Where are all you families of high performing students planning on moving to?

[Anonymous]

There’d be no issue with bussing if democrats didn’t ignore the actual problem: the values of parents and students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I wrote that. DCUM is a fun-house mirror sometimes. Someone asked what the benefits might be to reducing the yawning income inequality of the schools, and I gave one benefit. Then, in this paranoid game of telephone, it turned into "MCPS is recommending stealing our PTA's money!"

DCUM is a fun-house mirror usually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then not wanting more people alone would be a valid reason (for not adding that neighborhood).

Now the real situation is a bit different because it started as the neighboring school being too crowded. So a better analogy would be that the area near you is too crowded (in their swimming pool) and they want you to take a neighborhood. If there is a choice, favoring a neighborhood with better swimmers would certainly be a valid reason. You may not like that reason but there is nothing wrong with it.

Them: Should we add Neighborhood A to the community pool?
You: I want to add Neighborhood B, they have more good swimmers.
Them: ...

If they are only asking you whether to add neighborhood A, then it is not a good analogy to the current school situation.

I guess I missed the part where people are panicking about MCPS's supposed plans to rezone affluent areas from one school full of affluent kids to another school full of affluent kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read the post where someone was recommending splitting up the PTA funds across all schools. Funny. Already we pay higher income and property taxes which funds MCPS programs across the county. And now a PTA redistribution?? Ain't gonna happen.

You might pay higher income taxes. You don't pay higher property taxes - everyone pays the same rate. If you pay more property taxes, it's because the value of your property is higher.

Also, taxes aren't user fees. You're not entitled to more school services based on paying more taxes.

What does PTA fund have to do with these taxes?

What does the PTA fund have to do with boundary decisions?

Look at the bold text. That is where this started. You may want to ask this question to whoever posted "recommending splitting up the PTA funds across all schools".

I believe it was in response to what kind of “by-products” that MCPS is hoping to create through the diversity initiative of bussing:


Anonymous wrote:
Well, one benefit would be that at least some low-income kids would have access to the crazy 6-digit amounts that rich schools’ PTAs raise every year for “enrichment.” Lower and middle income schools are busy cutting Box Tops to get a few hundred dollars while the rich schools are pulling in obscene amounts to be used for new technology, books, field trips, after-school activities. This is not a case of loving your children more or valuing education more. Normal people just can’t cut $1000 checks for the PTA.

Exactly, by prioritizing demographics throughout the current and future boundary studies the BoE hopes to spread the $$$, high performers, low performers, ESOL students, whites, AA, Asians, Hispanics, musicians,
artists, naturally born lazy students, naturally driven kids, tall kids, short kids, overweight kids, pretty kids, gender ambiguous kids, ADHD kids, emotionally troubled kids, mean girls, skaters, bikers, actors, writers, math nerds, athletes etc. so that all of the schools in the county will have equality and it will not matter where you live or which school you get zoned for. It’s actually very progressive. So proud to be part of this radical county!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened to democracy? We all live in a county, a state, a nation. Where are these attitudes coming from that we only want our children to be around other children who are the BEST at school (and at swimming!)? Do you only ride the metro with people who have the same IQ as you? Do you receive better trash service or smoother roads than people who don't have as many degrees as you? Those of you who are truly opposed to adding any children to your schools who do not perform as well as your own children, answer honestly: are you coming from countries where this is how education works -- only the brightest get an education? It seems to me that a lot of people are suffering from cultural confusion. That is not how things are done in America.

This is democracy: people voice their opinions when they think their interest may be at risk.

What is not democracy: people value their ideology above other people's interest - so our interests are not real, only the group of people you think you are helping, their interests are real? Are they even with you on these?


When there is proposed changes to the school your kids go to, why can't parents be concerned if the school may change for worse?
Are you saying people's concerns should be ignored because it does not comply with your moral standard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened to democracy? We all live in a county, a state, a nation. Where are these attitudes coming from that we only want our children to be around other children who are the BEST at school (and at swimming!)? Do you only ride the metro with people who have the same IQ as you? Do you receive better trash service or smoother roads than people who don't have as many degrees as you? Those of you who are truly opposed to adding any children to your schools who do not perform as well as your own children, answer honestly: are you coming from countries where this is how education works -- only the brightest get an education? It seems to me that a lot of people are suffering from cultural confusion. That is not how things are done in America.

