Students, Parents Face Off on School Boundaries
The lines were pretty much divided between students and parents at a hearing Thursday night in Rockville.
The Montgomery County Board of Education wanted community members to weigh in on how consultants should proceed in reviewing school boundaries. That’s a tough subject when only one school is involved. The board is planning on taking a comprehensive look across the county.
Several of the students who testified wanted the new school boundaries to deliver diverse enrollments, saying diversity was a strength in majority-minority Montgomery County.
Parents, however, objected to that notion, preferring to keep schools centered on specific neighborhoods.
Here, Board President Shebra Evans discusses the scope of the work, followed by several student statements:
Several parents the consultants’ work should focus on helping students achieve.
“We cannot expect schools alone to resolve serious education problems, and we cannot expect a magical policy from the Board of Education to fix these dilemmas either,” said Yin Zheng, in her prepared testimony.
A handful of parents brought up busing.
“With the board’s passage in September of a resolution that elevates the criteria of diversity above all others in a re-boundary process, it seems to many in our community as if you are advocating a strategy of busing,” wrote Sally Moorhead of Potomac Glen.
Some parents did not oppose the diversity that could come with new boundaries.
“If middle class, white children are never exposed to children of other races or economic classes, they will tend to believe the stereotypes they learn of others, rather than seeing them as individuals,” wrote Scott Schneider in his testimony.
https://twitter.com/MollerMichele/status/1103817565623799809
Stop social engineering. Black people are in the middle and upper middle class. White people are in the lower class. Diversity evolves over time
If you want to go to a different school, buy your house in that section. Can’t afford it, study hard in school, work hard in your job; you will have higher income. You will have more choice. Segregation has been illegal for many decades. Schools are to educate people. Teaching about diversity wastes academic time and manpower; it is a parental responsibility. Stop wasting our tax dollars