The illegal Central America population has tripled since 2006 and it is only increasing. So much of the budget goes to helping these students that shouldn't even be here. They also have dumbed down the curriculum and testing for them. The middle of the road legal students have the worst time. Advance students are also held back. Students that don't even speak English absorb so much of one teacher's time. It has gotten out of control. MCPS is only going to get worse.

MCPS just isn't the school system that it used to be.

At private school, DD came home excited about the experiment they did in class. The kids broke up into groups, performed the experiment, filled out their hypothesis, observations, and conclusions. At MCPS the previous year, DD watched a video in class and wrote an essay about what she remembered from the video.

At private school DD does actual math. She takes tests and she can see what she is strong in and what she is weak in. At MCPS, she wrote essays about the math problem. This one is ridiculous.

At private school, DD's writing work comes home with comments on how to improve her writing. She's expected to perform to her potential and this means improving her writing. In MCPS, never any comments, always a P or an ES. Lots of validation for sloppy work. DD's writing improved substantially within one month at private.

2.0 is awful, really awful. On top of it simply sucking, the teachers are all struggling with it and its a mess so even the parts that could be good get screwed up. We toughed it out for 3 years, only saw it get worse and saw no indications that MCPS had any intention of improving it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).

Actually, I think it's a case of the county didn't plan well. They allowed the housing to be built, much of it high density condos, townhouses and apartments, but didn't plan for the growth in school populations. I also think they anticipated that the increased tax revenue from these new properties would pay for the needed improvements in infrastructure--including schools--to accommodate the growth. Obviously, that didn't happen and now their in a hole with overcrowded schools with no easy way to get out of it. And to be fair to the current MCPS and county council, these were issues many years in the making thought the responsibility lies with those in now in charge.

"Didn't plan well" is past tense. I think you mean ISN'T PLANNING WELL. Have you seen the new addition at Bethesda Elementary under construction? It won't accommodate all those new condo and apartment dwellers in the buildings under construction now. Planners apparently have never visited NYC. They think everyone with a family will live in a single family house or Townhouse.

Anonymous wrote:I think the reason more children are in private schools in Montgomery County is because there are A LOT of private schools there. People go on tours and think what a fantastic school based on the tour, hear a problem about the publics, and decide to fork over the money with little thought about the future. In VA there just aren't as many privates so people don't consider them as much.

This really over-simplifies things. Making the decision to pay tuition instead of going with the public schools is not easy. We toured both our local public and private schools. We also read reviews, asked around and gathered lots of info before deciding what was best for our DC. Oh and we gave a lot of thought about the future and decided that the private school we chose would pay "dividends" over time--just not in the financial sense.

Anonymous wrote:I think the reason more children are in private schools in Montgomery County is because there are A LOT of private schools there. People go on tours and think what a fantastic school based on the tour, hear a problem about the publics, and decide to fork over the money with little thought about the future. In VA there just aren't as many privates so people don't consider them as much.

I agreed until "fork over the money with little thought about the future" - that is really not the case most of the time.
Most families think long and hard about tuition and take paying that money very seriously.

It's weird that I never thought about it by I went to private school while my sisters went to public school. In my case I was unhappy at my school and saw an advertisement in the paper for a scholarship at the private school and asked my parents if I could apply. I don't think my sisters ever had the desire to go to private school.

With my kids they are very close in age, same gender, and very tight. We gave our youngest the option and she wanted to go to the same private school as her sister and never looked back.

I think the reason more children are in private schools in Montgomery County is because there are A LOT of private schools there. People go on tours and think what a fantastic school based on the tour, hear a problem about the publics, and decide to fork over the money with little thought about the future. In VA there just aren't as many privates so people don't consider them as much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).

Actually, I think it's a case of the county didn't plan well. They allowed the housing to be built, much of it high density condos, townhouses and apartments, but didn't plan for the growth in school populations. I also think they anticipated that the increased tax revenue from these new properties would pay for the needed improvements in infrastructure--including schools--to accommodate the growth. Obviously, that didn't happen and now their in a hole with overcrowded schools with no easy way to get out of it. And to be fair to the current MCPS and county council, these were issues many years in the making thought the responsibility lies with those in now in charge.

