Renting but not occupying for DCPS in-boundary residency purposes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is actually allowed. You just have to live in the apartment at the time you register for school. Then you can “move” back and stay in the school through it and its feeder pattern. Someone posted the regs a while back.

Post-K. And that rule was just put into effect last year.

[Anonymous]

How would this discussion be different if the OP was looking to do this for a school that was not a highly desired WOTP school. Presumably people who attend less "desirable" schools have to move sometimes. Are people opposed to them staying at their school when they are no longer IB? Or do people on this forum just care when it affects the JKLMs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would this discussion be different if the OP was looking to do this for a school that was not a highly desired WOTP school. Presumably people who attend less "desirable" schools have to move sometimes. Are people opposed to them staying at their school when they are no longer IB? Or do people on this forum just care when it affects the JKLMs?

The OP is looking for a school with a good academic level and greater diversity than the private school her DD currently attends. I interpret that to mean one that's not majority caucasian. That excludes JKLM.

[Anonymous]

Just be prepared to pony up full freight for PTA dues ($1500+ for two kids west of the park). I'm tired of paying for your kids field trip and will call you out in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just be prepared to pony up full freight for PTA dues ($1500+ for two kids west of the park). I'm tired of paying for your kids field trip and will call you out in public.

So are you privy to knowing who paid field trip fees and who asked for PTA/PTO assistance? You shouldn’t be. That need should be conveyed to the teacher and the teacher should ask for the financial donation. So either you are a hateful, inappropriate busybody or your just making assumptions about who you assume needs and requests assistance. Any way you cut it you seem like a bad person. I served as a PTA officer for 4 years (including roles where I regularly dealt with the budget) and I never knew who asked for assistance and I certainly never tried to find out. If someone was going to abuse the kindness extended by the PTA, oh well. I trust that the vast majority did not. But it’s so brave of you PP to declare how you look forward to getting to publicly shame people. Wow. Your poor kids.

[Anonymous]

The PTA at our WOTP school pays for field trips for every child in the school. I think that is what PP meant.

[Anonymous]

The other reason to mention the PTA donations is that the overcrowded schools raise money to pay for extra teacher salaries. So families that are so proud to be “working the system” should reflect on the impact of the overcrowding of the school that they are choosing to attend. All of the extras that draw folks wotp require donations.

[Anonymous]

DCPS is supported by the DC tax base. When high SES parents flee the city, as they did en masse in the 80s and 90s, the tax base contracts. Parents who "work the system" generally can't afford privates, at least not easily, and aren't going to leave the Metro area.

Once overcrowded DCPS schools like Janney, Lafayette and Murch, and now Maury on Cap Hill, have seen their capacity increase substantially through building additions in recent years, financed with tax payers dollars.

My vote is for everybody high SES who elects to stay using an IB address for a DCPS school they're willing to use, whatever the hassle and risk involved in securing one, to continue to pay into city coffers, rather than running off to the burbs.

A low or middle-income SES earner who's renting can't expand the tax base like a parent investing in DC real estate and paying property tax, preferably on multiple properties. The larger the tax base, the more funds available for services to the poor. The more high SES families who stay, the more high SES classmates for low SES kids who benefit from having high SES classmates, and high SES parent watchdogs and fundraisers in DCPS schools. We gain nothing as a city when high SES parents hit the road for lack of schools they're comfortable with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just be prepared to pony up full freight for PTA dues ($1500+ for two kids west of the park). I'm tired of paying for your kids field trip and will call you out in public.

How do you know who has paid dues and who hasn’t? How do you know who has paid for the field trip and who hasn’t? The teacher should be fired for sharing with you who has paid and who hasn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is supported by the DC tax base. When high SES parents flee the city, as they did en masse in the 80s and 90s, the tax base contracts. Parents who "work the system" generally can't afford privates, at least not easily, and aren't going to leave the Metro area.

Once overcrowded DCPS schools like Janney, Lafayette and Murch, and now Maury on Cap Hill, have seen their capacity increase substantially through building additions in recent years, financed with tax payers dollars.

My vote is for everybody high SES who elects to stay using an IB address for a DCPS school they're willing to use, whatever the hassle and risk involved in securing one, to continue to pay into city coffers, rather than running off to the burbs.

A low or middle-income SES earner who's renting can't expand the tax base like a parent investing in DC real estate and paying property tax, preferably on multiple properties. The larger the tax base, the more funds available for services to the poor. The more high SES families who stay, the more high SES classmates for low SES kids who benefit from having high SES classmates, and high SES parent watchdogs and fundraisers in DCPS schools. We gain nothing as a city when high SES parents hit the road for lack of schools they're comfortable with.

