Reply to Can we get MCPS to allow fundraising for staff positions?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Can we get MCPS to allow fundraising for staff positions?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I find this silly.   WE DON'T HAVE A REAL PUBLIC SOLUTION!  I'd love it if we did, but we don't.  I advocate for it, and won't stop advocating for it, but we don't have it.   WE could have a private/public solution in the interim, but we can't do that because "it's not fair".  WHAT?  It reminds me of the Vonnegut story, Harrison Bergeron.   [b]Is the fear that if the schools with rich parents get better, then the rich parents will stop trying to make the system as a whole better?[/b]  I feel like we could solve that problem.  Like, if you want to raise funds for extra aides/teachers at your school, you have to raise matching funds that go into the system as a whole.  So, Bannockburn PTA can put $100k toward two new teachers' aides, but they have to put $100k in matching funds into the general fund.  
Otherwise, you know what's going to happen over time?  The rich Whitman parents will gradually move more kids to private.  Because the class sizes aren't going to support the reputation of "good schools" for much longer.[/quote]

That's not the reason, but yes, actually, if rich parents can buy more teachers for their children's schools, then they will have much less incentive to advocate for more teachers for other children's schools. After all, more teachers for other children's schools won't benefit their children, right?

And please remember -- you can put $100,000 towards any number of things in your children's schools. The ONLY thing you can't do with the $100,000 is buy more teachers. [/quote]

Yes, I know we can put money toward other things.  But nothing compensates for the class sizes, which suck.  [b]Having after school activities or an artist in residence is nice, but it's so marginal compared to the fact that my kid's teacher still doesn't have any idea how she learns and has no relationship with her[/b].   Believe it or not, there are "at risk" kids in these schools too, and if you just have too many kids with one teacher, then lots of kids get ignored.  [/quote]

+1.  NP here.  At our elementary in Bethesda, there is an impressive amount of funding for things like artist-in-residence etc.  But the kids spend over 5 hours per day in their classroom with 1 teacher, and that is where the difference could be felt most.  I visited my DS's classroom for parent visiting day last fall, and I was genuinely surprised at how unruly the kids seemed and how the teacher had a difficult time keeping just making herself heard.

Let's allow MCPS to donate funds for aides, as DCPS allow.  My friends who send their kids to Horace Mann (in DCPS) seem very pleased, and don't much mind contributing say $2000 per year.  It's a lot more affordable than spending over $22,000 per year on private school tuition.  And perhaps it incentivizes some people to move to Montgomery County!  (As it is, some people I know have moved from NW DC to Bethesda for the schools, and then are kind of disappointed about this inability to have an aide in the classroom.  They see that you pay a lot in taxes, but that they don't get much in return.  One new neighbor commented that there are a lot of needs in MoCo, and it seems to them like Bethesda/Potomac is slightly subsidizing the rest of the county.  We're all liberals and are OK with that, but still would like to be able to contribute to funding aides in the classroom, since that is where kids spend the majority of their time each school day.)  [/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