Baltimore Sun article about Howard County rezoning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, a few schools are overcrowded. Fix those schools then. You don't need to impact 7300+ students to fix overcrowding.

Make the big moves in 2023 when you have to make them anyway. Instead, they want to make a huge move now when everyone knows another huge move is coming a couple years later. We'll be talking about redistricting again right after finishing this one.

Families are being tossed around like ping pong balls. The proposal should have been much more modest.

Why would one new high school involve a "huge move", but fixing a few overcrowded schools doesn't have to?

How are families being tossed around like ping pong balls?

[Anonymous]

My friends, after a similar experience in another state (redistricted / lost money, had to move because obviously they were not going to send their kids to a failing school to make social justice warriors feel better), decided to never buy again. They choose not to be invested in the real estate since clearly county governments do not respect social contracts. My friends instead buy rental properties. It's a little more hassle, but at least they feel that their family is never on the line, only their money.

My other friends whose kids graduated top public schools and went to Ivies immediately sold in HoCo and moved to a nice area with a terrible school district and with easy access to metro / decent commute to DC (although they don't need it, more to ensure appreciation), just to be out of the whole school boundary war zone situation. Their house could be reassigned to a failing school during this bound of redistricting in HoCo, so they were smart.

We chose to buy in a (somewhat) "buffered" zone, or at least we hope so. If the bussing is bad enough, the buffers will fall.

The school redistricting is class warfare. It is completely clear to any casual observer familiar with data analysis that the achievement gap cannot be solved in that way. The redistricting is done to punish the professional class. I am rather curious how the professional class will fight back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, a few schools are overcrowded. Fix those schools then. You don't need to impact 7300+ students to fix overcrowding.

Make the big moves in 2023 when you have to make them anyway. Instead, they want to make a huge move now when everyone knows another huge move is coming a couple years later. We'll be talking about redistricting again right after finishing this one.

Families are being tossed around like ping pong balls. The proposal should have been much more modest.

Why would one new high school involve a "huge move", but fixing a few overcrowded schools doesn't have to?

How are families being tossed around like ping pong balls?

Three school changes in less than 5 years? You would be okay with that for your kids?

It amazes me how flexible people are when it isn’t happening to them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, a few schools are overcrowded. Fix those schools then. You don't need to impact 7300+ students to fix overcrowding.

Make the big moves in 2023 when you have to make them anyway. Instead, they want to make a huge move now when everyone knows another huge move is coming a couple years later. We'll be talking about redistricting again right after finishing this one.

Families are being tossed around like ping pong balls. The proposal should have been much more modest.

Why would one new high school involve a "huge move", but fixing a few overcrowded schools doesn't have to?

How are families being tossed around like ping pong balls?

Three school changes in less than 5 years? You would be okay with that for your kids?

It amazes me how flexible people are when it isn’t happening to them

You mean, like fifth grade in elementary school, sixth through eighth in middle school, and ninth in high school?

When establishing boundaries, MCPS takes into account whether a particular group of kids has gone through a previous rezoning. (For example, some of the kids who might be rezoned to a different high school for 11th grade in the upcounty boundary study were rezoned to a different elementary school in fourth grade, so regardless of the ultimate boundary decision, this group of kids will get grandfathered in.) No reason HCPS couldn't do that too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends, after a similar experience in another state (redistricted / lost money, had to move because obviously they were not going to send their kids to a failing school to make social justice warriors feel better), decided to never buy again. They choose not to be invested in the real estate since clearly county governments do not respect social contracts. My friends instead buy rental properties. It's a little more hassle, but at least they feel that their family is never on the line, only their money.

My other friends whose kids graduated top public schools and went to Ivies immediately sold in HoCo and moved to a nice area with a terrible school district and with easy access to metro / decent commute to DC (although they don't need it, more to ensure appreciation), just to be out of the whole school boundary war zone situation. Their house could be reassigned to a failing school during this bound of redistricting in HoCo, so they were smart.

