American schools, public and private, are a slowly slipping. At least in the public school system one can use the disposable income for targeted enrichment and intellectual stimulation. Who wants to pay twice...except the rich.

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

Sign my name under this.

OP, we are in a good MC private and thinking of switching to public because we aren't that impressed with private school. Even if we are unhappy with public, at least it is free.

NP here. My DC went to a vaunted MoCo public until this year, when we had finally had enough and put her in private. That said, although the MoCo system -- particularly our home school, which is quite large -- didn't work for our DC, it works for a lot of kids. Depends on your kid's personality and learning style/needs. For those for whom it works, I say lucky you. I'm going to be about $300k in the hole before we even get to college. But my DC is flourishing at the current school, so it's worth every penny.

Please don't take everything you read on here seriously. The people who come on here to complain have unrealistic expectations of public schools. Your kids will have access to a wonderful education in MCPS.

Not necessarily true. We move every three years and I have kids in college, high school, and elementary school. They've been to schools all over this country and overseas. In my 22 years of parenting, I have never had a problem with the public schools anywhere we have lived...until Montgomery County. It was so bad that I pulled my youngest out and homeschooled until we closed on our house in Fairfax Country. And I am NOT the homeschooling type. Our plan was to buy in Montgomery County. To say we were disappointed in the schools would be an understatement.

We do not have unrealistic expectations of public schools. We were very, very happy with the schools in Fairfax. I'm sure a lot depends on the individual school. I have no doubt that there are excellent schools in Montgomery County. Unfortunately, there are also some not-so-great ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

THIS.

plus the lack of science, social studies, history, and art/music. And don't tell me that 40 minutes per week of science counts as viable instruction time.

The second poster's kids must not have reached middle school yet. MoCo offers absolutely amazing science, social studies, history, art and music programs. My 7th grader is going to be performing many of the experiments that are done on CSI in his daily science class. He will be learning photoshop in depth during his daily Art class, among many other skills. In his daily Advance World Studies, he's studied China, the Roman Empire, and now he's doing a unit on Europe. I come away from BTSN completely amazed at all of the opportunities my kids have in MoCo schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's right, don't get caught up in the hype. That said, there are a lot of parents (especially in this budget-cutting climate) who would love to be able to supplement staff and specials, etc. in the schools. I think MCPS are great (after all budget cutting is happening throughout the country), but I also think parents should be allowed to raise money to pay for assistant teachers, recess aides, etc. I think the county should be open to this type of parent partnership.

This poster has posted on multiple threads about this, and it's been explained multiple times that there are laws against this in Montgomery County and that it's not going to happen.

I'm always curious on this forum when someone says that a certain poster has posted x, y or z. This is an anonymous forum, how do you know this. Isn't it possible that more than one person agrees and/or posts?

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

THIS.

plus the lack of science, social studies, history, and art/music. And don't tell me that 40 minutes per week of science counts as viable instruction time.

I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

Anonymous wrote:Please don't take everything you read on here seriously. The people who come on here to complain have unrealistic expectations of public schools. Your kids will have access to a wonderful education in MCPS.

Count me as another satisfied customer.

Anonymous wrote:That's right, don't get caught up in the hype. That said, there are a lot of parents (especially in this budget-cutting climate) who would love to be able to supplement staff and specials, etc. in the schools. I think MCPS are great (after all budget cutting is happening throughout the country), but I also think parents should be allowed to raise money to pay for assistant teachers, recess aides, etc. I think the county should be open to this type of parent partnership.

This poster has posted on multiple threads about this, and it's been explained multiple times that there are laws against this in Montgomery County and that it's not going to happen.

That's right, don't get caught up in the hype. That said, there are a lot of parents (especially in this budget-cutting climate) who would love to be able to supplement staff and specials, etc. in the schools. I think MCPS are great (after all budget cutting is happening throughout the country), but I also think parents should be allowed to raise money to pay for assistant teachers, recess aides, etc. I think the county should be open to this type of parent partnership.

Anonymous wrote:Please don't take everything you read on here seriously. The people who come on here to complain have unrealistic expectations of public schools. Your kids will have access to a wonderful education in MCPS.

Thank you, I do appreciate that! I hate getting caught up in the hype.

Please don't take everything you read on here seriously. The people who come on here to complain have unrealistic expectations of public schools. Your kids will have access to a wonderful education in MCPS.

My oldest is only in preschool, but we have always planned to send our kids to public school. We were happy to end up in a "good" MoCo school area (Rock Creek Valley Elem--good kindergarten teacher rations I've heard0, but now reading these posts I'm nervous about MoCo schools. Is anyone happy with it? If not, where *are* the good public schools? DC area and the rest of the country?