Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s that families like mine who are in the “middle” that are the concern.

We are zoned for a middle of the road ES - very diverse SES.

We started at public had a sh-tty experience with MCPS - well behaved kids at the top suffered because what limited resources there were went to the bottom. And granted I’m fine with resources going to the bottom, but it’s the disregard for the needs of others that is bothersome. Literally physical safety became a daily concern of my first grader. It’s a race to the bottom instead of lifting up.

Went to private even though it is a financial stretch. Kids are much happier, they have excelled academically and aren’t worried about being beat up at recess.

I don’t know what changed - maybe covid or teacher shortages or demographic shifts - but something is very wrong with our once top school district.

Ditto. We pulled ours out eight years ago, and should have done it earlier.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple of things here to think about.

The retiree population is exploding in the county. It is predicted to make up over 20% of the county population in 5 to 10 years. They tend to retire in place and stay in their single family homes near many of us live.

Educated Families and other groups are having fewer kids.

The wealthy are getting more wealthy due to increases in income. Stock market and inheritance. We are seeing a huge wealth transfer.

Huh? The retired are leaving MD in droves. This is a known problem as higher income retirees are being replaced by lower income newcomers.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s that families like mine who are in the “middle” that are the concern.

We are zoned for a middle of the road ES - very diverse SES.

We started at public had a sh-tty experience with MCPS - well behaved kids at the top suffered because what limited resources there were went to the bottom. And granted I’m fine with resources going to the bottom, but it’s the disregard for the needs of others that is bothersome. Literally physical safety became a daily concern of my first grader. It’s a race to the bottom instead of lifting up.

Went to private even though it is a financial stretch. Kids are much happier, they have excelled academically and aren’t worried about being beat up at recess.

I don’t know what changed - maybe covid or teacher shortages or demographic shifts - but something is very wrong with our once top school district.

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:A couple of things here to think about.

The retiree population is exploding in the county. It is predicted to make up over 20% of the county population in 5 to 10 years. They tend to retire in place and stay in their single family homes near many of us live.

Educated Families and other groups are having fewer kids.

The wealthy are getting more wealthy due to increases in income. Stock market and inheritance. We are seeing a huge wealth transfer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that I have a kid in a DC private and half of the kids live in MoCo. I cannot imagine that it’s always been like this. I’d assume that the privates were predominantly the children of affluent DC families. Also, in my MoCo neighborhood out of the 12 kids that live closest to us, 10 of them go to private. I believe that a shift has happened.

It always been like that. There were private schools here even before there was MCPS

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 It's definitely a pattern. If parents start associating Public School = FARMS / low-SES, then once that label sticks, you can't undo it.

Then all the parents complaining about boundaries and redistricting can just fight amongst themselves, but once you reach critical mass the school budgets will start getting cut. No one wants to fund bocci ball and Kid Museum.[/quote]

Actually some people do you just don’t. Funding a bocci ball court is no different to me than funding a football field.

Please, do tell. Where do you play? The Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center? How often? Saturday? Since it's no different than football, can you tell me where the Italian lawn bowling channel is?

If you didn't realize it yet, you were tricked. Bocci ball is actually spelled Bocce ball, so it's clear you don't even play. Ooops.

I don't mind if MCPS pays $40 for a set of bocce balls. What I do mind is MCPS CO and board spending 780K of COVID money. I'm hoping the Maryland IG investigates every penny spent.