Reply to Should MCPS start busing or open enrollment?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

This.  [b]We can debate the point at which the %FARMS starts to become counterproductive, but what to do to make the theory into reality?[/b]  On some other thread someone explained how school choice worked in another state -- the county published lists of schools with open slots and parents could apply for those spaces, but would need to reapply at the next stage (MS or HS) and were responsible for their own transportation.  That's more or less the way that DC works, and those of us who had kids in DC and who lived through this process can attest to how chaotic it can be.  We got into our first choice out of the block, and with sibling preferences, we were set for ES.  But many people applied every year (and sometimes mid-year) to try to get into a school, drove their kids all over town in the meantime, and we all missed out on the concept of a neighborhood school, school friends you could visit on foot or by bike, and the simple pleasure of not spending 2 hours a day in transit.  I can see where open enrollment can, on the margins, even out some places like the Cold Spring/Ritchie Park imbalance pointed out elsewhere, but it's no silver bullet for county-wide imbalances, especially in a county as big as Montgomery.[/quote]

Agreed. We don't know at what point the % of FARMS becomes counter-productive for low-income kids, but the report is completely correcting that housing policy is school policy.

The problem is that this is a feature, not a bug. Housing policy reflects the desire of people with money to live over here, as far as possible from the poor people over there. And part of the reason for that desire is schools.[/quote]

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