Actually I would love my kid to be on a swim team with non- or bad swimmers. That way she would win 1st place ribbons every week and it would do her self confidence a lot of good. Why would I ever want my DD to be surrounded by swimmers who are as good as or better than her? Now whether she becomes good in swimming or if the other kids ever learn to swim is a different question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to democracy? We all live in a county, a state, a nation. Where are these attitudes coming from that we only want our children to be around other children who are the BEST at school (and at swimming!)? Do you only ride the metro with people who have the same IQ as you? Do you receive better trash service or smoother roads than people who don't have as many degrees as you? Those of you who are truly opposed to adding any children to your schools who do not perform as well as your own children, answer honestly: are you coming from countries where this is how education works -- only the brightest get an education? It seems to me that a lot of people are suffering from cultural confusion. That is not how things are done in America.

This is democracy: people voice their opinions when they think their interest may be at risk.

What is not democracy: people value their ideology above other people's interest - so our interests are not real, only the group of people you think you are helping, their interests are real? Are they even with you on these?

When there is proposed changes to the school your kids go to, why can't parents be concerned if the school may change for worse?

Are you saying people's concerns should be ignored because it does not comply with your moral standard?

You get to have opinions. I get to have opinions. I get to have opinions about your opinions. You get to have opinions about my opinions. All of us get to provide all of our opinions, as we see fit, to the superintendent of schools and the members of the Board of Education, who will then make the recommendation and decision (respectively), as they see fit.

[Anonymous]

Why do high performing students care. They are already smart.

Not being snarky, but my oldest daughter graduated a blue collar HS right before we moved to Winston Churchill where my younger kids both are attending or will attend.

The valedictorian of her HS gave speech and he was a huge slackard, never studied, always running late and clothes wrinkled. Guy had a 4.0 and was brilliant. Since he was smarter than every teacher what would a good school do. My daughter had a class with him and the project was to build a robot at home and they had several weeks to do. He just Mcgiver like grabbed a bunch of junk in science lab, put a robot together out of spare parts in like five minutes and said here it is, teacher gave him and A and he left. My daughter said he always does that type of shit drives folks nuts. His commencement speech was short. He actually said I hear from some other students the school is pretty good and challenging but he would not know. The Salutatorian who was this nice Asian girl I sensed you could fry and egg on her head when he spoke cause he said everyone has a GPA my GPA was just randomly selected as it was largest for the punishment of giving a speech and my random number wont solve any real issues so I did not bother writing a speech as I am sure you have better things to do. I swear the tiger Mom of Salutorian who has like 20 of her family there was going to beat him to death with her high heels.

So bottom line, you kids are not special it wont matter and if you kid is special like these kid it wont matter either as he will already be smarter than any teacher there.

[Anonymous]

And that is why MCPS should leave things the way they are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do high performing students care. They are already smart.

Not being snarky, but my oldest daughter graduated a blue collar HS right before we moved to Winston Churchill where my younger kids both are attending or will attend.

The valedictorian of her HS gave speech and he was a huge slackard, never studied, always running late and clothes wrinkled. Guy had a 4.0 and was brilliant. Since he was smarter than every teacher what would a good school do. My daughter had a class with him and the project was to build a robot at home and they had several weeks to do. He just Mcgiver like grabbed a bunch of junk in science lab, put a robot together out of spare parts in like five minutes and said here it is, teacher gave him and A and he left. My daughter said he always does that type of shit drives folks nuts. His commencement speech was short. He actually said I hear from some other students the school is pretty good and challenging but he would not know. The Salutatorian who was this nice Asian girl I sensed you could fry and egg on her head when he spoke cause he said everyone has a GPA my GPA was just randomly selected as it was largest for the punishment of giving a speech and my random number wont solve any real issues so I did not bother writing a speech as I am sure you have better things to do. I swear the tiger Mom of Salutorian who has like 20 of her family there was going to beat him to death with her high heels.

