Please don't just take a spot at a charter school because you want free care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Here. Quoting above poster -"to current parents who are so CLEARLY not happy that they didn't get their #1-3 choices and demonstrate their lack of willingness to engage because they are so sure they're leaving at the first waitlist call/next lottery."
THIS is part of my point. My post had nothing to do with a family's economic status. My point is that I don't understand how someone can take their child to a school that they don't even LIKE just because it is free. There are tons of options out there. If you take your child to a school that is not your first choice, then live with it, and help and embrace the school. Don't just exist in our school as a grumpy parent hoping that next year you will do better in the lottery - because chances are that you won't.

But op, what do you expect them to do? Not enroll their kid in any school and send their kid to their crappy IB school because they don't "want it" enough? Just because you want it MORE doesn't mean you should get it. That's not how life works, nor how it should work, imo.

If a family DOES enroll their child in a school that they don't want - then they should still take a positive attitude and at least help the school for the year that they attend the school - don't come to school unhappy and just complain because there's nothing productive with a negative, disengaged family.

Ok, so then your real issue is: Please don't be a crappy, critical, do-nothing parent.

Which is perfectly reasonable, but has nothing to do with taking a spot because of free care.

[Anonymous]

Agree with most of the PPs. Charters are an alternative to neighborhood schools and they have worked fantastically well in DC. But they are still, at base, public schools, and while it would be wonderful if every school could have an engaged, upbeat, can-do attitude, involved set of parents, that's just not how it's going to be. Some will complain because the school doesn't live up to their expectations. Some will send their kids for free care and not give a crap about engaging. Some will post anonymous negative things about their school on message boards. Some will be loud, engaged complainers, and assholes to boot. That's the nature of public education.

If you want to control who gets in, give an obscenely large gift to the endowment of a private school, buy your way onto the board, and then get in the admissions department's business. What? Can't afford that? Neither can I, so we will have to take the good with the bad.

[Anonymous]

So some people want free care. So what? I doubt they are any less deserving b/c free care or in most cases, sending their kid to an acceptable school is their primary motivation. Everyone gets an equal chance in the charter lotteries.

We are at a sought after immersion language charter and I don't know anyone who is unhappy and are just waiting for a chance to go elsewhere. Actually, the only person I know who left after their child attended for 1+ yr had to because they were relocated and they were certainly dedicated to the mission of the school. No one else left and the class size grew. I doubt every single family who stays was originally dedicated and/or have a connection to the language or culture but their interest grows the longer their child is at the school. And even if it doesn't who's to say their family doesn't belong...

[Anonymous]

OP, it is none of your GD business the reasoning that families use to make the schooling decisions the do. Quit preaching to strangers an worry about your own family. The decision making done by families is usually very complex and doesn't boil down to free or not free. You are awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it is none of your GD business the reasoning that families use to make the schooling decisions the do. Quit preaching to strangers an worry about your own family. The decision making done by families is usually very complex and doesn't boil down to free or not free. You are awful.

Wow, "you are awful"??? Hit a nerve, huh?

OP has just as much a right to express her desire based on what she sees at her school as you do to say "Mind your own business". The "You are awful" is a nice extra touch though... not.

[Anonymous]

No.

If you want to dictate things like this you need to choose a school that is private.

Public schools are for everyone. Whether the parents want to be part of a community and be involved or not.

Is it nicer if they do? Of course. But can or should we exclude them if they don't? Nope.

[Anonymous]

Even though you want it to feel like private school, charters are still just public school.

[Anonymous]

NP here - the "free care" gripe that I would have is that the charters don't have as much funding as DCPS schools do toward freebies. If people want to get more freebies from their schools, they should either be lobbying their politicians to get the mismanagement sorted out at DCPS schools, or if not to shift more funding over to charters so that they CAN offer them. Otherwise, it's boosters who are often shouldering a lot of that burden for the extras. Money for a lot of this stuff doesn't just fall out of the trees, and people should be aware and considerate of that.

Secondly, the other gripe I would have is that some parents just seem to apply to whatever charter they can get, as opposed to parents who are specifically interested in just one charter, for example for language or other specialized offerings. If you aren't interested in the specialized offerings, then please don't clog the process unnecessarily for those who are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about families who really need free care? Aren't they more deserving than you, who have many options because of your income?

