Why racial segregation is unacceptable but socioeconomic segregation is ok in private schools

[Anonymous]

Public schools are not socioeconomically diverse, at least not in Moco.

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

Now I understand it better. Parents don’t really care for either racial or socioeconomic diversity, they just want to look like they care to improve their funding and the corporate image of the school. Makes sense. I couldn’t sleep peacefully pretending to be someone I am not. But many people are good at that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We are tired of having to pay for other kids because their parents don’t have their act together and need financial aid. It isn’t cute that your kid is poor, it is just a drain on the school’s resources and all the other parents who are covering your bills.

So stop doing it.

Most parents would love to decrease the financial aid budget and put those funds where they would benefit the children.

That’s ok. That aid goes to upper middle class families, not to lower income families.

How would you know?

Because there are plenty of people who have direct knowledge of admissions practices. Also, many of us aren’t first generation dc private school families. We know the parents of the kids we went to school with who receive financial aid. The OP’s question reflects a racial blind spot. You guys assume that the minority (black) kids are on financial aid, when the majority who receive aid are white people who blend in with the general white majority of these schools. So in fact the schools already care about socioeconomic diversity more than racial diversity, but most can’t see past their racial biases to see it.

Plenty of people, plenty of people I tell you! Lol. Why should we take your word for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now I understand it better. Parents don’t really care for either racial or socioeconomic diversity, they just want to look like they care to improve their funding and the corporate image of the school. Makes sense. I couldn’t sleep peacefully pretending to be someone I am not. But many people are good at that.

You don't care about kids other than your own. You're no saint.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am new to dc and I noticed the stark difference between the two types of segregation. Private schools are happy if they are racially diverse, but not so happy to be diverse in terms of socioeconomic groups. If find this attitude a bit schizophrenic. Do you think this is ok?

Because private schools are full of hypocrite latte socialist parents and board members who are all about virtue signaling to make themselves look good. Racial diversity is much easier to accomplish than socio economic diversity. There are minorities with money out there and the school is happy to have them and feature their kids on the cover of their brochures. That's little work with an outcome you can showcase easily. Much much harder to achieve socio economic diversity, and it's a lot harder to showcase on a brochure. That's a lot of work (fundraising) with an outcome you can't easily showcase. No one wants to work very hard for that.
That's why I never bought into this whole DEI stuff. You want real diversity? Get the rich kids to interact with the poor inner city kids. THAT's true diversity. Everything other than that is lip service.

This!!!

[Anonymous]

I don’t think most rich people are a$$holes as previous posters have suggested. There are some who come from generational wealth who just never even think about public schools because their families have always done private.

There are others—the majority of DCUM private school parents, I suspect—who are “strivers.” They went to top colleges, work very hard, have high incomes, etc., and aren’t around all that much for their kids. To them, the logical next step in the striver culture is to put their kids in private. They do it both because they think it’s necessary for their kids to be as “successful” as them—success being defined, of course, as admission to a top college and ultimately landing a prestige job—and because they have become used to thinking that money and nice things solves all problems and somewhere inside them hope that private schooling makes up for their not being around all that much to actually parent because they’re too focused on career.

The rat race, in other words. It’s particularly crazy around here.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:BREAKING: most rich people are aholes.

Why? These private schools already have financial aid budgets in the millions.

Who is the ahole? Probably the parents who won't support their family and ask the private school community for financial aid. Work a little harder and match your income to your expenses.

+1 interesting to blame the responsible adults rather than the ones with the actual problems

[Anonymous]

Stop trolling. So earning less than 250k a year and not being able to pay 60k in this housing market means you have problems?

[Anonymous]

Someone is upset that they got turned down for private school

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am new to dc and I noticed the stark difference between the two types of segregation. Private schools are happy if they are racially diverse, but not so happy to be diverse in terms of socioeconomic groups. If find this attitude a bit schizophrenic. Do you think this is ok?

I don’t try to dictate how other people spend their money. So yeah, I think it is fine. They are private schools.

Now let’s talk about public schools, where as a taxpayer, I should have a say. Why aren’t you complaining about the rich vs the poor public schools? Look at any of the DC or close in suburbs. Let’s take Arlington. There is a stark difference between the wealthiest and poorest schools.

Socioeconomic segregation is fine for private schools but it is only bad for public schools. It totally makes sense.

