Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.

Behold what DCPS will do for a school with fewer than 150 students per grade: https://perkinswill.com/project/ballou-senior-high-school/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

Kind of hilarious to build an Olympic-caliber school in a high school, plaster the school's name and mascot all over it, and then claim it's not really for that school because other people are also allowed to use it during extremely limited off hours. Disingenuous much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Just close the school and move the kids to another school. This is a huge waste of tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

Kind of hilarious to build an Olympic-caliber school in a high school, plaster the school's name and mascot all over it, and then claim it's not really for that school because other people are also allowed to use it during extremely limited off hours. Disingenuous much?

I don't think it is at all. 35 hours a week for the general public is not "extremely limited". It's mainly for Roosevelt, but also for meets and for the other schools that practice there, and for the public, so I don't think the full cost of building and operating it should be ascribed to Roosevelt alone. My broader point is that DCPS has various ways of sharing resources among schools and across city agencies and the public, and that makes it hard to do a rigorous cost assessment for any one school.

I suppose you could call the pool by a different name but that would be confusing when it's part of the school building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

Kind of hilarious to build an Olympic-caliber school in a high school, plaster the school's name and mascot all over it, and then claim it's not really for that school because other people are also allowed to use it during extremely limited off hours. Disingenuous much?

I don't think it is at all. 35 hours a week for the general public is not "extremely limited". It's mainly for Roosevelt, but also for meets and for the other schools that practice there, and for the public, so I don't think the full cost of building and operating it should be ascribed to Roosevelt alone. My broader point is that DCPS has various ways of sharing resources among schools and across city agencies and the public, and that makes it hard to do a rigorous cost assessment for any one school.

I suppose you could call the pool by a different name but that would be confusing when it's part of the school building.

It's closed on the weekends, and it's closed whenever the school is open. It's only open early in the morning before school starts and after it closes, but only on weekdays. And this in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of young children in the city. I guess all those parents can skip getting their kids ready for school or skip feeding their kids dinner and putting them to bed if they want to swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

Kind of hilarious to build an Olympic-caliber school in a high school, plaster the school's name and mascot all over it, and then claim it's not really for that school because other people are also allowed to use it during extremely limited off hours. Disingenuous much?

1 DCPS-only pool
4 pools open weekdays, 7 hours public, 8 hours DCPS
9 DPR pools, all public

https://dpr.dc.gov/page/indoor-pools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DCPS is stuck with its buildings for the long term and has to plan for long term needs and deal with long term maintenance and compliance in 100+ year old buildings. It was a huge struggle for our school just to get the bathrooms made non-awful. GDS takes forever to fix anything. Being part of a larger system has really significant down sides.

Have you been inside Yu Ying, or the new Latin Cooper building? They're as nice as any, certainly way nicer than our Ward 5 Title I.

And of course, why invest in charter buildings when everyone, including the PCSB, is saying the sector is going to contract?

Yes, those buildings are nice--and cost the schools specifcally money to build.

Have you been the Lafayette Elementary? Dorothy Heights? Both absolutely stunning.

Seen the giant project that Whittier is getting for their temporary campus during their remodel? Millions and millions of dollars so those kids don't have to ride a bus to a flex space.

DCPS schools are getting tons spent on their remodels.

Just looking at it from the sidewalk, it seems a little nuts this is the plan.

The parents in the neighborhood pushing it were so annoying. Some of them didn’t even have kids on the school yet. Would have been so much simpler to just bus the kids.

+1 I drive past the space they're building for Whittier almost daily. It's wild that the city agreed to wreck/occupy the public park space and spend all those millions to build a temporary swing space rather than bus the kids to a brick and mortar, perfectly fine building a couple miles away. I heard they're going to tear it right back down when Whittier is done with it too and that (unlike Burroughs) it won't be used for additional schools.

Agree it boils down to politics...the JLG/our Ward 4 Councilmember pushed hard for the temporary swing space and got lots of credit when it went Whittier's way.

Aha. I've been looking for more local detail on Janeese to decide my vote. And this is something I don't agree with.

To be fair, Janese was just trying to solve a problem that was identified by her constituents. I find the solution ridiculous, but I wouldn’t blame Janese.

NP but live in the school’s neighborhood and remember when this was being decided. I also thought the pricey temporary build didn’t make sense, and have thought of this (among other things) as I consider the mayoral candidates. I get that JLG has responsibilities to constituents but wondering if she considered more than just the impact on the loudest voice or balanced short term convenience vs longer term consequences. That is the sort of thing I want in a city leader even if it sounds Pollyanna-ish as I type it.

You get to vote as you wish. You and the other voter so swayed by the swing space issue do not strike me as the enlightened electorate, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.

Behold what DCPS will do for a school with fewer than 150 students per grade: https://perkinswill.com/project/ballou-senior-high-school/

It also has its own aquatic center, naturally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

Kind of hilarious to build an Olympic-caliber school in a high school, plaster the school's name and mascot all over it, and then claim it's not really for that school because other people are also allowed to use it during extremely limited off hours. Disingenuous much?

