sw2797A-ms98-a-0001 0.000000 0.218000 [noise]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0002 0.218000 0.747000 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0003 0.747000 1.818250 i'll let you go first
sw2797A-ms98-a-0004 1.818250 8.004875 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0005 8.004875 9.390500 um-hum
sw2797A-ms98-a-0006 9.390500 43.766875 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0007 43.766875 48.254875 yeah i uh i spent a couple uh years down in uh Plano Texas
sw2797A-ms98-a-0008 48.254875 55.594375 and uh i was one of the home owners down there that got taxed to death for the uh Plano uh school system
sw2797A-ms98-a-0009 55.594375 65.161625 and uh i [vocalized-noise] you know i know that Texas doesn't have a state tax and so all the things come out of the the property taxes
sw2797A-ms98-a-0010 65.161625 77.172625 and i was uh really shocked at the amount of taxes i ended up paying i was i was better off paying a state tax [vocalized-noise] back in Maryland where [laughter] than i was uh paying the uh property tax down there
sw2797A-ms98-a-0011 77.172625 89.263125 uh what they did in Maryland to get around that is they uh they developed a renters tax solely for the purpose of paying for the services [noise] that the renters were getting including the uh educational services
sw2797A-ms98-a-0012 89.263125 94.164375 and uh the tax was administered by um
sw2797A-ms98-a-0013 94.164375 106.445375 [noise] the uh rental company that actually was managing the apartments so when uh long long time ago when i used to live in apartments i would pay a rent
sw2797A-ms98-a-0014 106.445375 109.750375 payment every month and a tax payment every month
sw2797A-ms98-a-0015 109.750375 112.792375 and the tax payment went to pay for the services that i was
sw2797A-ms98-a-0016 112.792375 115.834375 getting as a a resident of that particular county
sw2797A-ms98-a-0017 115.834375 119.693875 and uh that's the way it worked here in Maryland we have uh
sw2797A-ms98-a-0018 119.693875 128.438500 a certain portion of your your property taxes uh goes to education but also a portion of the state tax that you pay
sw2797A-ms98-a-0019 128.438500 131.608875 goes back into the county that you live in
sw2797A-ms98-a-0020 131.608875 134.506375 to pay for the educational system
sw2797A-ms98-a-0021 134.506375 140.167375 and so it it works out nice it it it makes it so that the
sw2797A-ms98-a-0022 140.167375 153.987250 uh whole county now i- i know the concept of counties in Texas is quite a bit different than it is here in Maryland uh like Collin County uh would only equal about maybe an eighth the size of Baltimore County here in Maryland
sw2797A-ms98-a-0023 153.987250 156.737500 i mean the the counties are much larger
sw2797A-ms98-a-0024 156.737500 161.607500 you know in the the whole state of Maryland i believe there's only like uh fifteen counties
sw2797A-ms98-a-0025 161.607500 169.542375 and so uh you know each county has their own school system an and it works out real nice um
sw2797A-ms98-a-0026 169.542375 181.852000 the the flip side to this is are we getting what we're paying for and i don't believe so um a lot of things have come to head recently and i heard a report because of uh
sw2797A-ms98-a-0027 181.852000 185.108750 uh the emphasis that the President was putting on education
sw2797A-ms98-a-0028 185.108750 193.445750 you know um him running as our education president and then finally a couple of years later getting around to doing something um
sw2797A-ms98-a-0029 193.445750 206.886875 [noise] they said since they imposed the federal regulations on education in other words they came up with this federalized system where everyone in the third grade would be taught basically the same thing
sw2797A-ms98-a-0030 206.886875 220.033750 and then at the end of uh school year they would be tested and then they go into the fourth grade and everybody in the fourth grade's basically taught the same thing so when they came up with these this nationwide system of public schools
sw2797A-ms98-a-0031 220.033750 232.709250 uh they gave some figures out and since it's inception uh they've the price has gone up per stu[dent]- the prices paid by the federal government per student has been thirty three percent
sw2797A-ms98-a-0032 232.709250 244.303000 and so they're actually spending thirty three percent and that's real dollars you know adjusting it back to to the days you know when it started uh probably you know seventy years ago
sw2797A-ms98-a-0033 244.303000 249.976500 and what they've said is that we haven't had a thirty three percent improvement in education
sw2797A-ms98-a-0034 249.976500 252.354000 we've actually gone backwards
sw2797A-ms98-a-0035 252.354000 259.024000 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0036 259.024000 260.527125 yeah
sw2797A-ms98-a-0037 260.527125 266.950375 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0038 266.950375 274.311750 yeah well they they've been having some problems uh even here in uh like Baltimore City which is a a pretty good ci[ty]- goo[d]- good sized city
sw2797A-ms98-a-0039 274.311750 289.106375 uh they've been putting a lot of uh stress on it and of course speaking of stress the teachers are all getting stressed out from trying to you know do everything they're supposed to do and of course they've uh been cutting the teachers salaries because they say we don't have the money to do it and
sw2797A-ms98-a-0040 289.106375 299.052750 all the services are costing more money and and everything uh but the uh a lot of emphas[is]- now is being put on you know when children used to be taught
sw2797A-ms98-a-0041 299.052750 304.945625 you know like uh uh each child is individual you know they're not all the same
sw2797A-ms98-a-0042 304.945625 306.405125 and
