Sigh, I don't think you are getting it. There are always three pathways to any civic change a.) political b.) courts or c.) legislative.

For political - representatives of the new district petition for their own school district and the state of MD grants the request. The state doesn't dismantle the Montgomery County level system but removes the residents from the new district.

For the courts -when the state denies the petition the representatives file suit. As they did in many of the other states. There are several avenues where the practice of the county system which would deny the creation local independent district would run counter to other state constitutional protections. If the representatives of the new district lose and they can make a broader constitutional argument they can then escalate up to the Supreme Court.

For legislative- sure the residents can work to pass a new law explicitly stating that residents have a right to form their own independent school system.

You don't need a new law to do something that isn't prohibited by law and just has not been done or pursued in the past. The entire premise behind state level rather federal control to enable states to change and grow to be flexible to the shifting needs of their jurisdictions and communities. The population and areas within Montgomery County are much different today than they were 50-100 years ago.

Folks, the best way to get your voice heard is to write a note to your school's principal stating that your child will not be sitting for any MAP or PARCC tests until the school addresses X, Y and Z which your student needs.

Don't let your kid be a pawn juicing PARCC test scores so more funds come in and get funneled away from your kid.


And if you really want an eye-opening experience, go tour a few parochial, montessori and independent schools near your house to better compare education options in 2018. Just take notes on all the things MCPS could be doing.

Anonymous wrote:

What you are proposing is a state issue, not a local issue. Per the Maryland constitution, the state is responsible for educating its children. They have formally delegated this authority counties. They are not going to upend the entire state system of education to allow for the formation of the breakaway Republic of Bethesda. So sorry.

No - practically every state constitution establishes the responsibility of the state to educate its children. This is basic. The provision of public school at the county level is required to cover all students but the mandate doesn't restrict it to being the sole method of providing public education. Many states have independent school districts break off and a county level school system remains to cover students not within those boundaries. This is very common in rural areas. You can live within a county that has a county level school system but based on your location you may not be zoned for the county school but the independent school district.

You do not need the Republic of Bethesda. You do not need a separate political entity. You do not need to upend the state system. It upends MCPS. It brings change to an area that feels immune yes but its far from impossible. MD is a small state but its not some rare unicorn that has an iron clad lock on doing things the way that it has been for 70 years just to keep MCPS happy.

You really just aren't getting it. It doesn't matter what other states do. It matters that a county system of schools is written into Maryland law. You can't get to where you want to go without changing the state law.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't laugh at DC. I know MCPS sticks up their noses to them but DCPS has seem improvement in some areas. The DCPS schools in NW have improved significantly because they allow parent involvement. Parents can fund raise for aides in the classroom and they didn't go through the 2.0 and everyone gets a P nonsense. Janney, Mann, Key and few others are keeping people with kids in DC who years ago probably would have moved to Montgomery County.

I'm the previous poster recommending DCPS, and I wasn't laughing. I meant it in all sincerity. Most of the things that PP wants, DCPS has.

^^^or the charter schools.

Anonymous wrote:Don't laugh at DC. I know MCPS sticks up their noses to them but DCPS has seem improvement in some areas. The DCPS schools in NW have improved significantly because they allow parent involvement. Parents can fund raise for aides in the classroom and they didn't go through the 2.0 and everyone gets a P nonsense. Janney, Mann, Key and few others are keeping people with kids in DC who years ago probably would have moved to Montgomery County.

I'm the previous poster recommending DCPS, and I wasn't laughing. I meant it in all sincerity. Most of the things that PP wants, DCPS has.

Don't laugh at DC. I know MCPS sticks up their noses to them but DCPS has seem improvement in some areas. The DCPS schools in NW have improved significantly because they allow parent involvement. Parents can fund raise for aides in the classroom and they didn't go through the 2.0 and everyone gets a P nonsense. Janney, Mann, Key and few others are keeping people with kids in DC who years ago probably would have moved to Montgomery County.

Anonymous wrote:I'm just dreaming of not having a snow day when there is no snow or ice on the roads. Normal start and end times for HS, MS and ES! Having a curriculum and textbooks that are available to parents rather than some closely guarded collection of internally produced nonsense! Grades with percentages! Not having bad employees and staff suspected of being sex offenders transferred around the schools because its easier to hide them than fire them. Teacher driven innovation not central office nonsense. Parents fund raising for things that actually help the classroom like additional aides. Really being able to focus on the needs of your school.

Sounds like DCPS would fit your needs.

Anonymous wrote:This is going on now in Malibu and Salt Lake City. Areas with higher performing students are working to split off from large ineffective, bureaucratic systems. The Malibu - Santa Monica split is being complicated by the amount of money Santa Monica wants from Malibu but it looks like this will eventually happen. CA actually makes it harder for systems to do this so it might be easier here in MD.

There is a tipping point in frustration when a school system only takes from one area to benefit another even if the need in the other area is greater. If students in the W clusters are no eligible for county-wide magnet programs, building renovations are constantly delayed, parents can't fund raise for things like teacher aides or facility improvements then perhaps its time to split.

