Reply to MCPS just isn't so great anymore

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Reply to "MCPS just isn't so great anymore - WashPo Opinion 9/6/2013"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Socioeconomic disparity means that there are financial issues driving the gap. Extra funding for support programs (ie. free tutoring service for homework and SAT prep, more money for music, art, and sports programs, parent support classes and training, etc.) would be a step in the right direction in attacking socioeconomic problems.

If that doesn't work, I say open up the boundaries. Let all kids choose where they want to go to school. Why a parent would want to send their kid from a school with 15 kids per class to a school with 32 kids per class just because the later school has the preppy zip code is beyond me. [/quote]

That's just idiotic PP - the County is huge. How do you propose organizing transportation if students can go anywhere, and presumably can change that choice every year? (And if all schools are open to all, presumably the class size differential would be even as well - no point in having smaller classes in lower performing schools if kids can go anywhere. And how do you ration seats at better performing schools, which presumably would command higher numbers of prospective students? And so on - it's just not a viable possibility.

Achievement gaps within MCPS correlate to socioeconomic differences in the county - big surprise! This is true everywhere, although less evident in areas where school systems are operated by town rather than county. It's true of all major metropolitan areas. The school system cannot change the socioeconomic disparities in the county; you cannot, via schools, ensure that the kid in the $5m Potomac house, complete with Kumon since age 3 and a SAHM former lawyer whose goal in life is to get her kid into Harvard, has the exact same experience as the kid whose parents are immigrants with limited job prospects, language challenges and uncertainty in the basics (food, shelter.) As I posted before, the Post oped by this blogger indicated that MCPS has more kids who qualify for FARMS than DC -- and yet few would argue that DCPS has better educational achievements. So while I fully appreciate that lots of people have lots to criticize about MCPS, it isn't immediately obvious to me that the County is failing anyone, particularly not disadvantaged kids, who apparently do better in MCPS than they would be in DCPS. Maybe that's a low bar, but it's a relevant one.

If you have good ideas about how to enhance socioeconomic diversity in MoCo, I'm all ears. I just don't think it's practical to put that burden on the school system.[/quote]

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