Can we spreadload FRL% across APS? Arlington / Education Newbie here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The community idea is so overblown by so many. The public school “community” is laughable for our family who came from private. I am sorry but no the public schools have neighbors who know each other but sense of community nope. So if your child is bussed to a different school the school your child attends will have a “community” and you become part of it if you want.

White parents just don’t want to have to say out loud that they don’t want their kids going to school with poor non white kids.

It’s not just white parents. APS families have been polled repeatedly, and across the board a majority want neighborhood schools. Discuss busing all you want, but it’s a waste of time. Blaming unbalanced FARMs numbers on racism is tired and untrue. Not to mention that many of those families that are seen as a problem when grouped in large numbers quite frankly find that attitude offensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would a county-wide all-school lottery system even be considered? Seems like everything gets stuck or doesn't progress if it's limited to the School Board. I for one would want to see this on an Arlington ballot for everyone to vote on. Sounds like Arlington has changed a lot in the last 30 years or so. I'm sure it will change even more in the next 30.... what wasn't pursued then might have broader county wide support as different solution sets appear.

Oh goody, direct democracy works so well in California. I love it when people who pay attention for like a week during election season decide to set education policy for years. This is why we elect a board whose job it is to evaluate solutions.

A county wide lottery? So eliminate busing like California? But VA requires busing. Destroy elementary neighborhood communities.

Come up with new material Op, these solutions have been tried and failed.

Not OP; but this kind of attitude is so dramatic. If you don't have kids, are you not part of your neighborhood community? Does a neighborhood community really depend on all the kids going to the same school within a mile of their house? And an elementary school community is whoever is in the elementary school regardless of where their home is located. Community of any sort (neighborhood, school, work, church, etc) is what the people in it make it and does not rely on residential addresses being consecutive along the mail route.

It does if you want the sense of community to extend past school hours

I disagree. Schools are not there to create your social life and provide your child's community life. They are there to provide an education. And why does it have to extend beyond school hours anyway? Sports teams are an option if that's so critical. And people seem willing and able to go all over the county for those.

Yep. All over the county for sports. And this county also happens to be the smallest county in the US. People are so dramatic with the bus stuff.

What % of families who don’t have a car sign up for those sports team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would a county-wide all-school lottery system even be considered? Seems like everything gets stuck or doesn't progress if it's limited to the School Board. I for one would want to see this on an Arlington ballot for everyone to vote on. Sounds like Arlington has changed a lot in the last 30 years or so. I'm sure it will change even more in the next 30.... what wasn't pursued then might have broader county wide support as different solution sets appear.

Oh goody, direct democracy works so well in California. I love it when people who pay attention for like a week during election season decide to set education policy for years. This is why we elect a board whose job it is to evaluate solutions.

A county wide lottery? So eliminate busing like California? But VA requires busing. Destroy elementary neighborhood communities.

Come up with new material Op, these solutions have been tried and failed.

Not OP; but this kind of attitude is so dramatic. If you don't have kids, are you not part of your neighborhood community? Does a neighborhood community really depend on all the kids going to the same school within a mile of their house? And an elementary school community is whoever is in the elementary school regardless of where their home is located. Community of any sort (neighborhood, school, work, church, etc) is what the people in it make it and does not rely on residential addresses being consecutive along the mail route.

It does if you want the sense of community to extend past school hours

I disagree. Schools are not there to create your social life and provide your child's community life. They are there to provide an education. And why does it have to extend beyond school hours anyway? Sports teams are an option if that's so critical. And people seem willing and able to go all over the county for those.

Yep. All over the county for sports. And this county also happens to be the smallest county in the US. People are so dramatic with the bus stuff.

What % of families who don’t have a car sign up for those sports team?

I don’t know but the more important data point is how many people don’t have a car. There are tons of cars in the parking lots at AH. I’m not saying those folks shouldn’t have a car. I’m asking if we know the scope of the issue. And then a second question is does an easier commute rank higher than improving educational outcomes. And then a third question is, should we guarantee an opt out for high-poverty schools if we can’t or won’t address the inequities.

And to the poster who said this is offensive- well, that’s not a reason to not give kids a better chance.

[Anonymous]

Transportation has been a major barrier in the past. (Along with budget.) It is a very real obstacle for many families. If you have some new way of addressing that then please share.

Is Amazon willing to foot the bill on better transportation? Buses for extended day & school events?

[Anonymous]

And in the past (precovid) families could request neighborhood transfers to underenrolled schools. AKA the empty schools in the great white North.

But they had to provide their own transportation I believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transportation has been a major barrier in the past. (Along with budget.) It is a very real obstacle for many families. If you have some new way of addressing that then please share.

Is Amazon willing to foot the bill on better transportation? Buses for extended day & school events?

I sure don’t know- I wish I did. That’s a great idea about Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And in the past (precovid) families could request neighborhood transfers to underenrolled schools. AKA the empty schools in the great white North.

But they had to provide their own transportation I believe.

I think you’re right and I think they stopped that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The community idea is so overblown by so many. The public school “community” is laughable for our family who came from private. I am sorry but no the public schools have neighbors who know each other but sense of community nope. So if your child is bussed to a different school the school your child attends will have a “community” and you become part of it if you want.

White parents just don’t want to have to say out loud that they don’t want their kids going to school with poor non white kids.

It’s not just white parents. APS families have been polled repeatedly, and across the board a majority want neighborhood schools. Discuss busing all you want, but it’s a waste of time. Blaming unbalanced FARMs numbers on racism is tired and untrue. Not to mention that many of those families that are seen as a problem when grouped in large numbers quite frankly find that attitude offensive.

