Reply to Protest Hogan's diversion of public funds from public schools into private schools

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Reply to "Protest Hogan's diversion of public funds from public schools into private schools"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?[/quote]

It's only freedom of choice for some. But, while Trump is busy attempting to weaken the independent media, by all means, he should go ahead and weaken public education. Both are essential to democracy.[/quote]

Public education is already weak, IMO.

We spend tons of money on education in this country and it gets wasted on stupid shit like Chromebooks in 2nd grade so kids can learn how to message each other, Promethean boards that don't work properly some of the time, additional testing year after year for no good reason.

What are you so afraid of?  Try something different.[/quote]

This.

MCPS is more focused on perception than education.  I was at an early meeting where MCPS was talking about installing Promethean boards in the schools. I think it was the 2008-09 year, a time when the country was facing economic difficulties.  I know it seemed prudent to use caution before adding a large budget item.  I asked them what function the Promethean boards could perform that couldn't already be done with the technology they already had.  After thinking a while, they finally said that it could be used to annotate videos as they were watched.  I'm sure the Promethean boards are nifty, but I'm not sure how frequently teachers need to annotate videos.

I have seen MCPS pour money into things that have little to no effect on education.  Further, MCPS has poured money into reducing the gap for many years, and it hasn't seemed to reduce the gap.  I remember Jerry Weast having red and green zones.  I don't know how many superintendents before him tried to close the gap.  The people of Montgomery County are not only willing to fund our school system at a high level, but to support allocating higher funding to lower performing schools.  If giving money to MCPS was the answer to helping struggling students, I think they'd be in much better shape.

Frankly, despite it's claims to being one of the best school systems in the country, I think it's a mediocre one at best whose performance is masked by a highly educated population who makes up for its shortfalls either through parents supplementing at home or hiring professional tutoring services.  Seems to me a lot of our public school students are going to private "schools" like Sylvan and Kumon.

If we had charter schools, vouchers to private schools might be less of an issue.  However, MCPS has fought charter schools for years leaving us with the choice of MCPS or private.

I believe fiercely in the importance of public education.  I think every child deserves a good education.  However, if they aren't getting it from MCPS, maybe we should look for other options that will offer them that opportunity. [/quote]

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