Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

People on this board like to pretend that it doesn’t matter if higher-income families leave the school system. However, it matters very much. We have seen this play out in other areas.

I’m from a country where the public school system is only for lower-income families. Anyone middle-class and above goes private. And there are clear differences. Talk about widening the achievement gap.

A strong school system needs support from families at various income levels. When the schools system only serves lower-income families, it is not good for public education.

This is spot on and a thoughtful post.

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

People on this board like to pretend that it doesn’t matter if higher-income families leave the school system. However, it matters very much. We have seen this play out in other areas.

I’m from a country where the public school system is only for lower-income families. Anyone middle-class and above goes private. And there are clear differences. Talk about widening the achievement gap.

A strong school system needs support from families at various income levels. When the schools system only serves lower-income families, it is not good for public education.

Agree many of the posters here seem to believe it should cater to the wealthy and resent the concern for anyone else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

People on this board like to pretend that it doesn’t matter if higher-income families leave the school system. However, it matters very much. We have seen this play out in other areas.

I’m from a country where the public school system is only for lower-income families. Anyone middle-class and above goes private. And there are clear differences. Talk about widening the achievement gap.

A strong school system needs support from families at various income levels. When the schools system only serves lower-income families, it is not good for public education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

People on this board like to pretend that it doesn’t matter if higher-income families leave the school system. However, it matters very much. We have seen this play out in other areas.

I’m from a country where the public school system is only for lower-income families. Anyone middle-class and above goes private. And there are clear differences. Talk about widening the achievement gap.

A strong school system needs support from families at various income levels. When the schools system only serves lower-income families, it is not good for public education.

No its not good for public education to only serve low income. Its also not good for it to only care about and serve those with a high income. Which is the entire point. Right now it serves both and all sides want it to do more and more and more, which is really hard to do without alienating the other side and totally forgetting about those in the middle. The problem is that whereas the public school system keeps trying to find a balance, many parents want to keep threatening it with leaving for the private school system or vouchers or some other paradigm that its never going to be able to compete with fully as the variables are different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

People on this board like to pretend that it doesn’t matter if higher-income families leave the school system. However, it matters very much. We have seen this play out in other areas.

I’m from a country where the public school system is only for lower-income families. Anyone middle-class and above goes private. And there are clear differences. Talk about widening the achievement gap.

A strong school system needs support from families at various income levels. When the schools system only serves lower-income families, it is not good for public education.

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

People on this board like to pretend that it doesn’t matter if higher-income families leave the school system. However, it matters very much. We have seen this play out in other areas.

I’m from a country where the public school system is only for lower-income families. Anyone middle-class and above goes private. And there are clear differences. Talk about widening the achievement gap.


Totally agree. MCPS is set up to serve East County not Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac...talking about equity and social justice non-stop as opposed to math, science and reading is not the way to go.

A strong school system needs support from families at various income levels. When the schools system only serves lower-income families, it is not good for public education.

Anonymous wrote:What happened in Hawaii could happen here.

So the story goes, back in the 60's Hawaii tried to have a solid public school system. However, there was a lot of local pushback in the 70's about some public schools having more resources than others, so there was a pullback and the affluent put their kids into privates. By the 80's there was a huge difference between Private and Public schools that privates (ex. Punahou where Obama went to school) did exceptionally well but not so much the publics.

When the 70's housing market temporarily collapsed (reducing collected taxes), public education budgets were slashed and never really recovered after that. Taxpayers didn't want to sink a lot of money into a poor school system. That became an entrenched cycle and a classic tale of have-and-have-nots that, I feel, continues to this day.

Currently the "best" #1 public HS in Hawaii is Roosevelt. However, the AP participation rate is only 66%, and it's #550 in National rankings.

So, by all means, MCPS Central Office and MC BoE - go ahead and alienate the high SES families. Given that the rumor is Ms. McKnight doesn't even send her kids to Public school in this County, who knows - it may already be happening?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s plainly true that many people with the means left MCPS over the last two years in the wealthiest clusters. Out neighborhood pre pandemic was like 30-40% private. Now it is closer to 70%. Most that made the switch aren’t coming back. So definitely fewer wealthy families using public in our neighborhood but it is not everyone by any means.

BS

I don’t know why people find this hard to believe, but it’s true. This is one of the wealthier neighborhoods in the county so it’s not representative. But there has been a strong exodus to private.

Same in my neighborhood. I'd say 20 years ago about 10% to 20% of kids attended private, but now it is well over half, perhaps more. They tend to give MCPS a shot and then peel off by about 3rd or 4th grade.

And then most of them come back by 9th grade

Cite to this piece of data? We will wait.

Enrollment in nearly every grade decreased this year, except kindergarten and ninth grade. Ninth grade usually sees larger increases than other grades because many students make the transition from private or parochial school to public school at that time,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before covid, Rachel Carson ES in Gaithersburg was way overcrowded and planned to move some kids to Dufief ES after its expansion. We are recently told that there won't be any kid moving school zone at Rachel Carson ES, and all portables would be removed (kids move back in building) because we are under capacity now. I wonder where those kids move to, private school or different ES/school district?

I live in the Kentlands and it's very obvious just from observing the pickup and dropoffs that enrollment has plummeted at Rachel Carson. The place used to be thronged and caused big traffic disruptions. Now it's not a big deal. What's the current enrollment there? A few years ago it was at 1100. Just anecdotally, we have several neighbors who had planned to send their kids there pre-pandemic but are now doing homeschool and private school.

Rachel Carson is a good example of parents with means who might be sending to private because of problems in mcps, but the principal is also a problem. It once had a very accomplished, competent principal but that person left a year or two before the pandemic. The problems at that school have been increasing ever since.

Last year RCES: 773
Year before: 893
Year before that: 973
Year before that 1022

*includes PreK

Wow.

Not really a shock. The lakelands were built, young couples bought homes, had kids, those kids went to Rachel Carson and are now aging out. Meanwhile, the older population in the kentlands hasn't died yet.