If it wasn't primarily for the school, it would be open during regular business hours, like Wilson pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

Pool is also used for the 3rd grade PE swimming classes for many elementary schools including the one my child attends.

Do they let charter schools use the pool?

I'm not sure... I don't think so, but I don't see why it would be impossible to work out an agreement if both schools wanted to. This says the first charter swim meet was in February of this year and it was at Howard. https://latinpcs.org/2026/02/athletic-spotlight-washington-latin-swimmers/

I'm not really up on the high school swimming scene, but I can see they did have some DCPS-wide meets at Roosevelt earlier this year. At Woodson and Dunbar too. https://octo.quickbase.com/db/bmkzp3u5e?a=dbpage&pageID=13 I know they let other DCPS schools use it for practice too. For example Hardy https://www.hardyms.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=829226&id=0. I'm just googling this but I see Dorothy Height elementary kids also had lessons there.

Anyway, the point is, a high school may have a pool but the *use* of the pool isn't just for kids attending that high school. It's for other schools and for the public as well. This kind of sharing makes it hard to say precisely how much DCPS is truly spending on one individual school.

Kind of hilarious to build an Olympic-caliber school in a high school, plaster the school's name and mascot all over it, and then claim it's not really for that school because other people are also allowed to use it during extremely limited off hours. Disingenuous much?

I don't think it is at all. 35 hours a week for the general public is not "extremely limited". It's mainly for Roosevelt, but also for meets and for the other schools that practice there, and for the public, so I don't think the full cost of building and operating it should be ascribed to Roosevelt alone. My broader point is that DCPS has various ways of sharing resources among schools and across city agencies and the public, and that makes it hard to do a rigorous cost assessment for any one school.

I suppose you could call the pool by a different name but that would be confusing when it's part of the school building.

It's closed on the weekends, and it's closed whenever the school is open. It's only open early in the morning before school starts and after it closes, but only on weekdays. And this in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of young children in the city. I guess all those parents can skip getting their kids ready for school or skip feeding their kids dinner and putting them to bed if they want to swim.

You're being weird about this.

[Anonymous]

Unbelievable the billions spent in renovating under-enrolled failing high schools.

They should have just budgeted and spent maybe 1/2 that amount without all the bells and whistles and used the other half for maybe more tutoring or staff support to get these kids to be able to read and do math higher than 3rd grade level.

What a huge waste of taxpayers money for everyone irregardless if your kid goes to DCPS or charter.

That is the bottom line and reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable the billions spent in renovating under-enrolled failing high schools.

They should have just budgeted and spent maybe 1/2 that amount without all the bells and whistles and used the other half for maybe more tutoring or staff support to get these kids to be able to read and do math higher than 3rd grade level.

What a huge waste of taxpayers money for everyone irregardless if your kid goes to DCPS or charter.

That is the bottom line and reality.

Tell me how much was spent on Eagle Academy's multiple renovations.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

Right, this is a good illustration. The Coolidge comparison was simply meant to illustrate the same point in a nearby location.

Charter schools should not be defunded and indeed should be helped to better facilities when they outperform and outenroll.

The city spent $130 million building a pool at Roosevelt High School, a school with one of the lowest take-up rates among in-boundary children in the city. The entire annual budget of DCI is about $45 million.

That pool can also be used by all city residents including charter school students. What's your point?

This. What a weird thing to complain about. It's fine if some schools have pools and pools cost money, but they're for everyone. I go to the Dunbar pool all the time myself.

Seems like a pretty glaring example of the funding disparities between charters and DCPS. Some of these charter schools don't even have gyms.

It's more like DCPS is more connected with other DCPS and other city services than charters are, in a way that makes it difficult to do an apples to apples comparison of this stuff.

Please. Open your eyes and use your brain. Half the kids in this city go to DCPS. Half go to charters. If they go to DCPS, the facilities are lavish -- so lavish many schools win design awards. They go to schools that have Olympic sized pools, even if the school doesn't have enough kids interested in swimming to field a swim team. And the teachers are among the highest paid in the country. If the kids go to charters, the facilities are outdated, cramped and sometimes outright decrepit. And the teachers work for a fraction of what DCPS pays. And it's all because the city actively discriminates against children based on which school they happen to attend. It's indefensible.

You are being absurd now.

Yes, there are a handful of schools that meet your "lavish" designation. They were overdone with good but flawed intentions.

The other 100+ schools in DCPS are nowhere near lavish.

Many are crowded. Many have no meaningful field space. Some ES have no gym. Maybe a couple have pools that are not DPR pools?

Meanwhile, the teacher pay thing is about the union, not government randomly deciding to pay the teachers fairly.

There is a discussion to be had here, but egregiously overstating the situation does not facilitate that discussion.

+1