So bottom line, you kids are not special it wont matter and if you kid is special like these kid it wont matter either as he will already be smarter than any teacher there.

From certain perspectives, it won't matter if your kids goes to a school with high performing or low performing students.
From some other perspectives, it may matter.

Is it something as important as a life-and-death situation? Definitely not. But there is no shame (apparently some people here do no agree with this) in telling people that "I don't want the student performance to drop in my school."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

From certain perspectives, it won't matter if your kids goes to a school with high performing or low performing students.
From some other perspectives, it may matter.

Is it something as important as a life-and-death situation? Definitely not. But there is no shame (apparently some people here do no agree with this) in telling people that "I don't want the student performance to drop in my school."

For example?

Also, I don't think that there is a single school in the county that doesn't have some "high-performing" and some "low-performing" students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

From certain perspectives, it won't matter if your kids goes to a school with high performing or low performing students.
From some other perspectives, it may matter.

Is it something as important as a life-and-death situation? Definitely not. But there is no shame (apparently some people here do no agree with this) in telling people that "I don't want the student performance to drop in my school."

For example?

If someone prefers to go to a low-performing school, then I understand that you may be surprised and ask him/her "WHY".

Is it so hard to understand that people could prefer a school with higher student performance and you need an explanation for that?

Anonymous wrote:
Also, I don't think that there is a single school in the county that doesn't have some "high-performing" and some "low-performing" students.

And you do understand that is not what I was talking about, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If someone prefers to go to a low-performing school, then I understand that you may be surprised and ask him/her "WHY".

Is it so hard to understand that people could prefer a school with higher student performance and you need an explanation for that?

Since you're saying it can matter, "Why can it matter?" seems like a reasonable question. But if you don't want to answer it, then don't answer it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do high performing students care. They are already smart.

Not being snarky, but my oldest daughter graduated a blue collar HS right before we moved to Winston Churchill where my younger kids both are attending or will attend.

The valedictorian of her HS gave speech and he was a huge slackard, never studied, always running late and clothes wrinkled. Guy had a 4.0 and was brilliant. Since he was smarter than every teacher what would a good school do. My daughter had a class with him and the project was to build a robot at home and they had several weeks to do. He just Mcgiver like grabbed a bunch of junk in science lab, put a robot together out of spare parts in like five minutes and said here it is, teacher gave him and A and he left. My daughter said he always does that type of shit drives folks nuts. His commencement speech was short. He actually said I hear from some other students the school is pretty good and challenging but he would not know. The Salutatorian who was this nice Asian girl I sensed you could fry and egg on her head when he spoke cause he said everyone has a GPA my GPA was just randomly selected as it was largest for the punishment of giving a speech and my random number wont solve any real issues so I did not bother writing a speech as I am sure you have better things to do. I swear the tiger Mom of Salutorian who has like 20 of her family there was going to beat him to death with her high heels.

So bottom line, you kids are not special it wont matter and if you kid is special like these kid it wont matter either as he will already be smarter than any teacher there.

I really like this story. That boy sounds so angry and arrogant, though, and he wasn’t done any favors getting left in an unchallenging program to never learn to work hard for a single project. So I hope he does well in life, but the Salutorian is the one who will probably stick with grad school when the going gets tough. And it would probably have made a big difference for that boy if he were in a program like Blair with a few other gifted kids rather than regular high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If someone prefers to go to a low-performing school, then I understand that you may be surprised and ask him/her "WHY".

Is it so hard to understand that people could prefer a school with higher student performance and you need an explanation for that?

Since you're saying it can matter, "Why can it matter?" seems like a reasonable question. But if you don't want to answer it, then don't answer it.

I don't see a need to answer because I can't imagine anyone with reasonable minds not able to think of a few reasons why it could matter.

I don't want to then get into discussions of how unimportant these reasons are.