Schools that are over capacity are a different issue from class size. It's not as though the school system said, well, there are only three first-grade classrooms at this school, so there will only be three first grades at this school, even though there are 150 first-graders. The school adds teachers and puts the additional classes in portables.

I guess it depends on what maximum they put on class size. I've heard as high as 29, which seems way too high to me. Whatever the number is, has that been the threshold historically or as school enrollment increased did the county increase the maximum number to stuff as many kids into a classroom before hiring a new teacher or building another portable? Would be curious if anyone knows the answer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).

Actually, I think it's a case of the county didn't plan well. They allowed the housing to be built, much of it high density condos, townhouses and apartments, but didn't plan for the growth in school populations. I also think they anticipated that the increased tax revenue from these new properties would pay for the needed improvements in infrastructure--including schools--to accommodate the growth. Obviously, that didn't happen and now their in a hole with overcrowded schools with no easy way to get out of it. And to be fair to the current MCPS and county council, these were issues many years in the making thought the responsibility lies with those in now in charge.

Schools that are over capacity are a different issue from class size. It's not as though the school system said, well, there are only three first-grade classrooms at this school, so there will only be three first grades at this school, even though there are 150 first-graders. The school adds teachers and puts the additional classes in portables.

Anonymous wrote:How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).

Actually, I think it's a case of the county didn't plan well. They allowed the housing to be built, much of it high density condos, townhouses and apartments, but didn't plan for the growth in school populations. I also think they anticipated that the increased tax revenue from these new properties would pay for the needed improvements in infrastructure--including schools--to accommodate the growth. Obviously, that didn't happen and now their in a hole with overcrowded schools with no easy way to get out of it. And to be fair to the current MCPS and county council, these were issues many years in the making thought the responsibility lies with those in now in charge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Since you mentioned Sidwell by name, Here are some reasons I send my DS to Sidwell rather than MoCo

I love the Quaker traditions and sense of community there.

Most of his classes have 10-12 students

In MoCo magnet he was one of two AA boys; Sidwell is more diverse

Sidwell has professional artists/muscians work with kids in their arts programs

The speakers at Sidwell are fascinating

The math teaching is superior

The writing instruction is superior

There are many opportunities to travel with the school overseas

Sidwell requires students to self advocate; teachers do not have to listen to pushy parents

The kids push themselves ( maybe too much)

Is the school perfect, no it is not. But it works for my kid. He was not as happy at his MoCo school.

+1. Sidwell is not perfect (no school is) but I share your sentiment. I would never have an opportunity to hear some of the history making speakers (for free) that I've heard at Sidwell.

So, " teachers at Sidwell don't have to listen to pushy parents" . How does the admin achieve that ? TELL US PLEASE !!

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, no. Rather than waste time trying to fix every problem created by folks with vested interests or too much time on their hands, it is much more efficient to vote with one's feet, while devoting just enough time to social action to keep taxes low so that one retains enough of one's hard earning income to have the freedom to do so.

Translation: I'm on the cusp of being able to afford private school. So I'm going to vote/lobby for lower taxes so that the lower-income families kids get a lower-quality public education. I win and the poors lose. Nah nah.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Quit whining. Despite your breathless comment, PP wasn't saying anything about unions in general or unionized teachers across the board. She was saying that in the specific situation of MCPS, the teachers' unions have put their own interests ahead of students' interests.

Isn't the point of a teachers' union to specifically advocate for the interests of the teachers? It doesn't mean that they don't care about the students, but that this is their role. The job of the school board is to balance the two.

+1. It's called Democracy. Unions are a form of social action. The union-bashers here should start your own social action group, and, uh, quit whining....

Actually, no. Rather than waste time trying to fix every problem created by folks with vested interests or too much time on their hands, it is much more efficient to vote with one's feet, while devoting just enough time to social action to keep taxes low so that one retains enough of one's hard earning income to have the freedom to do so.

How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).