We chose to buy in a (somewhat) "buffered" zone, or at least we hope so. If the bussing is bad enough, the buffers will fall.

The school redistricting is class warfare. It is completely clear to any casual observer familiar with data analysis that the achievement gap cannot be solved in that way. The redistricting is done to punish the professional class. I am rather curious how the professional class will fight back.

Public school boundary changes are class warfare, but public school boundaries and land use policies that enable affluent people to segregate their kids, in public schools, from the kids of low-income people aren't class warfare? How about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not theft and it’s dumb for people to argue that it is. It’s not and it just makes you look stupid.

It sucks to potentially lose a lot of equity in your home. But it can happen for a variety of reasons. It sucked when people who bought in 2006 and 2007 were “underwater” in 2010, and this will suck for some people too. But it’s not theft.

It sucks when the counties around here decide that they deliberately want to screw over those that worked hard to get what they have. Which is EXACTLY what this is. Government will make this change and cause people to lose value in their homes, in favor of others. That is the very definition of Robin Hood style theft.

I guarantee that at least 70% of the people complaining here voted for a straight democrat ticket last year and will do the same thing again in 2020. You reap what you sow. If you think it's theft, you can only blame yourself.

Me? I don't vote Democrat because I see how poisonous these policies are. Not just to me but to anyone who is trying to better themselves and gets kicked backwards by these policies. I do agree, however, that a lot of Democrats are surprised when they, personally, are affected. They don't wake up though, which is sad. They are too driven by their emotions, and how others see them - turns them into martyrs of sort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i think the majority of people fighting this change aren’t as much concerned about an increase in farms for their kids school as they are about losing 50-100k in home value overnight.


Anybody, social justice warrior or not, would be upset if you took that much money away from them.

Real estate agents are predicting up to 1/3 equity loss.

NP. We were told 500K homes redistricted out of RH will lose about $125 to 150K. I am sick to my stomach. We will never regain that back. I don't care about the schools or who goes where. So thankful we never pulled home equity, but there are plenty people that have and it will affect them much more.

Exactly. The sad thing is that those doing this feel that these people deserve it. I'm in Fairfax county and the hatred from the school board members supporting this towards those in McLean and Great Falls is palpable. They WANT to hurt us. I feel so badly for Marylanders who are facing similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my big issues with this redistricting is why now?

A new high school will open in 2023 which will force another redistricting.

Why go through such a huge redistricting now when it's going to happen again in another few years? I think Atholton HS is going to turn over something like 40% of its student body. Crazy.

You can't tell me that won't have some kind of impact.

Why not wait until 2023? Do it once instead of twice.

Because there are several schools that are very, very overcrowded now. Fulton ES is at 120% capacity. Several other schools at the ES, MS and HS level are over 110% capacity. The schools don't have any place to put the students.

If it's about overcrowding, why are the boards stating it's about socioeconomic equity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends, after a similar experience in another state (redistricted / lost money, had to move because obviously they were not going to send their kids to a failing school to make social justice warriors feel better), decided to never buy again. They choose not to be invested in the real estate since clearly county governments do not respect social contracts. My friends instead buy rental properties. It's a little more hassle, but at least they feel that their family is never on the line, only their money.

My other friends whose kids graduated top public schools and went to Ivies immediately sold in HoCo and moved to a nice area with a terrible school district and with easy access to metro / decent commute to DC (although they don't need it, more to ensure appreciation), just to be out of the whole school boundary war zone situation. Their house could be reassigned to a failing school during this bound of redistricting in HoCo, so they were smart.

We chose to buy in a (somewhat) "buffered" zone, or at least we hope so. If the bussing is bad enough, the buffers will fall.

The school redistricting is class warfare. It is completely clear to any casual observer familiar with data analysis that the achievement gap cannot be solved in that way. The redistricting is done to punish the professional class. I am rather curious how the professional class will fight back.

