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It's tough...we already do have the metco program... In MA the good schools are reserved for people who have the money for private or have the money to purchase a home in a top town. Something just feels annoying about the people who already live in a good town and then use private schools. That has been happening for decades but the past few years i think the towns with top schools are just so out of reach for many people that it's all becoming more and more obvious.
I'm not sure how i feel about kids from other towns testing into the schools with better towns but maybe that isn't a bad idea.
I was speaking with someone over the weekend who lives in scituate and he said the metco kids are a problem there. They apparently have fights all the time on the buses and there's nothing anyone can really do about it because, racism. Perhaps having any top students (regardless of skin color) from other towns and sending them to the better rated public schools is a good idea. But then those schools in whatever town they live in will never have a chance to get better really it seems.
We should allow public high schools to enroll students across town borders.
There should be a state-wide standardized test, among other things, and any high school should be able to accept any student in the state. If that is too much to handle, maybe we can do that on county level.
This is fair to low-income families.
I see this making the good schools better and the bad schools worse.
It's tough...we already do have the metco program... In MA the good schools are reserved for people who have the money for private or have the money to purchase a home in a top town. Something just feels annoying about the people who already live in a good town and then use private schools. That has been happening for decades but the past few years i think the towns with top schools are just so out of reach for many people that it's all becoming more and more obvious.
I'm not sure how i feel about kids from other towns testing into the schools with better towns but maybe that isn't a bad idea.
I was speaking with someone over the weekend who lives in scituate and he said the metco kids are a problem there. They apparently have fights all the time on the buses and there's nothing anyone can really do about it because, racism. Perhaps having any top students (regardless of skin color) from other towns and sending them to the better rated public schools is a good idea. But then those schools in whatever town they live in will never have a chance to get better really it seems.
Why would they have to test?
Its a public non charter school - testing or being a top student would not be part of enrollment.
Do they not have special ed or support services in that particular public school?
I see this making the good schools better and the bad schools worse.
Pretty much. But the good schools are becoming pretty inaccessible to many. Even the people who can afford good towns are in bidding wars or there just isn't inventory.
Why would they have to test?
Its a public non charter school - testing would not be part of enrollment.
Do they not have special ed or support services in that particular public school?
I think we're talking about two different things. In order to attend a particular public school you have to have residency in that town. We're talking about people living in a town like weymouth who are top students taking a test and then being able to attend a school in a better school district like Hingham or Norwell for example.
I see this making the good schools better and the bad schools worse.
Yes, but schools can pay good teachers more, or offer scholarships to good students, in order to compete.
Good students learn more with good students, not necessarily with those whose parents can afford a house in Lexington.
Relatively weak students will also find their suitable environment.
Is school choice still in existence? Students could enroll at other local high schools in surrounding towns and it was all based on a lottery system since there were only so many slots available at any given school. This was back in the mid-nineties, so I'm not sure if they do it any longer.
There were no tests or anything like that but I'm pretty sure (like anything else) it came down to connections. Someone I know school-choiced to Masco and I'm sure it certainly didn't hurt that his neighbor was a teacher there.
School choice is on a town by town basis. If a town allows it, it must pay the receiving district the cost for that student.
I agree that allowing students to go to different districts would create an even greater chasm between the haves and haves not. My kids could attend Wayland schools and my town would pay their tuition but I'd be paying half the taxes.
I know Milton schools are overcrowded and that is an issue. They're talking about building another school but that is controversial because many people in the town don't want another school. It feels like MA public schools could get messy if something doesn't change. Anyone who has kids wants to be in a top town with top schools but I think the top towns/schools are started to feel the burn. I guess the average class size in Milton is 29 which some people don't think is overcrowded, but other think it is. If you're paying good money to live in a town, you expect to have decent sized classrooms with kids getting appropriate attention.
School ratings for Milton have dropped, apparently ratings in Hingham have dropped as well. The people with money handle it by sending kids to private. I am not sure why ratings in a place like Hingham are dropping. If anything the town gets more and more wealthy people as years go by. You would think the schools would be a priority, but apparently Hingham also has older people with no kids who don't really want to pay more taxes for the schools.
Milton just seems to be hot town since it's close to Boston and I have noticed it seems extremely crowded. MA has many nice towns but so many people ONLY want to live in the top rated towns. I was glad to see a town like PLymouth got more people in the past 2 or so years but I am thinking most of those people that moved there probably didn't have kids. How could anyone with kids possibly move to town where the schools are rated a B+?
Is 29 kids in a class terrible these days? I mean many of these kids will go onto universities where they'll sit in large lecture halls with hundreds of others. Parents worry is always that their kid needs attention and help. Maybe its not so bad for kids to be more self sufficient. Does a smaller classroom improve someone's IQ? No. I can see where if someone NEEDS extra help a small classroom size is useful but not all kids need help. There's just no way population is going to slow down at any of these top rated public schools.
it is crazy to me that parents will pay property taxes in metrowest, and then spend money on a private high school.
nescac schools are filled with students from public high schools around the the boston area.
these public schools are basically private schools by national standards.
sorry but no! as long as the public schools keep teaching to a test, private schools are far preferable. Not crazy at all if you believe in education and thinking and asking why, instead of passing a standardized test.
sorry but no! as long as the public schools keep teaching to a test, private schools are far preferable. Not crazy at all if you believe in education and thinking and asking why, instead of passing a standardized test.
It depends on what the kids want to do.
For prospective scientists and engineers, standardized tests are very reliable evaluations.
For “leaders” or artists, not so much.
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