Reply to Sound off - Ivy grads & high income earners who chose public schools over privates

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Sound off - Ivy grads & high income earners who chose public schools over privates"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm the PP. I have two kids in a MCPS public school with a FARMS rate just under 20% and an ever-FARMS rate just over 20%.[/quote]

So what are you arguing about?  You just don't want anyone to go to the public schools with lower farms rates?  If what you want is more varied housing so the economic mix is more equitable throughout the county, go advocate for that.  But don't dump on the parents who send kids to publics in higher SES areas.  [/quote]

I am arguing that the public schools attended by people who live in Bethesda and Potomac exclude a significant part of the public. But, as I said, I think that MCPS is better off if the Bethesda/Potomac parents send their children to MCPS than if they send their children to private schools. And actually, I do advocate for less residential economic segregation in Montgomery County.[/quote]

So you're completely off-point, then.  You AGREE that the parents who send their kids to MCPS public schools (even the high-SES ones) are in fact getting more economic diversity than the privates, and being better educational citizens than those who send their kids to the privates.  But you're clouding the issue by saying that they're not being as good as you are, because you send your kids to a somewhat lower SES public school.  Yay you. You do know that there are schools that have higher FARMS rates than yours, right?  [/quote]

No, I didn't say that. I said that MCPS is better off if the Bethesda/Potomac parents send their kids to public schools. Whether the kids themselves are better off is up to their parents to decide.

And I also didn't say that I'm better than the Bethesda/Potomac parents. I'm certainly less affluent than they are. I couldn't afford to send my kids to private school, even if I wanted to. And there are poor kids in my kids' school. Those aren't value judgments; those are facts.

And yes, I know very well that there are lots of schools in MCPS with much higher FARMS rates.

Why so defensive, PP?[/quote]

Not defensive, but I am tired of hearing private school parents say that their private is more "diverse" than the higher-SES public schools around here.  At least economically speaking, it's not true.  Yes, a Bethesda/CC elementary will have fewer FARMS kids than a Takoma Park Elementary.  But so what?  It doesn't help when you bolster the private school parents' ridiculous justification that sending little Charlotte to private school is actually not abandoning the public school systems.  Of course they have the right to do that, but stop pretending it's an egalitarian choice.  
I am not one of the smug that goes around saying we do public because "we believe in public schooling" or whatever.  For our family, at this time, public makes more sense.  And we live in a great public school district.  Because we are lucky that we can do that.  Not because we're smarter than someone in a public school district with a higher FARMS rate.  The backbiting between parents in different ends of MCPS is so counterproductive.  Like I said before, the only answer to that problem is higher rates of mixed-income housing.  That's where the focus ought to be.  
As someone who grew up in a much more economically diverse area, I'd be all for it.  I think it would make my kids' schools better too.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics