In DC: "White Parents Horrified by George Floyd Video Still Go to Great Lengths..."

[Anonymous]

One of my favorite things in DC is woke white people who think they are practically battling the KKK when they are criticizing....where people send their kids to school?

It's like they all want to pretend they are Medgar Evers but without any of the risks. They are extremely low stakes freedom fighters. (And, yes, I know these people have no clue who Medgar Evers was).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lottery matches people with schools on their ranked lists! That’s the whole point of the lottery — to let people have preferences!

If more Black people put Basis and Walls on their lists, their would be more Black students at Basis and Walls. If the schools don’t appeal to them, they don’t put them on their lists. It’s a feature, not a bug!

I know some charter schools do targeted outreach in effort to get more students from underrepresented groups to include them on their lists. But marketing alone can’t make someone like a school if they don’t like it’s approach.

Montessori, for example, doesn’t appeal to all demographics equally. Does that make Montessori bad? Or great for the people who think it’s great.

It’s about choice. Maybe if your communist you can argue that no should get choice because difference = bad, but then it’s the charter system that is “racist,” not the lottery.

More Black people are not putting Basis and Walls on their list because they don't feel welcome there and why not? The system nurtures racism.

And there is definitely some pervasive racism within the community at these schools and this is obvious by the segregation it supports.

Is this conjecture or supported by any kind of verifiable evidence? It does not seem correct. The DC public school system on the whole employees a majority of African American employees, teachers and the majority of students are of communities of color. This school prioritizes the concerns of African American students. Please provide concrete and specific examples of how Basis actively promotes racist policies or puts up barriers to African American students beyond just saying there are a lot of white kids there.

[Anonymous]

I think this is probably correct. Within white supremacist culture, it's really not enough to just throw up your hands and say "Black families aren't ranking BASIS and Latin. I guess that's their loss."

It begs the question of WHY Black families aren't ranking Basis and Latin. Are the instructions not reaching those communities? Do the schools have a reputation for being unwelcoming for Black children? Are there other systemic barriers, such as the location of the schools away from public transportation?

If white parents care about meaningful integration, they really ought to be asking these questions.

Both Latin and Basis are located near public transit. Their respective percentages of white students have increased not because they get fewer black applicants but because they are getting an increasing number of white applicants. There are highly-educated white families who would not have tried for Latin or Basis when those schools were new and untested, but now that they have a track record of academic success, more white families apply. Both schools are much more similar to the overall population of the District of Columbia than DCPS overall, which is majority poor and black. Both schools are more racially and socio-economically diverse than most if not all of their counterparts. The question shouldn't be why don't those schools look more like DCPS. The question should be why doesn't DCPS overall look more like those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think this is probably correct. Within white supremacist culture, it's really not enough to just throw up your hands and say "Black families aren't ranking BASIS and Latin. I guess that's their loss."

It begs the question of WHY Black families aren't ranking Basis and Latin. Are the instructions not reaching those communities? Do the schools have a reputation for being unwelcoming for Black children? Are there other systemic barriers, such as the location of the schools away from public transportation?

If white parents care about meaningful integration, they really ought to be asking these questions.

Both Latin and Basis are located near public transit. Their respective percentages of white students have increased not because they get fewer black applicants but because they are getting an increasing number of white applicants. There are highly-educated white families who would not have tried for Latin or Basis when those schools were new and untested, but now that they have a track record of academic success, more white families apply. Both schools are much more similar to the overall population of the District of Columbia than DCPS overall, which is majority poor and black. Both schools are more racially and socio-economically diverse than most if not all of their counterparts. The question shouldn't be why don't those schools look more like DCPS. The question should be why doesn't DCPS overall look more like those schools.

+1 If the private schools were more representative of the population of DC, then maybe there would be more DCPS schools that look like the overall population of DC. What would DCPS/DCPCS look like demographically if all of the private schools vanished tomorrow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the lottery is racist? If so, who is responsible? Who decided to use a lottery system?

Random chance clearly has a racial bias

I think it’s funny to be lectured to by people on this forum, probably most white middle or upper class people, about how racist they are to use their brains to pick the good schools in the dc lottery, objectively based on test scores and the probability that the school will prepare child to go to college, when they themselves probably have their children in private school or a “good” public school. Like it’s comically stupid to listen the woke scolding of hypocrites. It’s so easy for you to pontificate on racial equity when you yourselves do the same fking thing.

