Resentful and annoyed

[Anonymous]

The poster from Ward 3 with a Charter spot opened an available seat for someone else. Why is this even an argument?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I bought into my "hip" part of the city. It wasn't...we got our place for a steal with warnings about living in this horrible area. We were young and never even thought about having kids. Flash forward, and we now love our neighborhood, love the hipsters that grew around us and don't want to sacrifice.

Lucky for us, we are in a great charter, but why should my neighbors have to sacrifice because they didn't win the lottery? We should ALL have great schools. Until the time we stop fighting with each other and start asking our political "leaders" to prioritize that we are nothing more then children complaining about something they want, but won't work to get.

Nothing substantive will change, as long as parents accept that "choice" means the choice to drive all over town to get your kids to a public school based on the luck of a lottery.

How about we call it gambling and acknowledge DC parents accept that the government they pay taxes to seems to think it acceptable for parents to gamble their tax dollars on their children's education.

Le't s call it luck and acknowledge that in DC every citizen's right to a public education is strongly determined by government-sponsored luck - to add to the luck of being born (or not) to parents who are loving and attentive, educated, lucratively employed, and/or independently wealthy.

Yes, some things in life are luck, but public education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

The unfairness isn't W3 parents taking charter seats. What's unfair is having "no other viable option."

Equally unfair is the proposed solution to "move somewhere else if you want an IB choice."

All parents should have the choice of charters open to them. But the only way that can happen is if all IB schools are a viable option that many/most IB parents take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

That is absolutely ridiculous. Why should a Ward 3 parent not have the same opportunity to send their child to a charter school that any other parent has?

Because she has the option to send her kid to a great ward 3 school. When kids from ward 5 or ward 6 or ward 8 have the RIGHT to a great school in addition to the option of lotterying in to a charter it will be fair. Right now that possibility is only available to the rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

You have a right to a free public education. A good education is a privilege that many parents make sacrifices for so they can provide it for their children.

Okay so what you're saying is that good education is not a right but a privilege. People like you represent everything that is wrong about this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I bought into my "hip" part of the city. It wasn't...we got our place for a steal with warnings about living in this horrible area. We were young and never even thought about having kids. Flash forward, and we now love our neighborhood, love the hipsters that grew around us and don't want to sacrifice.

Lucky for us, we are in a great charter, but why should my neighbors have to sacrifice because they didn't win the lottery? We should ALL have great schools. Until the time we stop fighting with each other and start asking our political "leaders" to prioritize that we are nothing more then children complaining about something they want, but won't work to get.

+1000

[Anonymous]

If you have a school filled almost entirely with families who live near or below the poverty level, how do you make it succeed?

More money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

That is absolutely ridiculous. Why should a Ward 3 parent not have the same opportunity to send their child to a charter school that any other parent has?

Because she has the option to send her kid to a great ward 3 school. When kids from ward 5 or ward 6 or ward 8 have the RIGHT to a great school in addition to the option of lotterying in to a charter it will be fair. Right now that possibility is only available to the rich.

But she pays the same taxes for the same services. Her tax money goes into the pool that supports all the schools. If she pays in, why is she not entitled to use the services she pays for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't we all just agree that the real problem is not one of resenting that "someone has more than I do." The real issue isn't folks west of the Park decide to opt into the charter school system. The problem is the number of families in this city that literally don't have an elementary school option where kids are testing above 40% proficient -- that is frustrating and troubling and should be cause for concern, aggravation, and, perhaps, bitterness. We're not necessarily talking about folks who are upset their kids can't go to the best public school or the best private school -- we're talking about folks whose IB option may literally be a FAILING school.

Now, real talk, low income families have been facing this conundrum in cities for generations, so let's not pretend this is a new phenomenon. However, the answer to the frustration shouldn't be - "you should've engaged in better life planning." The answer should be that we're all up in arms that so many of this nation's children (and perhaps our own) don't have access to quality education.

It's insane that you need to spend $800,000+ plus to buy an average sized home in DC that's zoned for a decent elementary/middle/high school. That said, it's also not very productive to blame or be bitter towards the folks who were able to do this.

Just my thoughts on the matter,

An EOP Parent whose kid attends a charter school (and whose inbound school had a 21% proficiency rate)

Exactly.

Then move and rent west of the park. Life choices. Government can't solve all your problems. You are all growns up now.

This is a particularly idiotic statement when the context of the discussion is public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a school filled almost entirely with families who live near or below the poverty level, how do you make it succeed?

More money?

If you are the Deputy Mayor of Education, you institute "controlled choice" in which some kids will be moved from their gentrifying neighborhood school to a nearby low SES school. Then you hope that parents whose kids have suffered the same fate will band together to make the new school work, so they can avoid the dreaded move to the suburbs. Sort of like a resettlement program, in which you get to choose between being forced to a questionable school or voluntarily moving to the burbs.

