Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There were also plenty of people from the “poorer” schools who didn’t want to be redistricted either. Framing it as a rich vs poor issue is an oversimplification.
People in general don’t like having their lives disrupted rich or poor. There will always be a fight in regards to these issues. It’s human nature, and it’s unrealistic to expect otherwise.
Eh....not in this past redistricting debate, which looks like it's still going on as per a FB all call from one group even today. Disappointing to read. Definitely a debate that runs on $$ and political lines. And I saw clear elitism all throughout the last flare up, before the pandemic. Absolutely. As far as those not wanting to move out of lower resourced districts, it is likely they didn't want to be tokens to prove something. I get that.
Yes, people generally don't want to change, sure, but there's a lot at stake here for those who think they bought into rich and privileged areas and want there schools to also reflect that.
DP.
While you are correct that there was a lot more heat from the richer areas (like the two polygons near Maple Lawn that were assigned to Laurel Woods), there was also some pushback from some of the poorer areas. In the case I was talking about there was also some pushback from some of the families at Laurel Woods against having their children bussed out to Maple Lawn. For some of those families, they had problems because not all families can get children from Maple Lawn/Fulton to their afterschool/aftercare facilities. Many of the aftercare programs that are accessible and do pickups from Fulton are very expensive and essentially price out families from the Laurel Woods community. And the kids can take the bus back to Laurel, but then they can't get to aftercare facilities because the parent at home or the parent who is nearby does not have a car. I know a few one-car families. One adult takes the car for a longer commute like into DC. The other adult uses the Laurel bus system to get to and from work. The child would have to take the school bus home from Fulton and wait while the second adult takes public transportation home from work, uses public transportation to take the child to aftercare and then public transportation back to work. This adult would miss close to two hours of the workday to do that or have to pay a ton in Uber fees to get the child to an affordable aftercare program. Right now, they use a program that sends a van to Laurel Woods and picks up the children to take them to aftercare. The same program is not going to drive the van out to Fulton to pick up kids.
So, although it made far less news, there was some pushback from the Laurel Woods community having their children bussed out to Maple Lawn to Fulton and how they were going to handle aftercare available for the children.
The logistics issue will always be an issue in redistricting, because people generally want a neighborhood school. I consider individual issues to have tangential consideration in this decision making, as no one can solve everyone's individual situations. In this county, and in many other counties, having local schools will not be a mainstay in any context. Resources, seats, staffing have to be divided up fairly, and especially here because of overcrowding and uneven resources .
What will throw this new round of plans will be other current and serious problems such as:
Lack of bus drivers- big problem
Teacher shortage- becoming a problem