That would be great from many vantage points but MCPS needs all those schools' parents' property taxes to run all their administration and unicorn experiments.
Stay tuned in 5-10 years when Curriculum 2.0 gets shown the door.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really has nothing to do with illegal immigration. MCPS would love for you to believe that its problems are just because of illegal immigrants. Its failing all students.

But majority of the complainers here keep talking about how MCPS spends more money on the poorer schools while ignoring the wealthier schools. The fact is, there's only so much money that we have to deal with. The fact is it costs a ton of money to educate, support, and feed poor students. Fact, many of the illegal immigrants in this county are poor.

Fact, both undocumented and documented immigration is on a downward slope and has been for years. I know it is both convenient and politically au courant to blame immigrants for everything, but the facts aren't with you here.

Not in MoCo! Still #2 to Los Angeles for detention center destination in the country.

Pls post illegals and anchor baby data specific to Montgomery County, Maryland. CASA de Maryland can provide as well.

Where are you getting that data? This says there are 400,000 illegal immigrants in the DC area (7th highest metro area), far below LA, which has 1,000,000: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/09/us-metro-areas-unauthorized-immigrants/

Given those numbers, I find it hard to believe MoCo is #2 to LA in terms of detention center destination, or enrollment of illegal immigrants in the school system (a stat I've seen people post here).

I'm just dreaming of not having a snow day when there is no snow or ice on the roads. Normal start and end times for HS, MS and ES! Having a curriculum and textbooks that are available to parents rather than some closely guarded collection of internally produced nonsense! Grades with percentages! Not having bad employees and staff suspected of being sex offenders transferred around the schools because its easier to hide them than fire them. Teacher driven innovation not central office nonsense. Parents fund raising for things that actually help the classroom like additional aides. Really being able to focus on the needs of your school.

Anonymous wrote:

No - practically every state constitution establishes the responsibility of the state to educate its children. This is basic. The provision of public school at the county level is required to cover all students but the mandate doesn't restrict it to being the sole method of providing public education. Many states have independent school districts break off and a county level school system remains to cover students not within those boundaries. This is very common in rural areas. You can live within a county that has a county level school system but based on your location you may not be zoned for the county school but the independent school district.

You do not need the Republic of Bethesda. You do not need a separate political entity. You do not need to upend the state system. It upends MCPS. It brings change to an area that feels immune yes but its far from impossible. MD is a small state but its not some rare unicorn that has an iron clad lock on doing things the way that it has been for 70 years just to keep MCPS happy.

Other states are not Maryland. Maryland's system follows Maryland's laws. If you want to change things, you need to do them under Maryland's laws. What do you know about Maryland's laws?

Anonymous wrote:This really has nothing to do with illegal immigration. MCPS would love for you to believe that its problems are just because of illegal immigrants. Its failing all students.

Two-way swing with the Montgomery County ever-increasing illegals and anchor baby debacle. Poor performers + Take more $$$ per head.

1) The hispanic FARMs cohort is the lower performing cohort in the county. doesn't help that their parent(s) are unskilled, uneducated and illiterate in any language.

2) More and more money gets shoveled at them trying to be their mothers, doctors, counselors, dentists, 24/7 food providers, ESOL teachers, and then maybe learn some math or reading before middle school. MS is when the pregnancy and drop-out rates skyrocket.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like more classes in Spanish for mi children. The signs around school in Spanish are help, but why not the teaching too? thank you

Umm. First I'd like to see some foreign language/culture classes in our ES's like all the other public and private school districts provide. Then all the ESOL counselors and aides and teachers can petition for a MoCo Spanish-only society.

That's all great, but before we worry about foreign language, can we make sure these kids are getting instruction in English grammar and spelling?

Anonymous wrote:I would like more classes in Spanish for mi children. The signs around school in Spanish are help, but why not the teaching too? thank you

Umm. First I'd like to see some foreign language/culture classes in our ES's like all the other public and private school districts provide. Then all the ESOL counselors and aides and teachers can petition for a MoCo Spanish-only society.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Do you live in a W district? People are pissed off. School PTAs are sending around the email from the GT group and MCPS. A much broader group of people now know that W schools are no longer eligible for magnets yet our tax dollars go toward them just like the other 100+ school.

I think things like not having to accept things like 2.0, allowing an area to decide if it wants to raise taxes that go directly toward smaller class sizes rather than just having their taxes raised and getting fewer teachers, allowing PTA to fund raise for meaningful things in the school not just the social stuff are pretty compelling.

The W schools aren't getting much from MCPS.

Really? And yet I'm always reading on DCUM about how the Western/Wealthy/White schools in the school district (i.e., MCPS) are so much better than the pitiful schools in Ganglandia and Hinterlandia, to which no caring parent would send their child. Are you saying that's not so?

W schools are better not because they're getting any special treat from MCPS. W schools are better because of the the family involvements in education from those communities.

Oh yeah, because the rest of us are *totally* not involved in our kids' educations.

- an extremely involved parent of a kid at RCES (a non-W cluster school that is ... shocker! ... still very strong!)