sw2797A-ms98-a-0043 306.405125 320.487625 some students do horrible until like eighth grade some do horrible you know until they get to like tenth grade and then all of a sudden everything clicks in you know and then there are some students that you know read well at five years old
sw2797A-ms98-a-0044 320.487625 333.306500 and you know seem to excel and so that the you know one of the things i heard proposed on uh one of the public radio stations up here was that we should go back to teaching children at their own speed
sw2797A-ms98-a-0045 333.306500 335.211625 some kids
sw2797A-ms98-a-0046 335.211625 336.989750 yeah
sw2797A-ms98-a-0047 336.989750 342.390000 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0048 342.390000 344.068750 and and uh
sw2797A-ms98-a-0049 344.068750 348.255375 and on top of that they they make the child feel inferior
sw2797A-ms98-a-0050 348.255375 352.779500 because he's not as good as another kid his same age i mean it's like
sw2797A-ms98-a-0051 352.779500 355.027125 you know that's ridiculous
sw2797A-ms98-a-0052 355.027125 358.295750 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0053 358.295750 369.032125 yeah and uh you know i have uh i- i have five children total and i've got two out of the house already and i ha[ve]- i have two that are in uh eighth grade this year
sw2797A-ms98-a-0054 369.032125 373.529625 and prior to their um
sw2797A-ms98-a-0055 373.529625 379.242375 when i when they were in elementary school they were identi[fied]- identified as being slow
sw2797A-ms98-a-0056 379.242375 386.127750 and so they put them into special programs and then we actually held them back in fourth grade
sw2797A-ms98-a-0057 386.127750 388.185875 and
sw2797A-ms98-a-0058 388.185875 400.912375 it wasn't until the last two years um last year my uh they're they're a set of twins um a boy and a girl last year the the uh boy twin started doing real well
sw2797A-ms98-a-0059 400.912375 410.976000 and it it it everything started to click in for him and he knew what he needed to do um and this year it it happened for uh for the daughter
sw2797A-ms98-a-0060 410.976000 413.640875 she just has been
sw2797A-ms98-a-0061 413.640875 425.053500 really doing great this year and she has the right attitude towards school and everything and i think it's just a matter of everybody has to find their own path i remember when i was in school i did horrible
sw2797A-ms98-a-0062 425.053500 426.876625 up until about
sw2797A-ms98-a-0063 426.876625 439.513000 yeah about the seventh eighth grade i- i- i started to to come around and realize an and basically i got interested in math and uh never really did well in English but you know once you got interested in something
sw2797A-ms98-a-0064 439.513000 442.382000 and things started to click in place
sw2797A-ms98-a-0065 442.382000 444.619875 [vocalized-noise] then after that you take off
sw2797A-ms98-a-0066 444.619875 453.023250 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0067 453.023250 454.960250 um-hum
sw2797A-ms98-a-0068 454.960250 459.374625 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0069 459.374625 460.970000 yeah
sw2797A-ms98-a-0070 460.970000 474.473500 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0071 474.473500 476.386500 jeez
sw2797A-ms98-a-0072 476.386500 489.781875 yeah it is um my children had a uh real culture shock um when we lived in Plano i guess i don't know if you've heard about the Plano school district but they're uh they really stress academics there
sw2797A-ms98-a-0073 489.781875 498.497000 and uh God if your child is not an honor student well then [laughter] you're something wrong with you as a parent and tha[t]- that's kind of the way they are there
sw2797A-ms98-a-0074 498.497000 503.861250 and uh when we moved back to Maryland um i moved to a uh a
sw2797A-ms98-a-0075 503.861250 507.066875 [vocalized-noise] Baltimore County which is a northern county in Maryland
sw2797A-ms98-a-0076 507.066875 512.414375 and it's basically a rural county once you get above about the half way point
sw2797A-ms98-a-0077 512.414375 518.680000 and we lived you know in the northern part of the county uh we went from a uh
sw2797A-ms98-a-0078 518.680000 528.938875 middle school in Texas that served fifty five square blocks to a uh middle school in Maryland that served fifty five square miles
sw2797A-ms98-a-0079 528.938875 541.867250 and it was just a complete culture shock because i mean they they're riding on the bus in the morning with uh other kids that you know are a sleep because_1 they got up at three o'clock and were doing chores and [laughter-you] know it's
sw2797A-ms98-a-0080 541.867250 554.640875 and they had uh ag[ricultural]- they had an ag[ricultural]- course uh i forget what it was called uh but it goes along the the lines of industrial arts but it's agricultural and where they had to raise a small animal
sw2797A-ms98-a-0081 554.640875 557.707625 had to learn how to drive a tractor
sw2797A-ms98-a-0082 557.707625 565.631625 they actually had to g[o]- take a driving test on the tractor i mean they just couldn't believe this and it was great they loved it
sw2797A-ms98-a-0083 565.631625 568.276750 i mean they really enjoyed the courses
sw2797A-ms98-a-0084 568.276750 569.705500 um
sw2797A-ms98-a-0085 569.705500 577.625375 and it you know it made school fun for them again because prior to that school was just a big pain a drain
sw2797A-ms98-a-0086 577.625375 578.721500 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0087 578.721500 584.430000 yeah and it was you know it was like [laughter] kind of like the way we feel about going to work [laughter]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0088 584.430000 586.030250 [laughter]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0089 586.030250 588.788125 [silence]
sw2797A-ms98-a-0090 588.788125 594.586250 but uh up here they seem to have made it uh a lot of fun for them_1 and they they seem to really enjoy it
sw2797A-ms98-a-0091 594.586250 599.849500 [silence]