The DME is betting you'll band together around the troubled school, which will result in that school's scores going up and then DCPS will proclaim that reform is a success - scores are rising all over DC!

Meanwhile, real estate values will rise in your neighborhood, making homeowners happy, while pushing the low SES adults and their low scoring kids out to PG county. Then the scores at your "controlled choice" school will continue to rise, which DCPS will take complete responsibility for (At last -- when there's good news!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a school filled almost entirely with families who live near or below the poverty level, how do you make it succeed?

More money?

If you are the Deputy Mayor of Education, you institute "controlled choice" in which some kids will be moved from their gentrifying neighborhood school to a nearby low SES school. Then you hope that parents whose kids have suffered the same fate will band together to make the new school work, so they can avoid the dreaded move to the suburbs. Sort of like a resettlement program, in which you get to choose between being forced to a questionable school or voluntarily moving to the burbs.

The DME is betting you'll band together around the troubled school, which will result in that school's scores going up and then DCPS will proclaim that reform is a success - scores are rising all over DC!

Meanwhile, real estate values will rise in your neighborhood, making homeowners happy, while pushing the low SES adults and their low scoring kids out to PG county. Then the scores at your "controlled choice" school will continue to rise, which DCPS will take complete responsibility for (At last -- when there's good news!)

So they are betting that W3 families will smile happily as they drive by their neighborhood school each day to navigate gridlock cross town traffic to a struggling school rather than move a short distance to Bethesda.

Got it.

[Anonymous]

I like what another poster said. Increase the size of successful schools to fit all the neighborhood kids plus a good number of OOB kids. Best idea I've heard for ES.

Need to split Deal and Wilson into 2 and increase capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) all caps not needed

2) that person is not going to stay where they are, but clearly having choices was meaningful to them

3) move somewhere else if you want an IB school choice

You're completely missing the point. We shouldn't have to move to get a decent education for our kids. Education is a right not a privilege. It is incredibly unfair that ward 3 parents are able to take charter school places away from families that have no other viable option.

That is absolutely ridiculous. Why should a Ward 3 parent not have the same opportunity to send their child to a charter school that any other parent has?

Because she has the option to send her kid to a great ward 3 school. When kids from ward 5 or ward 6 or ward 8 have the RIGHT to a great school in addition to the option of lotterying in to a charter it will be fair. Right now that possibility is only available to the rich.

But she pays the same taxes for the same services. Her tax money goes into the pool that supports all the schools. If she pays in, why is she not entitled to use the services she pays for?

I pay taxes for the same services. My tax money goes into a pool that supports all the schools. Why do I not have a RIGHT to send my kid to a great school? Why is my only option the failing neighborhood school? I pay just the same taxes that someone in ward 3 pays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I pay taxes for the same services. My tax money goes into a pool that supports all the schools. Why do I not have a RIGHT to send my kid to a great school? Why is my only option the failing neighborhood school? I pay just the same taxes that someone in ward 3 pays.

Actually, if you are a homeowner outside of Wards 2 or 3 or you do not pay the same property taxes that someone in Ward 3 pays. Real estate taxes are calculated on the value of the property. The median price of a single family home in Ward is $910K whereas the median price for a SFH house in Ward 4 next door is $463K. The homes are of similar sizes in both of these neighborhoods from what I have seen. But because the assessment price is so different based upon the price per square foot, the individuals in Ward 3 are going to pay double in property taxes for the same sized house.

See http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/real-property-tax-rates for how estate taxes are calculated.

A lot of Ward 3 families consider the higher cost of housing and higher taxes in Ward 3 as 'paying' for availability of a good public school. It should not have to be that way but that's the way that it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a school filled almost entirely with families who live near or below the poverty level, how do you make it succeed?

More money?

If you are the Deputy Mayor of Education, you institute "controlled choice" in which some kids will be moved from their gentrifying neighborhood school to a nearby low SES school. Then you hope that parents whose kids have suffered the same fate will band together to make the new school work, so they can avoid the dreaded move to the suburbs. Sort of like a resettlement program, in which you get to choose between being forced to a questionable school or voluntarily moving to the burbs.

The DME is betting you'll band together around the troubled school, which will result in that school's scores going up and then DCPS will proclaim that reform is a success - scores are rising all over DC!

Meanwhile, real estate values will rise in your neighborhood, making homeowners happy, while pushing the low SES adults and their low scoring kids out to PG county. Then the scores at your "controlled choice" school will continue to rise, which DCPS will take complete responsibility for (At last -- when there's good news!)

So they are betting that W3 families will smile happily as they drive by their neighborhood school each day to navigate gridlock cross town traffic to a struggling school rather than move a short distance to Bethesda.

Got it.

No, but they may be betting that Parents on Capitol Hill will take their kids to a nearby struggling school where other high SES parents' kids have been diverted to rather than move a few miles to PG