So is the lottery racist or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lottery matches people with schools on their ranked lists! That’s the whole point of the lottery — to let people have preferences!

If more Black people put Basis and Walls on their lists, their would be more Black students at Basis and Walls. If the schools don’t appeal to them, they don’t put them on their lists. It’s a feature, not a bug!

I know some charter schools do targeted outreach in effort to get more students from underrepresented groups to include them on their lists. But marketing alone can’t make someone like a school if they don’t like it’s approach.

Montessori, for example, doesn’t appeal to all demographics equally. Does that make Montessori bad? Or great for the people who think it’s great.

It’s about choice. Maybe if your communist you can argue that no should get choice because difference = bad, but then it’s the charter system that is “racist,” not the lottery.

More Black people are not putting Basis and Walls on their list because they don't feel welcome there and why not? The system nurtures racism.

And there is definitely some pervasive racism within the community at these schools and this is obvious by the segregation it supports.

Is this conjecture or supported by any kind of verifiable evidence? It does not seem correct. The DC public school system on the whole employees a majority of African American employees, teachers and the majority of students are of communities of color. This school prioritizes the concerns of African American students. Please provide concrete and specific examples of how Basis actively promotes racist policies or puts up barriers to African American students beyond just saying there are a lot of white kids there.

Some charter schools start with preferences for the founding group/founding families. If this group is overwhelmingly of one race, then the school could have a persistent over-representation of one race. From Founder preference to sibling preference, even within a lottery system there will be distinct racial concentrations that aren't simply explained by parent choice/preference today but, rather, are the reflection of preferences set years ago. This isn't to say that Basis or any other school has racist policies. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. It's just that marketing and outreach isn't going to instantly resolve the demographics of a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lottery matches people with schools on their ranked lists! That’s the whole point of the lottery — to let people have preferences!

If more Black people put Basis and Walls on their lists, their would be more Black students at Basis and Walls. If the schools don’t appeal to them, they don’t put them on their lists. It’s a feature, not a bug!

I know some charter schools do targeted outreach in effort to get more students from underrepresented groups to include them on their lists. But marketing alone can’t make someone like a school if they don’t like it’s approach.

Montessori, for example, doesn’t appeal to all demographics equally. Does that make Montessori bad? Or great for the people who think it’s great.

It’s about choice. Maybe if your communist you can argue that no should get choice because difference = bad, but then it’s the charter system that is “racist,” not the lottery.

More Black people are not putting Basis and Walls on their list because they don't feel welcome there and why not? The system nurtures racism.

And there is definitely some pervasive racism within the community at these schools and this is obvious by the segregation it supports.

Is this conjecture or supported by any kind of verifiable evidence? It does not seem correct. The DC public school system on the whole employees a majority of African American employees, teachers and the majority of students are of communities of color. This school prioritizes the concerns of African American students. Please provide concrete and specific examples of how Basis actively promotes racist policies or puts up barriers to African American students beyond just saying there are a lot of white kids there.

Some charter schools start with preferences for the founding group/founding families. If this group is overwhelmingly of one race, then the school could have a persistent over-representation of one race. From Founder preference to sibling preference, even within a lottery system there will be distinct racial concentrations that aren't simply explained by parent choice/preference today but, rather, are the reflection of preferences set years ago. This isn't to say that Basis or any other school has racist policies. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. It's just that marketing and outreach isn't going to instantly resolve the demographics of a school.

Could the lottery Board abolish sibling and founder preferences? Can they require an at-risk preference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the lottery is racist? If so, who is responsible? Who decided to use a lottery system?

Random chance clearly has a racial bias

I think it’s funny to be lectured to by people on this forum, probably most white middle or upper class people, about how racist they are to use their brains to pick the good schools in the dc lottery, objectively based on test scores and the probability that the school will prepare child to go to college, when they themselves probably have their children in private school or a “good” public school. Like it’s comically stupid to listen the woke scolding of hypocrites. It’s so easy for you to pontificate on racial equity when you yourselves do the same fking thing.

So is the lottery racist or not?

Staggered entry years for middle and high school are not great, no. You can set up the rules of a lottery however you want (well, charters within the federal law that limits them), and those rules an be more or less inclusive. It’s not neutral. Also, I have no idea if the rules have racist intent, but in some cases there seem to be systemically racist outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Staggered entry years for middle and high school are not great, no. You can set up the rules of a lottery however you want (well, charters within the federal law that limits them), and those rules an be more or less inclusive. It’s not neutral. Also, I have no idea if the rules have racist intent, but in some cases there seem to be systemically racist outcomes.

