Anonymous wrote:California is a bellweather for the rest of the country in many respects, with its large and largely successful confluence of immigrant populations from Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

For many decades the schools segregated themselves by SES. All CA public schools are very diverse communities, but those with more affluent parent communities, higher on the SES, tended to be the best public schools. Families in less successful public school districts tended to use the private schools -- of which many developed to meet the demands and needs.

Now, with the exception of the very poorest, urban neighborhoods, you are seeing families return to the local public schools, even in traditionally not-so-great districts. Why? I think families reconsidered the ever-increasing costs if public schools. Also, Californians -- once perhaps wary of the immigrant influx -- came to value and embrace their new neighbors as first-generation learner turned into successful second-generation strivers, and as a very high-achieving new immigrant populations moved in and brought new life to the public schools.

This renewed influx and investment in the schools is creating again a healthy, traditional, successful, and thriving public schools environment. -- like you may remember growing up. The California public schools are currently very socio-economically, racially, ethnically, and socially diverse places -- and increasingly a model of success in public education again on many fronts.

The DC metropolitan region seems to be at the beginning of a cycle that for California began decades ago, and which is finally working its way to a more positive place today.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also think diversity is a good thing - for kids growing up today, they world they will live in is going to be increasingly diverse and non-white. The demographics you see in many schools today are going to be the demographics of the working age population tomorrow.

That said, we'd be kidding ourselves not to admit that with an increasingly diverse population of immigrants, many whom are first or second generation, it costs more money to maintain the same level of education. Many of the immigrant families are renters with less income and provide a lowered tax base while at the same time need more money through school funding if the same level of education is going to be maintained. Less tax dollars per student combined with higher educational expenses per student equals a challenged school system. At some point, you probably reach a tipping point where those with the money (i.e., property owners) are not going to be willing to pony up the additional taxes every year to keep the schools well funded because they will stop believing that it is money well spent. One only needs to look at some of the larger school districts in a state like California to see where we're eventually headed.

I'm not familiar with what's going on in the larger CA districts. Do most middle/upper-middle class parents send their kids to privates?

Anonymous wrote:I also think diversity is a good thing - for kids growing up today, they world they will live in is going to be increasingly diverse and non-white. The demographics you see in many schools today are going to be the demographics of the working age population tomorrow.

That said, we'd be kidding ourselves not to admit that with an increasingly diverse population of immigrants, many whom are first or second generation, it costs more money to maintain the same level of education. Many of the immigrant families are renters with less income and provide a lowered tax base while at the same time need more money through school funding if the same level of education is going to be maintained. Less tax dollars per student combined with higher educational expenses per student equals a challenged school system. At some point, you probably reach a tipping point where those with the money (i.e., property owners) are not going to be willing to pony up the additional taxes every year to keep the schools well funded because they will stop believing that it is money well spent. One only needs to look at some of the larger school districts in a state like California to see where we're eventually headed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sharp increase county wide of FARMS and ESOL families. Such a dramatic increase, in fact, that social services, faith based charities, staffing all struggle to meet needs.

Slowly, I'm seeing that those families who are well able to afford to send students to private schools do so.

We may see a mass exodus of students as parents lose patience and attempt to provide a better education for their students.

I say all of this as a FC native. Thirty years ago, FCPS reputation was so sterling that private schools were the exception/option mostly for parents who wanted a religious education integrated into curriculum or for students who had behavioral problems.

It seems now that FCPS can no longer sustain itself upon past reputation and the demographic data doesn't lie.

I think we may see an exodus, but I also think it will be for a certain type of student. Even overcrowded, the schools work perfectly well for kids who are achievers, hard workers and good at advocating for themselves. Those who struggle are the ones who suffer. Teachers are overwhelmed so they can't provide the extra assistance many students need. This is particularly true at the high school level where LEARN sessions have taken on the climate of emergency rooms, where teachers must do triage in determining who to help and where the help will most pay off. These are the kids whose parents will send them to private if they can afford it -- I know several in my son's freshman class at a very good HS who will be moving next year.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in VA - outside of the DC metro area. I received an excellent education, even though my school system didn't have the FCPS reputation.

What my school system did have was largely homogeneous (Caucasian) population of middle class, involved parents. Unfortunately, FCPS has to be everything for everybody. It has to be able to teach kids who don't speak English, many Low income kids, kids from homes where parents are never around. It's a huge challenge and, yes, I think it's really starting to affect overall quality.

Demographic changes are impacting education as people from all over the world flock to this area. It's not the sleepy, southern county it used to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bad administration is the cause of the downfall. Hope Dr. Garza fixes that. Most folks flowing in from all over the world are hardworking people, value education, discipline their children very well, and don't take things for granted. So don't blame it on them.

I totally agree with this. I am Caucasian and my children have very good immigrant friends. I am always impressed with how respectful and well-mannered those childern are. My children learn a lot from those children. They learn to appreciate what they have as they see those children don’t take things for granted. Let's look at the positive side of it, diversity is very crucial for our children.

APS has been mediocre for a long, long time and shows no signs of getting much better.

Anonymous wrote:Bad administration is the cause of the downfall. Hope Dr. Garza fixes that. Most folks flowing in from all over the world are hardworking people, value education, discipline their children very well, and don't take things for granted. So don't blame it on them.