Watch Great Falls and McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my big issues with this redistricting is why now?

A new high school will open in 2023 which will force another redistricting.

Why go through such a huge redistricting now when it's going to happen again in another few years? I think Atholton HS is going to turn over something like 40% of its student body. Crazy.

You can't tell me that won't have some kind of impact.

Why not wait until 2023? Do it once instead of twice.

Because there are several schools that are very, very overcrowded now. Fulton ES is at 120% capacity. Several other schools at the ES, MS and HS level are over 110% capacity. The schools don't have any place to put the students.

If it's about overcrowding, why are the boards stating it's about socioeconomic equity?

It's about both, eh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, a few schools are overcrowded. Fix those schools then. You don't need to impact 7300+ students to fix overcrowding.

Make the big moves in 2023 when you have to make them anyway. Instead, they want to make a huge move now when everyone knows another huge move is coming a couple years later. We'll be talking about redistricting again right after finishing this one.

Families are being tossed around like ping pong balls. The proposal should have been much more modest.

Why would one new high school involve a "huge move", but fixing a few overcrowded schools doesn't have to?

How are families being tossed around like ping pong balls?

Three school changes in less than 5 years? You would be okay with that for your kids?

It amazes me how flexible people are when it isn’t happening to them

Social justice policies are always better in the abstract.

[Anonymous]

I just can't with the posters who think believe that

1. the purpose of school boundaries is to maintain the property values of affluent property owners.
2. the purpose of school boundary changes is to punish "the professional classes" by making their kids go to the same public schools poor people's kids go to.

Talk about entitlement and victimhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my big issues with this redistricting is why now?

A new high school will open in 2023 which will force another redistricting.

Why go through such a huge redistricting now when it's going to happen again in another few years? I think Atholton HS is going to turn over something like 40% of its student body. Crazy.

You can't tell me that won't have some kind of impact.

Why not wait until 2023? Do it once instead of twice.

Because there are several schools that are very, very overcrowded now. Fulton ES is at 120% capacity. Several other schools at the ES, MS and HS level are over 110% capacity. The schools don't have any place to put the students.

If it's about overcrowding, why are the boards stating it's about socioeconomic equity?

It's about both, eh?

That's not quite true. For instance, we can easily solve the overcrowding at McLean by moving some of those students to under-enrolled Langley. The school board won't do that, because to them, that doesn't solve what they consider to be the 'socioeconomic inequity' of Langley. So what is it about liberalism that punishes people based on the size of their wallet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just can't with the posters who think believe that

1. the purpose of school boundaries is to maintain the property values of affluent property owners.
2. the purpose of school boundary changes is to punish "the professional classes" by making their kids go to the same public schools poor people's kids go to.

Talk about entitlement and victimhood.

Actually, we ARE entitled to what we earned. We worked for it. What's entitled is others thinking THEY are entitled to our hard-earned wealth. Can you tell me why we should be forced to give away what we worked for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just can't with the posters who think believe that

1. the purpose of school boundaries is to maintain the property values of affluent property owners.
2. the purpose of school boundary changes is to punish "the professional classes" by making their kids go to the same public schools poor people's kids go to.

Talk about entitlement and victimhood.

Actually, we ARE entitled to what we earned. We worked for it. What's entitled is others thinking THEY are entitled to our hard-earned wealth. Can you tell me why we should be forced to give away what we worked for?

Nobody's taking your hard-earned wealth, and you're not giving anything away.

The money you put into your property is an investment, just like the money you put into the stock market. There's no guaranteed return on investment. It's a gamble. Sometimes you win (when you go to sell, the sales price is higher than the price you paid to buy), sometimes you break even (when you go to sell, the sales price is about the same as the price you paid to buy), sometimes you lose (when you go to sell, the sales price is lower than the price you paid to buy). If you can't tolerate that risk, then you shouldn't buy property. Rent, let your landlord take the risk, and put your money in a federally-insured bank account.