Explain what you think is a systematically racist outcome if a school's demographic composition actually reflects that of the District of Columbia population as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Staggered entry years for middle and high school are not great, no. You can set up the rules of a lottery however you want (well, charters within the federal law that limits them), and those rules an be more or less inclusive. It’s not neutral. Also, I have no idea if the rules have racist intent, but in some cases there seem to be systemically racist outcomes.

Explain what you think is a systematically racist outcome if a school's demographic composition actually reflects that of the District of Columbia population as a whole.

It does not represent the population in schools. Look, I don’t particularly care if some schools are more or less diverse than others, if parents chose them for proximity, or rigor, or sports, or whatever. But we should be thoughtful about whether the way we set up the choices affects the outcomes in ways that disadvantage some families, or advantage others. And, if we think that some people are advantaged in our lottery (high information, parents of twins, feeder patterns, whatever), we should be willing to revisit or at least consider if that is ok, especially if it results in disparate outcomes for different racial groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Staggered entry years for middle and high school are not great, no. You can set up the rules of a lottery however you want (well, charters within the federal law that limits them), and those rules an be more or less inclusive. It’s not neutral. Also, I have no idea if the rules have racist intent, but in some cases there seem to be systemically racist outcomes.

Explain what you think is a systematically racist outcome if a school's demographic composition actually reflects that of the District of Columbia population as a whole.

It does not represent the population in schools. Look, I don’t particularly care if some schools are more or less diverse than others, if parents chose them for proximity, or rigor, or sports, or whatever. But we should be thoughtful about whether the way we set up the choices affects the outcomes in ways that disadvantage some families, or advantage others. And, if we think that some people are advantaged in our lottery (high information, parents of twins, feeder patterns, whatever), we should be willing to revisit or at least consider if that is ok, especially if it results in disparate outcomes for different racial groups.

It doesn’t represent the population in DCPS and other DCPCS. But you are leaving out privates. Those kids exist, too, and some people choose to go to privates if they get into the charters they like.

Now private school access seems a better target of concern about the impact of the legacy of racism.

Why are people trying so hard to fault the lottery? Like was said above, are you troubled that KIPP is not representative of all demographics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Staggered entry years for middle and high school are not great, no. You can set up the rules of a lottery however you want (well, charters within the federal law that limits them), and those rules an be more or less inclusive. It’s not neutral. Also, I have no idea if the rules have racist intent, but in some cases there seem to be systemically racist outcomes.

Explain what you think is a systematically racist outcome if a school's demographic composition actually reflects that of the District of Columbia population as a whole.

It does not represent the population in schools. Look, I don’t particularly care if some schools are more or less diverse than others, if parents chose them for proximity, or rigor, or sports, or whatever. But we should be thoughtful about whether the way we set up the choices affects the outcomes in ways that disadvantage some families, or advantage others. And, if we think that some people are advantaged in our lottery (high information, parents of twins, feeder patterns, whatever), we should be willing to revisit or at least consider if that is ok, especially if it results in disparate outcomes for different racial groups.

One would think the people in DC who are in charge of the lottery - the mayor and the chancellor and lots of folks at CO - would be sensitive to this and fix it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my favorite things in DC is woke white people who think they are practically battling the KKK when they are criticizing....where people send their kids to school?

It's like they all want to pretend they are Medgar Evers but without any of the risks. They are extremely low stakes freedom fighters. (And, yes, I know these people have no clue who Medgar Evers was).

The lowest of stakes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my favorite things in DC is woke white people who think they are practically battling the KKK when they are criticizing....where people send their kids to school?

It's like they all want to pretend they are Medgar Evers but without any of the risks. They are extremely low stakes freedom fighters. (And, yes, I know these people have no clue who Medgar Evers was).

The lowest of stakes

LARPing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my favorite things in DC is woke white people who think they are practically battling the KKK when they are criticizing....where people send their kids to school?

It's like they all want to pretend they are Medgar Evers but without any of the risks. They are extremely low stakes freedom fighters. (And, yes, I know these people have no clue who Medgar Evers was).

The lowest of stakes

LARPing.

+1

heh