1:04, you obviously have some issues. If you think a bus ride is a "sick measure of liberalism" your kids are going to have a long 12 years in school. And you can drop the hysteria about the poor 4yos on buses - in MoCo, K starts at 5yo. That reference and others in your post make it clear that you don't actually have kids at RHPS or in the MCPS system... so you're ranting hysterically based on ZERO first-hand experience. Typical, and pathetic.

PP, you sound nuts.

Several posters have directly or implicitly mentioned the issue is keeping Rosemary Hills as a model of integration. Excuse Me? Why do you have to bus children out of their way from other communities to maintain this "successful model." That's not success by any measure. It's not surprising that this same poster parroted NAACP opinion in the argument to continue with this form of school busing. Here's an update for you - The NAACP does not typically represent any semblance of an impartial form of morality. Their tendency to skew their opinions such that is favors their special interest and more importantly ***ONLY*** THEIR SPECIAL INTEREST. Including the NAACP as a reference in an argument in rational company tends to discredit ones argument. PERIOD.


It was also mentioned by someone that Rosemary Hills is not "halfway across the country." First of all, the correct phrase is "county," but you bring up an interesting point. The ride to RH is almost twice as far for my kids as it is to BE. That's 2.5 miles vs 5 miles, or a TOTAL of 5 miles/day further on a round trip basis. With 180 school days/year that makes for forcing a 4 year old child to ride around nearly 1000 miles on County roads to satisfy some liberals. By what sick measure of liberalism is this considered an acceptable proposition for a child? In fact, nobody's counting, but there are 4 MCPS elementry schools that are less than 3 miles from our home in our city, yet with the current plan, the kids will be bused over well over 5 miles to Silver Spring for "the experiment."


Another person said not to focus on FARMS. I have to wonder if the people that minimize the FARMS point, have actually read the Boundary findings? The FARMS acronym is mentioned OVER TWENTY times in the PDF document. Yes, FARMS is apparently a relevent METRIC that is worthy of discussion. In fact, I suspect one could replace the word farms with minority since, outside the anonymity of this forum and private company, it is less politically correct for liberals to discuss school busing in the context of racial demographics than it is in the context of "Free and Reduced Lunches." It's another typical liberal strategy to deflect the argument to a politically correct issue (FARMS), and then later come in and minimize the importance of even that issue. We are not fooled.


As a former MCPS student (of a broke single parent) who was raised throughout childhood in a "cockroach infested apartment" in Silver Spring, but who attended Ayrlawn Elementry in Bethesda (because his mom worked nearby and it was convenient to the family circumstance), I know too well that there is no shame in being a poor kid amongst the "rich" kids at the k-2 age and that there is precious little to be concerned about in terms of behavior issues and not getting along. At this age, kids are kids, and with few exceptions they get along during K-2 years no matter what. At least that was my k-2 experience. Yes, I even invited my "rich" Bethesda classmates to my cockroach infested apartment complex for Birthday parties and all went well. However, as I now find myself the parent of Bethesda children that will be bused over to Silver Spring in the interest of some outdated social experiment (not because we actually work there as was my mom's excuse), I can't help but take issue with the made-up liberal reality that somehow this makes sense. The bottom line is you force little 4, 5, and 6 year olds to travel several thousand additional miles on county roads over a 3 year period for the sake of this experiment. I find that repulsive.

BTW - has anyone noticed there's a gent walking around in his pajamas talking on the phone in Google Street view for Rosemary Hills Elementry? Is this considered "normal" ?