Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is going to become like DC always was, where you know before buying your house that you must send your kid to private school. DC, on the other hand, is becoming more like MoCo used to be, with public schools that are improving.

That’s because of the charter schools. It’s not because they magically fixed the public schools or started bussing kids around.

It may be too late to turn this ship around in MoCo.

Vote. Tell politicians we don’t want this social engineering experiment.

DP

Oh, I’m voting, trust me. After consistently voting Democratic, my votes will be very different in the next election. And the BOE is a sh$tshow. I’m on a Listserv where people were discussing the process to run for the BOE, so I sincerely hope that some new people run and get support. I will certainly be supporting them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People want to be with their own kind- whether that be color, religion, SES level, etc... There is nothing wrong with that and the board needs to acknowledge that. Nobody wants to be the only "put whatever you want here" at a school or drastic minority. That includes hispanics and blacks and whites. People need to stop calling everyone who says this a racist.

That doesn't mean that there can't be some redistricting to neighboring schools to help balance the numbers, but nobody should need to be bussed just due to balancing race as there are so many other factors.

So you are good with "separate but equal"?

I have a kid in a sped program that is biased halfway across the county. Not only is the bus ride miserable for him, but I can’t go to any evening activities, participate in the PTA, or allow him to have playdates without planning for the extra time. He also can’t participate in the same sports leagues because practices are too far away. and this school is technically only 4 miles away but with traffic...

So, At this point I am better with separate but equal and having neighborhood schools. Schools can’t solve everything. They are for educating children. They need to keep with that focus and let the county figure out ways to make this county less segregated. Nobody is going to argue that the county is not, I just don’t feel it is the schools responsibility to fix it. In addition, it’s hardly equal- schools with lower ses have way more- smaller classes, focus teachers, free breakfast, etc...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

FARM rate is almost 50% in MCPS. Most of non FARM kids are from MC families, not wealthy families. If a family of four makes $80k a year, the kids have to attend public school. Private school is not an option for 90% of non FARM families.

Per MCPS website "Students receiving free & reduced-price meals (FARMS): 33.3%"

+1 why do people keep perpetuating this lie? It's not 50%.

Anonymous wrote:Why not give high poverty schools extra resources (a lot of them) and keep the rest of the kids out of it?
I know from experience that 1-2 middle class kids won’t make a whole room of low income kids to magically perform well.

The thing is, we do! The high poverty schools get lots of resources and still the achievement gap persists. It's not an education problem, it's a home/cultural problem and that's where resources should be aimed.

Anonymous wrote:People want to be with their own kind- whether that be color, religion, SES level, etc... There is nothing wrong with that and the board needs to acknowledge that. Nobody wants to be the only "put whatever you want here" at a school or drastic minority. That includes hispanics and blacks and whites. People need to stop calling everyone who says this a racist.

That doesn't mean that there can't be some redistricting to neighboring schools to help balance the numbers, but nobody should need to be bussed just due to balancing race as there are so many other factors.

So you are good with "separate but equal"?

People want to be with their own kind- whether that be color, religion, SES level, etc... There is nothing wrong with that and the board needs to acknowledge that. Nobody wants to be the only "put whatever you want here" at a school or drastic minority. That includes hispanics and blacks and whites. People need to stop calling everyone who says this a racist.

That doesn't mean that there can't be some redistricting to neighboring schools to help balance the numbers, but nobody should need to be bussed just due to balancing race as there are so many other factors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

This may just be true. At least for some members of BOE and County Council.

It is one way to solve the overcrowding. Get the UMC kids to go private.

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is going to become like DC always was, where you know before buying your house that you must send your kid to private school. DC, on the other hand, is becoming more like MoCo used to be, with public schools that are improving.

That’s because of the charter schools. It’s not because they magically fixed the public schools or started bussing kids around.

It may be too late to turn this ship around in MoCo.

Vote. Tell politicians we don’t want this social engineering experiment.

MoCo is going to become like DC always was, where you know before buying your house that you must send your kid to private school. DC, on the other hand, is becoming more like MoCo used to be, with public schools that are improving.

That’s because of the charter schools. It’s not because they magically fixed the public schools or started bussing kids around.

It may be too late to turn this ship around in MoCo.

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

I come from a country where only the poor families utilize the public education system. Anyone with any money, even the middle class, choose private.

Honestly, it sucks. But that is exactly what is going to happen in MCPS. In our solidly middle-class neighborhood, we have more and more families choosing private school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

This may just be true. At least for some members of BOE and County Council.

Agreed. Definitely delusional.

Anonymous wrote:Jewish woman here who grew up in a major metropolitan area. Came to college in DC in the mid 80s and was asked (seriously) by someone during the orientation week where my horns were. I was shocked. 35+ years later and I still remember that late night conversation. No harm in wanting to be around some others who are like you (not being the only one who is different). An entire school of homogeneous people - that is a problem.

Sorry that happened to you, but do you think that busing some Jewish kids into a lower-income school will help with that?

My neighbor’s DD went to the Eastern MS magnet and she had some pretty terrible stories to report. (Mom eventually pulled her out and came back to the home school.)

Also, are you okay with Jewish families who choose to send their kids to one of the Jewish private school? (FWIW, I am.) Those are also schools full of homogeneous people. I went to grad school with an Orthodox Jewish man who had never been around Muslims or Christians or Hindus because he grew up in a major metropolitan area, but went to a Jewish school all the way through and lived in a predominantly Jewish community. He had some of his own pre-conceived notions of what people from other religions were like.

Again, will busing kids solve this?

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

This may just be true. At least for some members of BOE and County Council.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

FARM rate is almost 50% in MCPS. Most of non FARM kids are from MC families, not wealthy families. If a family of four makes $80k a year, the kids have to attend public school. Private school is not an option for 90% of non FARM families.

Per MCPS website "Students receiving free & reduced-price meals (FARMS): 33.3%"

Anonymous wrote:At what point do people actually acknowledge this is all an effort to level the playing field by disadvantaging the children of the wealthy by sending them long distances to school. Of course, few with other options will go along with this; they will go private or move. MCPS is not only mediocre, but now delusional.

FARM rate is almost 50% in MCPS. Most of non FARM kids are from MC families, not wealthy families. If a family of four makes $80k a year, the kids have to attend public school. Private school is not an option for 90% of non FARM families.