But it overcrowding in their neighborhood schools is a primary reason high SES parents chose private or move. And boundary cheaters contribute to the overcrowding and so to losing the high SES families. Where is the tipping point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
A low or middle-income SES earner who's renting can't expand the tax base like a parent investing in DC real estate and paying property tax, preferably on multiple properties. The larger the tax base, the more funds available for services to the poor. The more high SES families who stay, the more high SES classmates for low SES kids who benefit from having high SES classmates, and high SES parent watchdogs and fundraisers in DCPS schools. We gain nothing as a city when high SES parents hit the road for lack of schools they're comfortable with.

Not necessarily true.

Low and middle-income earner who rents is paying more proportionally in taxes (income, sales and indirect property tax) than a wealthy family who itemizes and takes advantage of tax-deferred savings vehicles.

The "best" taxpayers, from the city's perspective, are professional, childless 20- and 30-somethings who use very few city services and spend their disposable income on entertainment and restaurants. Families of all income levels, demand and consume a lot more city services, as do seniors.

[Anonymous]

I don't know of a study that's looked at the possibility of overcrowding driving high SES parents out.

That said, there is no over-capacity DCPS where the FARMs rate has been rising year on year. Not one. The opposite seems to be true - the more crowded a school gets, the lower the FARMs rate (e.g Janney and Lafayette).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A number of relevant issues aren't addressed in the OSSE rules on school residency, or DCPS policy either.

- We're a multi-generational family moving between two houses we own in our neighborhood, half a mile apart. Our family members spend time at both houses almost every day.

-The city has never hassled us about using one house or the other for residency, tax filings etc., but there was a parent initiated attempt to "bust" us.

I'd be really glad to see the rules firmed up for the common good.

I don't agree that schools would be better if everyone "stayed home." Most high SES parents will move or go private before they'll send their children to schools they aren't comfortable with, which doesn't help poor kids in DC. I'm tired of seeing friends who loved a DCPS or charter school in the lower grades, and got involved in the PTA, bail for VA or MD by 3rd or 4th grade.

Or you put an end to the endless boundary cheating and maybe you are able to cluster enough higher SES populations in clusters east of the park to get another set or two of high performing schools.

And part of how you accomplish that is you lift up (or relocate if you want to be un PC) some of the kids from lower performing schools by giving the scarce WOTP slots to them instead of to upper middle class kids.

I went through my JKLM kids directory last night as most of the OOB kids are from Mt Pleasant, Georgetown, Columbia Heights and oddly other WOTP neighborhoods.

If those OOB kids were replaced by lower performing kids from EOTP while the higher performing kids were successfully clustered in actual EOTP schools you'd get some averaging of the schools and lots of privileged kids (and more importantly their parents) would actually be exposed to some actual economic and ethnic diversity at school which currently an awful lot of folks are finding ways to avoid.

The current practices benefit some individuals but don't net out to benefiting the system as a whole and leave a cohort of left behind kids in schools with incredible odds against success because of their low SES mix but in a city with more and more middle class families there is no excuse for not doing a better job getting more diverse and successful schools.

And yes I am a WOTP parent but I do think bringing in some disadvantaged kids would be an additional but reasonable burden to those privileged schools hence giving us some skin in the game but it is ridiculous to have schools bursting at the seems to accommodate middle class familes gaming the system rather than kids who actually need a boost.

Most schools WOTP do have 7-10%+ economically disadvantaged plus other at at risk students. Only Janney is at an untenable 1%.

Right - but Janney does still have a contingent of OOB. And I presume the other WOTP schools also have a contingent of OOB middle class kids? Middle class kids should not have access to the OOB slots at WOTP schools.

WOTP schools are overcrowded. Eaton is now enrolled way beyond capacity and Hearst is full, with several large multi family developments planned for nearby. Time to cut back, if not eliminate, OOB enrollment. There’s no more room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care as much if you’re a bona fide DC paying for another DC residence and paying income taxes in DC. That’s still better than the cheater scumbags who in fact live in Pee-Gee but sneak their kids into DCPS and charters for the free child care, among other reasons. And what’s more, many of the cheating parent are scamming DC government employees.

Ah, I see. So it's okay if high SES families who own multiple properties cheat the system since they're more desirable, more likely to blend in at their school of choice--but not low SES families from "Pee-Gee."

PG County families DO NOT PAY DC taxes. Ultimate cheats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care as much if you’re a bona fide DC paying for another DC residence and paying income taxes in DC. That’s still better than the cheater scumbags who in fact live in Pee-Gee but sneak their kids into DCPS and charters for the free child care, among z SES. But they can be low inother reasons. And what’s more, many of the cheating parent are scamming DC government employees.

Ah, I see. So it's okay if high SES families who own multiple properties cheat the system since they're more desirable, more likely to blend in at their school of choice--but not low SES families from "Pee-Gee."

DC government workers are generally not low SES. But some can be low integrity.