Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember when I started to look at colleges and my parents told me that I had to go to a school with at cv last 10% Jewish population. I didn’t really understand it until I went to college (one with a large Jewish population) and was the first Jew that many people had met. The questions I was asked, the assumptions made, and the comments I heard made me sure of one thing- when I graduated I would always love in an area like I grew up. One where I was comfortable with my religion. So, yes, I picked my home based on the location of lots of synagogues but also so my children could grow up surrounded by people that share their same beliefs. This is what redistricting is about for me. I want my white children who are minorities to be in a school with people like them. And I don’t want a far ride away from that.

I had a very similar experience (also Jewish). Coming from an area that had a relatively large Jewish population, it was truly shocking that some people had never met a Jewish person. While I appreciate diversity, I also was compelled to live and raise my children in an area that had a substantial Jewish population. One where they would not be an anomaly. I'm sure this is true for many other people of diverse backgrounds. My sister had a very similar experience.

Anonymous wrote:Let’s bring in some charter schools (non-profit) to the east side of the county and see how they can help, both with overcrowding and achievement gap.

Anonymous wrote:Four pages of people explicitly defending segregated schools.

Anonymous wrote:I remember when I started to look at colleges and my parents told me that I had to go to a school with at cv last 10% Jewish population. I didn’t really understand it until I went to college (one with a large Jewish population) and was the first Jew that many people had met. The questions I was asked, the assumptions made, and the comments I heard made me sure of one thing- when I graduated I would always love in an area like I grew up. One where I was comfortable with my religion. So, yes, I picked my home based on the location of lots of synagogues but also so my children could grow up surrounded by people that share their same beliefs. This is what redistricting is about for me. I want my white children who are minorities to be in a school with people like them. And I don’t want a far ride away from that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-segregation-exacerbates-student-achievement-disparities-report-says/

3/4 of black, Hispanic/Latino, and ESOL students are in high-poverty elementary schools
2/3 of white, Asian, and multiracial/ethnic students are in low-poverty elementary schools

It's true the schools are segregated by design. Many of the county's policies listed below helped foster this. It's time it's finally addressed because all children deserve a good education not just the children of the wealthy.

1) the county's policies that located the vast majority of low-income housing in a few specific areas
2) red-lining
3) housing covenants
4) gerrymandered school boundaries

Anonymous wrote:

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"?

This is not the same as ‘separate but equal’. Nobody is banning an Asian kid from going to Whitman. Nobody is banning a Latino kid from Wootton.

We’re at a nonW cluster and don’t really want to move to a W school. If MCPS could provide a solid education in every cluster, then this wouldn’t even be an issue.

Kids need a solid curriculum and we need a better disciplinary system across the county. That would go a long way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in bum f nowhere in the mountains. I didn’t meet a Jewish person until I was in my 20’s. I never though Jewish people had horns though, that sounds like a really bad prejudiced joke. Jewish people are humans after all.

This whole “segregation” thing is really the wrong term. True segregation had white and black schools. Black kids couldn’t go to the white school even if they lived in the district. This is economic self-segregation. I know many don’t understand this but lots of very low income people don’t have the money for a car and can’t get to their kid’s schools for conferences and events if the school is far away. They need to talk to the people they’re trying to de-segregate to make sure they actually want this before they do it. I do think that they need to fill up the schools with extra capacity so a boundary study is definitely needed. You shouldn’t have undercapacity schools and not use that capacity prior to building new schools.

Don't worry the new mantra is that they won't bus the poor kids to good schools instead they'll make the the UMC kids commute to the poor kids.

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.

Anonymous wrote:https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-segregation-exacerbates-student-achievement-disparities-report-says/

3/4 of black, Hispanic/Latino, and ESOL students are in high-poverty elementary schools
2/3 of white, Asian, and multiracial/ethnic students are in low-poverty elementary schools

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in bum f nowhere in the mountains. I didn’t meet a Jewish person until I was in my 20’s. I never though Jewish people had horns though, that sounds like a really bad prejudiced joke. Jewish people are humans after all.

This whole “segregation” thing is really the wrong term. True segregation had white and black schools. Black kids couldn’t go to the white school even if they lived in the district. This is economic self-segregation. I know many don’t understand this but lots of very low income people don’t have the money for a car and can’t get to their kid’s schools for conferences and events if the school is far away. They need to talk to the people they’re trying to de-segregate to make sure they actually want this before they do it. I do think that they need to fill up the schools with extra capacity so a boundary study is definitely needed. You shouldn’t have undercapacity schools and not use that capacity prior to building new schools.

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"?

Anonymous wrote:

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...