Today's Post OpEd from DCPS consultants

[Anonymous]

OMG - could not agree more. I don't live WOTP (hate that whole outmoded term anyway) because I DON'T WANT TO. I want to try and make DC a better place and want to walk my kid to school.

[Anonymous]

Is that where we are turning now? Bashing the neighborhoods WOTP?

[Anonymous]

so saying you don't want to live in a neighborhood = bashing?

[Anonymous]

Exactly, please don't vilify people because of where they live. No matter which quadrant.

[Anonymous]

Nobody vilified anyone. I said I don't want to live in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite insinuation was that we were "squeezed out of schools west of the park and unable to afford private schools."

No other alternatives you could think of?

1. Not interested in schools west of the Park.
2. Able to afford private and not going to send my kid there.
3. Committed to DCPS/public schools.
4. Convinced of the school's educational model.
5. Not worried about child's ability to learn.
6. Committed to making a better DC...

Not all of us are down for all of that, but for many at least part of that is the truth. And this guy thinks we do what we do because west-of-the-Park shut us out or we're poor?

I think most people would feel quite betrayed if they had invested time and energy into improving a school, only to then be cut out because the boundaries or policies changed.

I think most people would be quite outraged if they bought a home somewhere because of the school, only to find they couldn't actually send their kids there.

If people get jerked around like this, it tells them the school and the city is not committed to them. So why should they or would they commit to it?

I think it's ridiculous to think you can just swap people around to another school and expect the same level of commitment from them.

It's a recipe for pure disaster.

[Anonymous]

The authors want to destroy a positive change. I would really like to use an expletive here but will restrain myself. It is inconceivable why they would like to drive middle class families out of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird to see Petrilli proposing this. Fordham has been a strong backer of charters, yet this would essentially undermine the charters.

In addition to his book, he also penned a blog posting in their newsletter that suggested that higher SES families could do more to benefit lower SES families in their IB school but not enrolling there at all, and finding a better fit at a charter or other school. Rationale being that, higher SES parents might push more "progressive" educational approaches on the school which could undermine its efforts to deliver more "back to basics" and other approaches catered to lower SES families. This new push for diverisyt in neighborhood schools seems to contradict his earlier post.

Link?

It is earlier in the thread and really a must read. He was completely contradictory.

[Anonymous]

http://educationnext.org/if-you-send-your-kid-to-a-failing-school-you-are-a-bad-person/

I didn't think I could like this guy any less but then I just read this and now I do.

And now I will take the advice of Lisa Simpson and look away, look away, look away...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to beat a dead horse but this Op Ed just kills me. We've lived in EOTP/WOTR since before our kids were born and they are well into grade school. Along the way, many of our neighbors with kids have decamped to Maryland and Virginia for better schools, and I don't begrudge their choices. We have chosen to stay and go the charter route and we are lucky to be at a great charter that happens to be quite diverse. That said, we constantly struggle with whether we are doing right by our kids by not leaving DC. Then along comes Mr. Petrilli who, after doing similar soul searching, decided to move to BETHESDA and tells those of us who chose to stay that we somehow part of a "problem". What a HYPOCRITE!

I'm with you. Pretty much anything Petrilli has to say on DC education is like me trying to explain to my husband about peeing standing up. I just don't fucking comprehend.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the article from Petrilli.

Now, I know he is not competent in education policy and completely clueless.

Shame to anyone who uses his contradictory theories as a basis for our children's futures.

Folks, we need to organize in a STRONG way and hold our politicians accountable for their intentions.

Now, just what are their intentions with DC schools? We really need to find out.

If anyone finds out an official stance on this from any city politician or school board official, please post here with a link.

[Anonymous]

Can someone who knows what candidates education policies are start a new thread and describe them? If there is do done so inclined, many sound surely appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone who knows what candidates education policies are start a new thread and describe them? If there is do done so inclined, many sound surely appreciate it.

In political or schools?

[Anonymous]

If this happens I'm pulling my kids out of DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://educationnext.org/if-you-send-your-kid-to-a-failing-school-you-are-a-bad-person/

I didn't think I could like this guy any less but then I just read this and now I do.

And now I will take the advice of Lisa Simpson and look away, look away, look away...

OMG. There is a little note at the end of the article stating that this article first appeared in The New Republic Online's The Corner. That site is a repository of right wing lunacy. How did he get to have a say in DCPS ed policy?