This just in. Forbes magazine has recognized the Howard County Public School system as the 7th best "school district for the buck" in the country. The article and rankings appeared in the July issue of Forbes. As noted "Winners in this rating system are counties whose schools deliver high performance at low cost. The losers spend a lot of money and have little to show for it. "
Howard was bested by Montgomery county which was ranked 5th in the country. I hate it when Montgomery county beats us at this stuff. On the other hand I grew up with a lot of Montgomery county envy. Montgomery countians have always tended to look down their noses at us "country folks". God only knows why.
But I digress...
I have a daughter in the school system and I am very happy with the quality of education and individual attention she is receiving. Way to go Dr. Sydney L. Cousin and the 7,000 or so employees who make the darn thing tick.
Daily
21 hours ago
5 comments:
I believe all the "individual attention" has gotten quite a few of the teachers in trouble over the years.
No thanks. My kids will not be attending Ho Co Public Schools.
Your loss.
-wb
Howard County public schools have a lot of room for improvement. According to the Forbes data, 94% of Howard County students graduate and only 72% take college entrance exams. Maybe my expectations are too high but those statistics are nothing to write home about, especially considering we are one of the best public school systems in the country. I’d like to see how those mediocre numbers compare to private schools in Howard County.
Every public school system has room for improvement. That being said, I don't think most products of the HoCoPubScho system understand exactly how much worse it is out there in the rest of the country. I moved here in my junior year of high school 20 years ago and got the academic stuffing kicked out of me. When I talk to my friends back home they're amazed at the opportunities my kids have in public school here. I have some beef with the school system - like why's my youngest kid gotta be $%#@! six years old before she goes to kindergarten? But still. We have it good here.
DM, the knowledge that things could be worse does not mean that we shouldn’t expect better.
Since the point of this post is the educational “bang per dollar”, the tuition at one private school in Western Howard is $2,000 less (roughly 20%) than what the County pays for each pupil. It is a Catholic school, but I don’t think the church subsidizes the cost. I would love to see how test scores compare.
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