and moving out into the world. Curriculum 2.0 may not have been wonderful, but stop acting like it sent kids out in the workd not able to do basic mathematics or basic reading.