So redlining, and its effects today, isn’t racism? But talking about it is? Like “reverse racism”? Okay then.

^^^ This right here is how we got the nutters screaming about CRT in schools. They don’t want to examine the hideous underbelly of how we got where we are.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how to pay for transportation costs of bussing, but first step would be to price it out and see what kind of numbers we're working with. I like the Amazon idea - perhaps a grant or donation for a trial period of time would dovetail nicely with their investment / interest in building local tech talent. But they can't pursue that without actual numbers / some research being done. And that's an issue. I understand there's a counterpoint to everything but don't let that stop truly defining the problem and scoping out options for solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how to pay for transportation costs of bussing, but first step would be to price it out and see what kind of numbers we're working with. I like the Amazon idea - perhaps a grant or donation for a trial period of time would dovetail nicely with their investment / interest in building local tech talent. But they can't pursue that without actual numbers / some research being done. And that's an issue. I understand there's a counterpoint to everything but don't let that stop truly defining the problem and scoping out options for solutions.

Go look in the analysis from the last boundary change. There was a $/bus shared.

Tricky part is figuring out how many buses (1 very long/unappealing route vs few shorter routes) and where. If truly all lottery then it’s literally all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how to pay for transportation costs of bussing, but first step would be to price it out and see what kind of numbers we're working with. I like the Amazon idea - perhaps a grant or donation for a trial period of time would dovetail nicely with their investment / interest in building local tech talent. But they can't pursue that without actual numbers / some research being done. And that's an issue. I understand there's a counterpoint to everything but don't let that stop truly defining the problem and scoping out options for solutions.

Likely a multi-faceted solution - like most things are when solved correctly and effectively.
Add the County coordinating ART bus routes and giving middle and high schoolers free fare. That frees up more buses and routes for elementary which will help reduce the travel times of long bus routes.
Also, bus drivers want full-time hours; so add in bus routes at the end of extended day. Those routes shouldn't take as long because there are likely fewer kids needing a bus home at that time. As pointed out before, APS already provides late buses for kids staying for extra-curricular activities. Provide a second round of late buses for extended day. Or, heaven forbid, eliminate extended day. Which would parents prefer: no extended day, or driving an extra 15 minutes on their way home to pick-up their kids?
And again, APS has and could expand offering shuttle services from select neighborhood locations to school events. Change the stupid way parent-teacher conferences are done now and make them more of an open house in the gym (Gunston used to do this) Parents just line up to see the teachers they want to talk to instead of signing up for time slots and seeing just the homeroom teacher. If parents need more time to talk with a teacher, they should be making independent appointments with them anyway regardless of PT conferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how to pay for transportation costs of bussing, but first step would be to price it out and see what kind of numbers we're working with. I like the Amazon idea - perhaps a grant or donation for a trial period of time would dovetail nicely with their investment / interest in building local tech talent. But they can't pursue that without actual numbers / some research being done. And that's an issue. I understand there's a counterpoint to everything but don't let that stop truly defining the problem and scoping out options for solutions.

Likely a multi-faceted solution - like most things are when solved correctly and effectively.
Add the County coordinating ART bus routes and giving middle and high schoolers free fare. That frees up more buses and routes for elementary which will help reduce the travel times of long bus routes.
Also, bus drivers want full-time hours; so add in bus routes at the end of extended day. Those routes shouldn't take as long because there are likely fewer kids needing a bus home at that time. As pointed out before, APS already provides late buses for kids staying for extra-curricular activities. Provide a second round of late buses for extended day. Or, heaven forbid, eliminate extended day. Which would parents prefer: no extended day, or driving an extra 15 minutes on their way home to pick-up their kids?
And again, APS has and could expand offering shuttle services from select neighborhood locations to school events. Change the stupid way parent-teacher conferences are done now and make them more of an open house in the gym (Gunston used to do this) Parents just line up to see the teachers they want to talk to instead of signing up for time slots and seeing just the homeroom teacher. If parents need more time to talk with a teacher, they should be making independent appointments with them anyway regardless of PT conferences.

Oh. You’re not actually discussing in good faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So redlining, and its effects today, isn’t racism? But talking about it is? Like “reverse racism”? Okay then.

^^^ This right here is how we got the nutters screaming about CRT in schools. They don’t want to examine the hideous underbelly of how we got where we are.

DP, the current housing situations are most definitely the result of redlining and racism in the past. The fact that many parents of all races and SES levels don't want to bus their elementary and middle school kids all over the county is not by default racism as much as you want it to be.

[Anonymous]

It’s always fun to see these issues rehashed with people who think that their ideas are fresh and new. Same exact conversation, different year.

Spoiler alert: APS isn’t going to add buses and routes, and the wide community support for busing that would be necessary to make it happen doesn’t exist. You may get some traction if you push for option programs in the south that would be really popular with those in the north, but no promises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s always fun to see these issues rehashed with people who think that their ideas are fresh and new. Same exact conversation, different year.

Spoiler alert: APS isn’t going to add buses and routes, and the wide community support for busing that would be necessary to make it happen doesn’t exist. You may get some traction if you push for option programs in the south that would be really popular with those in the north, but no promises.

I actually think it’s a great time to “re-discuss” the issues in light of the AH Master Plan, Plan Langston Blvd, and the Missing Middle study (which may have been renamed in an attempt to rebrand it with the citizenry but TBH I can’t keep up). These changes may not be a right now thing, but in the more medium or long-term things could look a lot different. And new people may not he totally up to speed but to be fair it’s a full time job trying to keep with APS let alone wider Arlington County business.