Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 13:29     Subject: Re:The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:NJ has the highest property taxes in the US.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-23/new-jersey-with-highest-property-taxes-sees-bills-rise-again


+1000 I moved from a high-flying NJ suburb and paid 3x the amount of property taxes for a house that was 1/2 as big. And the education wasn't all that.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 10:15     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:We should follow New Jersey system - every town/township is a separate school district. Each having its own Primary, Middle, High Schools and a superintendent called School District Superintendent. Each school district operates within the parameters conforming to National and State Education Standards. That way, each town residents have more say in how a school district is run. Only those towns where a majority of residents opt for grading system similar to current MCPS grading system will have that. Other towns will have traditional comprehensive exam system and/or letter grades with "+" or "-" prefixes. We will also have less bureaucracy and less resistance to change.


Are we waving magic wands here, to make things that are impossible happen? Because if we are, I can come up with much better impossible ideas than "Maryland should be like New Jersey".
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 10:09     Subject: Re:The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:NJ has the highest property taxes in the US.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-23/new-jersey-with-highest-property-taxes-sees-bills-rise-again

+1 that's why the school system is the way it is. My sister lives there, and they pay up the nose in property tax. And with the SALT deduction removal, many are hurting.

I don't think this is the right solution. I move from a small school district, and while there are pros/cons to both sides, the thing about small school districts is that there is no economies of scale for special programs like magnets and the like.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 10:05     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Segregationists love this old trope.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 09:00     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:I grew up in CT with town based education...agree that it benefits the wealthy and leaves the poorer areas much worse off. The discrepancies are shocking... most needy students with the least reasources. I don't have a solution for mcps but taking away all measures of success to try to equalize student achievement is not a valid plan...grading, differentiated learning , exams, gifted programs...we are seeing them all phased out....not sure who supports that.


But how is that different from what is happening in MCPS? We are at a Focus school and have friends at wealthier elementary schools. Huge differences in field trips, PTA involvement, level of expectation, etc.

The County could still continue to offer its myriad of programs, like Saturday School, tutoring, etc. Could see how that would still work.

Services offered through the county, but town-based school systems. It would be a huge improvement over the disaster that MCPS is now. School closings can be made on a town/cluster basis. Busing would be much simpler.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 08:55     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am from Wisconsin and town-based school systems is one of the biggest things I miss here.


Me too except I a, fro Massachusetts.


+1

Also from NJ.

Much easier to make changes and address issues as they arise. More accountability because your neighbors are the ones on the school board. I would support this 100%. MCPS is too big to run effectively and so it has become a nightmare.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 07:53     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Wouldn't that create tremendous redundancies? I've had friends from New Jersey tell me that you end up spending a lot of budget on the central office salaries since you'd need 10 different superintendents instead of one for example.
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 07:43     Subject: Re:The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Yes, I'm from Massachusetts too and agree with the above. Is there an example of a successful large county system that avoids segregation without doing away with testing, differentiation etc? Or even one of those variables?
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 23:49     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
I grew up in CT with town based education...agree that it benefits the wealthy and leaves the poorer areas much worse off. The discrepancies are shocking... most needy students with the least reasources. I don't have a solution for mcps but taking away all measures of success to try to equalize student achievement is not a valid plan...grading, differentiated learning , exams, gifted programs...we are seeing them all phased out....not sure who supports that.
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 21:53     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:I am from Wisconsin and town-based school systems is one of the biggest things I miss here.


Me too except I a, fro Massachusetts.
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 21:19     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
I am from Wisconsin and town-based school systems is one of the biggest things I miss here.
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 21:17     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
That promotes massive amounts of segregation. I grew up in Chappaqua, NY, where that's the norm and trust me -- it just meant the rich parts of the county were fine and the poorer parts were screwed.

So if you're ok screwing the poor parts of MoCo, sure, let's split it up by town!
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 21:17     Subject: Re:The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
NJ has the highest property taxes in the US.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-23/new-jersey-with-highest-property-taxes-sees-bills-rise-again
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 21:15     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
I’m from NJ. I was fortunate to live in the poorest part of the one of the richest school systems. NJ is highly segregated. This would never fly in MoCo - see separate threads about redistributing.
Anonymous
Post 01/11/2019 21:08     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
We should follow New Jersey system - every town/township is a separate school district. Each having its own Primary, Middle, High Schools and a superintendent called School District Superintendent. Each school district operates within the parameters conforming to National and State Education Standards. That way, each town residents have more say in how a school district is run. Only those towns where a majority of residents opt for grading system similar to current MCPS grading system will have that. Other towns will have traditional comprehensive exam system and/or letter grades with "+" or "-" prefixes. We will also have less bureaucracy and less resistance to change.