Deal Expansion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Today, these places are known as Montgomery and Fairfax Counties, respectively.

And Marin County, and the Eastside near Seattle, and 325 places outside of the Los Angeles Unified School District ...

Hah - yes. Touche. The major cities west of the Rockies were similarly affected. I grew up in one that developed much more recently, it was less of a factor there. Hence, Catholic school seemed like something my East Coast cousins all had to do, but we got to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If there are only a limited number of "good schools" the fairest way is that every student in DCPS gets the same chance at a slice of the pie -- until you expand the pie.

And that explains why charter schools have gone from non-existent to almost 40% of public school students in about 10 years. It turns out that poor people like education options too. Charter schools offered compelling programs and curricula and environments and parents flocked to them. The first wave of charter schools was mixed, some were good (mostly chartered by the PCSB) and some were not (mostly chartered by the then-still-existent DC School Board). All of them mostly drew from lower-income families and they flourished east of the river. Then, a second wave came through, when middle-class parents who didn't want to leave the District realized they could start charters and be successful. As a result, you have Cap City and 2 Rivers and charters started to become a genuinely appealing option. Some pretty ambitious schools opened like Washington Latin and Washington Yu Ying, and then you had parents actually leaving some desirable Ward 3 schools for charters.

The lottery ensures that everyone has the same chance at a slice of the pie. Their rapid expansion in the market demonstrates that the pie is expanding, and maybe not fast enough.

Now there's a crying need for quality middle schools. Many charters are already filling that gap by going to 8th grade, some even to high school. They're a lot more nimble than DCPS and lot more able to respond to what parents want. If DCPS doesn't react quickly and effectively, they will fill the void.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some please explain this to me. How can the county 2 miles up the road and the other 5 miles down the road both which have tons more students get it right and DC can't? What's wrong? No need to reinvent the wheel. Just do what they do in MoCo. It's so damn frustrating.

Let's just say that in DC we have our own way of doing things. And the most important thing is that folks who work in local government "understand DC." There were a couple of mayors (Williams and Fenty) who hired people who wanted to do what they did in places like San Francisco, New York and Portland, but that's not the DC way. Now we have a city government again that understands DC!

That's not entirely true. The part of Williams is correct, but Fenty had some corruption issues, and arrogance issues, and was naive enough to think these would not come back to bite him. School reform was great, but the heavy-handed approach was not. Furthermore, he angered the charter constituency by trying to strangle it. Charter students are now more than 1/3 of public school students in DC and rapidly approaching 40%. That was just stupid.

Really? The commission came back and said that Fenty did nothing wrong. Fenty unlike Gray and his ilk saw into the vision for this city. The problem with that vision (if you are a freerider and rent seeker) is that it holds people accountable and does away with the old way of thinking. Old style politicians and their constituents don't like that. The teachers union was the happiest group when Fenty lost that election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some please explain this to me. How can the county 2 miles up the road and the other 5 miles down the road both which have tons more students get it right and DC can't? What's wrong? No need to reinvent the wheel. Just do what they do in MoCo. It's so damn frustrating.

Let's just say that in DC we have our own way of doing things. And the most important thing is that folks who work in local government "understand DC." There were a couple of mayors (Williams and Fenty) who hired people who wanted to do what they did in places like San Francisco, New York and Portland, but that's not the DC way. Now we have a city government again that understands DC!

That's not entirely true. The part of Williams is correct, but Fenty had some corruption issues, and arrogance issues, and was naive enough to think these would not come back to bite him. School reform was great, but the heavy-handed approach was not. Furthermore, he angered the charter constituency by trying to strangle it. Charter students are now more than 1/3 of public school students in DC and rapidly approaching 40%. That was just stupid.

Really? The commission came back and said that Fenty did nothing wrong. Fenty unlike Gray and his ilk saw into the vision for this city. The problem with that vision (if you are a freerider and rent seeker) is that it holds people accountable and does away with the old way of thinking. Old style politicians and their constituents don't like that. The teachers union was the happiest group when Fenty lost that election.

Really? Which commission on which charge? After all, there were several. There are a lot of people who are neither "freeriders" nor members of the teachers union who were very unhappy about the way he used city contracts to enrich his frat brothers.

[Anonymous]

It's just too bad that Kim left. I could see a lot of (even) better things happen.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if anyone mentioned Bancroft, it's also a feeder school for DEAL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone mentioned Bancroft, it's also a feeder school for DEAL

Probably not a lot of Bancroft families on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone mentioned Bancroft, it's also a feeder school for DEAL

I thought that only part of the Bancroft in boundary area was in boundary for Deal.

Also, in response to the other PP on this, I think plenty of in families in boundary for Bancroft are on DCUM, but not all (or many) send their children to Bancroft. The fact that some segment of Mount Pleasant is in boundary for Deal may be a big deal for some of those families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone mentioned Bancroft, it's also a feeder school for DEAL

So is Janney.