MoCo is diverse, for sure, but MCPS schools are not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you tell me why a "good" school provides better public school education with same or worse teacher:student ratio, equal or lower per student funding from county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:those who complain about not being treated equal in terms of schools, housing etc. never mentioned the inequality in tax paying.

What about the inequality in tax paying? Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes? What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

You are still not answering the questions, which are:

Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes?

What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:. But linking up larger sections of high FARMs areas as within the attendance zone for currently low FARMs areas so that you equalize a bit more the level of FARMs kids that any one school might have.

MCPS should give free and reduced meals to *all* students. This would ensure that the number of FARMs students are uniform across the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. But linking up larger sections of high FARMs areas as within the attendance zone for currently low FARMs areas so that you equalize a bit more the level of FARMs kids that any one school might have.

MCPS should give free and reduced meals to *all* students. This would ensure that the number of FARMs students are uniform across the county.

How would that redistribute low-income students across the county?

[Anonymous]

what does white even mean? The term white includes people from west, central and south Asia, people from north Africa, and Europeans. Starting out that is a pretty diverse group. Since the US census shows Asians as the fastest growing race in American it seems seeing more children descended from that race in schools normal.

[Anonymous]

"Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
. But linking up larger sections of high FARMs areas as within the attendance zone for currently low FARMs areas so that you equalize a bit more the level of FARMs kids that any one school might have.

MCPS should give free and reduced meals to *all* students. This would ensure that the number of FARMs students are uniform across the county.

How would that redistribute low-income students across the county? "

It would paper over the problem - which PP might prefer rather than seeing change that takes the needs of the whole county/system into account rather than simply what's best for those that can afford it.

[Anonymous]

You are still not answering the questions, which are:

Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes?

NO. But the reality is that better students make better school. You keep the same teachers, buildings, resources of a "better" school and "worse" school and exchange their student body only. Will you think the "better" school will still be better?

What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

[Anonymous]

"those who complain about not being treated equal in terms of schools, housing etc. never mentioned the inequality in tax paying."

well if having more than 10% of FARMs kids in your school means your house price drops - good news! your tax assessment should also drop! Housing cost would then tend more to reflect preferences about housing options & transportation in a given neighborhood rather than being sizably based on whether enough prosperous families have managed to congregate there that lower income families have been priced out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what does white even mean? The term white includes people from west, central and south Asia, people from north Africa, and Europeans. Starting out that is a pretty diverse group. Since the US census shows Asians as the fastest growing race in American it seems seeing more children descended from that race in schools normal.

for certain people, if you are not poor enough, you are not counted as part of diversity, regardless your ethnic background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You are still not answering the questions, which are:

Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes?

NO. But the reality is that better students make better school. You keep the same teachers, buildings, resources of a "better" school and "worse" school and exchange their student body only. Will you think the "better" school will still be better?

What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

You are correct - the people in the school are what make it "good" or "better than" other schools. Exchanging entire bodies of students would not improve performance. But it is a FACT that mixing up the SES of students in the school does improve performance. This makes a given school where that is done better.

But all of this is a digression because you did not answer the question, which is:

Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes?

Other questions you did not answer:

What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

[Anonymous]

^^^PP here, reposting for clarity as the formatting didn't work properly:

...

You are correct - the people in the school are what make it "good" or "better than" other schools. Exchanging entire bodies of students would not improve performance. But it is a FACT that mixing up the SES of students in the school does improve performance. This makes a given school where that is done better.

But all of this is a digression because you did not answer the question, which is:

--->Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes?

Other questions you did not answer:

--->What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what does white even mean? The term white includes people from west, central and south Asia, people from north Africa, and Europeans. Starting out that is a pretty diverse group. Since the US census shows Asians as the fastest growing race in American it seems seeing more children descended from that race in schools normal.

I thought Hispanics were the fastest growing group.

White does not mean Asian. But if you are talking about achievement, then I think Asians and Whites are lumped together since Asians are high performing in schools.

[Anonymous]

"for certain people, if you are not poor enough, you are not counted as part of diversity, regardless your ethnic background. "

That is because for some reason the people that highlight disparities keep using race as the focus point rather than income. I very much disagree with this approach although it's true that a lot of the time race can serve as a decent stand-in proxy for income.

But the child of a black lawyer is not coming from at all the same educational situation as the child of a black housekeeper. I think very few people nowadays - at least in MoCo - would oppose the first being in their school in sizable numbers while many would oppose sizable amounts of the latter type of kid. It's SES that matters most - not race when you're talking about educational issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^PP here, reposting for clarity as the formatting didn't work properly:

...

You are correct - the people in the school are what make it "good" or "better than" other schools. Exchanging entire bodies of students would not improve performance. But it is a FACT that mixing up the SES of students in the school does improve performance. This makes a given school where that is done better.

But all of this is a digression because you did not answer the question, which is:

--->Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes?

Other questions you did not answer:

--->What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?


No. They are not entitled to and county does not distribute resources based on the tax collection amount as far as I know of. I didn't answer those questions because they are irrelevant to education. as I said, resource-wise, the "worse" schools doesn't get any less than the "better" schools from the county. The families of "better" schools might provide more, but those are not public fund, and should not be re-distributed county-wise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you pro-busing folks actually hoping to accomplish?

Is the goal diversity in schools as an end to itself?

So you think LES kids will get a better education if mixed in with wealthier kids?

Do you think wealthier kids need the "reality check" of a more diverse -- economically and racially -- school?

Does it just bother you on some gut level that there is a disparity of income in MoCo?

Genuine question.

MCPS is ALREADY busing for socioeconomic diversity. This is something that MCPS is ALREADY doing. MCPS is doing that, right now.

And yes, it's a well-established fact that poor kids do better in low-poverty schools than in high-poverty schools.

Really? Where are they busing the kids from for SES diversity to Wootton or Churchill?

There was a thread a while back about busing, and some parent (a mom I'm guessing) said that she thought it was a bad idea because her Larla has been expecting a really expensive grand prom, and if they bused her to a poorer school then she would get her dreams crushed. And also, for the the lower ses kid, that kid might feel left out in the higher ses school because the kid can't afford the expensive first cars, lavish vacations, designer clothes, etc... And yes, the poster got flamed. But there are people out there that do think this way. Scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:those who complain about not being treated equal in terms of schools, housing etc. never mentioned the inequality in tax paying.

What about the inequality in tax paying? Are people who pay more in taxes entitled to a better public-school education for their children than people who pay less in taxes? What else are they entitled to? Better roads? Better fire and ambulance service? Jumping to the head of the line for in-demand books at the public library?

talking about entitlement. Those who never paid tax whose 4, 5 kids getting free food, free health care and free education feel that they are entitle to more. What else are they entitled to? good schools, better housing, shorter work hours, higher payment, and automatic citizenship?

Everybody pays taxes.

And yes, every child has a right to a good education. Not just children who picked the right parents. Every child.