How are they more deserving?

More needy perhaps, but how does that equate to more deserving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No.

If you want to dictate things like this you need to choose a school that is private.

Public schools are for everyone. Whether the parents want to be part of a community and be involved or not.

Is it nicer if they do? Of course. But can or should we exclude them if they don't? Nope.

Another NP - I don't see anyone suggesting there be a "parent enthusiasm" test before being allowed in the school. OP is basically just begging parents to give a damn, and we all (including OP) know she nor anyone else can make parents care.

So where do you see anyone dictating parent involvement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here - the "free care" gripe that I would have is that the charters don't have as much funding as DCPS schools do toward freebies. If people want to get more freebies from their schools, they should either be lobbying their politicians to get the mismanagement sorted out at DCPS schools, or if not to shift more funding over to charters so that they CAN offer them. Otherwise, it's boosters who are often shouldering a lot of that burden for the extras. Money for a lot of this stuff doesn't just fall out of the trees, and people should be aware and considerate of that.

Secondly, the other gripe I would have is that some parents just seem to apply to whatever charter they can get, as opposed to parents who are specifically interested in just one charter, for example for language or other specialized offerings. If you aren't interested in the specialized offerings, then please don't clog the process unnecessarily for those who are.

Yup, we sure did! I applied to every charter that was a reasonable distance from our home, and a few that were farther away. I also played the DCPS lottery, putting down our mediocre IB school as our first choice. We got into our IB school, and wait-listed at EVERY charter we applied to. The week before school started, we got a call from a highly regarded language immersion school, and accepted the spot immediately. Since then, we have gotten behind this school's language and are doing are best to be engaged parents and support our child's education. But I would have just as easily gotten behind a different langauge or "specialized offering" if our kid had been accepted at a different school. My alternative to "clogging the process" was to enroll my kid in a school that would MAYBE been ok until MAYBE 3rd grade...then what? Can't afford private school. While I empathize with the families who may have loved a spot at our kids' school because of an affinity for special attributes of the curriculum, they do not deserve a spot any more than any other child in this PUBLIC charter school. Becoming involved in the new language and culture of my child's school has enriched not only his educational experience, but our whole family as well.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, sucks, OP. I'm probably one of the cloggers. I'm a poster from the thread about not wanting my kid to do full time PK4. If you have no choice, you have no choice. I don't know what else to do. Sending DS to all day school, any school, is not my top choice. But the local in bounds is unacceptable. (Violent, huge percent cannot read). So sad, but we have to do what's best for our kids. You aren't angry at the parents. You are angry at the system. The parents you're annoyed with don't have any more choice than you do. They're competing with you for spots they DON't WANT, not because they want to be dicks but because they have no choice. So why not help change things?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even though you want it to feel like private school, charters are still just public school.

Oh, how I love to see this in writing! I agree. Public school teacher and advocate here. I love how SOME charter parents want to forget that a charter is still public, and has to deal with the real DC community. Yup, it stinks having parents who do not care about education. And if you want to figure out how to engage parents- take a stroll on over to a DC public school and figure out how we do it.mis it perfect, no of course not. But we are dealing with the community you, OP, are trying to escape.
Also, why would you think of punishing a child for a parents lack of school commitment? Sure the parents may want 'free care' but their child is entitled to education, just like your kiddos are. Do not forget that education is first and foremost about kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even though you want it to feel like private school, charters are still just public school.

Oh, how I love to see this in writing! I agree. Public school teacher and advocate here. I love how SOME charter parents want to forget that a charter is still public, and has to deal with the real DC community. Yup, it stinks having parents who do not care about education. And if you want to figure out how to engage parents- take a stroll on over to a DC public school and figure out how we do it.mis it perfect, no of course not. But we are dealing with the community you, OP, are trying to escape.
Also, why would you think of punishing a child for a parents lack of school commitment? Sure the parents may want 'free care' but their child is entitled to education, just like your kiddos are. Do not forget that education is first and foremost about kids.

+ 100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about families who really need free care? Aren't they more deserving than you, who have many options because of your income?

If you view school as just daycare, you're part of the problem. A large part, actually.