So you aren’t actually concerned about this as a problem for society? You are just here to stir the pot? Got it.

You don’t care about wealth inequality and how to create a more just and equitable society. You care about debating private school parents who obviously (as evidenced by their actions) are not in the least bit concerned by this. Bad faith.

The problem is the wealth disparity not the education. You sound thick.

Very few people leave all their money to charity when they die. Will you? Those are the people who are trying to help solve the wealth disparity. Others are just shouting from a soap box out of jealousy, which is a good look on no one

That’s the problem with trying gotchas on the internet. I’m PP. My kid is in private and I think OP’s argument is ridiculous and she doesn’t care about wealth inequality, just stirring the pot. Whereas, my family actually does care. We donate a lot to her school as well as support a food pantry. And because we have so much money, we are track to donate about 10 million in charity after our death. That’s 25% of children’s inheritance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop trolling. So earning less than 250k a year and not being able to pay 60k in this housing market means you have problems?

If you are asking for charity, i.e. financial aid, then yes.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The only way for private schools to be more economically diverse in this area to offer school vouchers so that any kid can go to any school they want and are capable of getting in. The vouchers would have to be enough to at least the tuition amount of the lowest private school. This program would force public schools to shape up their curriculum and quality if they want to stay open. Open competition is always a good thing.

Texas is starting this program next year and you can already see the MC families gaming the system to get their kids priority. Private school applications at my kids’ school was up 270% this year. Really it is taking money away from the public schools and sponsoring MC families to go to private school. My kid was already in private with ADHD - we have parents pay tuition so this is just a discount for already wealthy people. The politicians know this.

It's not taking money away, the money follows the kids. If the MC kid isn't there, the school doesn't get the money. The school that kid goes to gets instead. What's the problem?

Let me explain - I’ll make the math easy.

Say a public school gets 10k for a 10 kid class now. With the vouchers 5 of those public school kids go to private school and augment that 2x. The public school now has 5k and the private (now with 10k extra) can raise their tuition 7%, plus they still have large endowments to buy extras that the public school cannot afford. The private school kids get much much more, while the public schools suffer more. It’s really very simple.

It will pass legislation because people like me want the discount and people like you think you can get a better education. It’s already got my vote and my kids would be attending private anyway. So my tax money earmarked for a public school I don’t use is now going to subsidize my kid instead of yours.

Forgot to mention - those private schools that will accept he influx of ex-public kids will just get harder to get into, so they’ll rely more on legacy and recommendations - so if you’re not already upper class the door will shut tight and be sealed.

Maybe it's time for the rich people in publics to open their checkbooks and donate to their public schools the way private school parents do. There are quite a few of them according to PPs in here. Write those checks, and be the change. Don't they believe in their school enough to support it and help cover the needs?

Yeah every April 15th

Private school parents pay for public school too. And they pay a lot more than most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trolling. So earning less than 250k a year and not being able to pay 60k in this housing market means you have problems?

If you are asking for charity, i.e. financial aid, then yes.

So you think that people who receive financial aid and scholarships in college are asking for charity? If you do, you are obtuse and insolent. These schools cost more in tuition than many colleges.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is the same troll who starts threads on the injustices of private school under the guise of being "new to the area" and just asking a loaded question. Then when anyone disagrees she responds with sarcasm. Try to ignore her

Could be a troll, but the question remains valid. Why do schools accept socioeconomic segregation. Is that consistent with the goals of social justice and inclusion that they preach? Maybe, but it doesn’t look so.

It's not a smart question. Most private schools don't have a goal of social justice and inclusion, they have a goal of high quality academic education in a low conflict environment. There is no economic model that would work for this goal with a broad SES community, they need way too much tuition money to make it work. Private entities, whether schools or stores or clubs, are there to provide a good or service for a fee and those who can't pay are rarely included. This is how capitalism works. We're also not giving away Porches in a lottery, people have to pay for them.

But still there is the consensus to avoid racial segregation in expensive schools with the goal of inclusiveness (most schools publish their numbers). Why not having the same goal with socioeconomic inclusion. Are poor people more violent and ignorant ? That’s how people thought about non-white people 50 years ago. I think there are merits in broadening the concept of diversity, even for expensive schools.

No, there is no consensus on any diversity targets for private schools. You think there are merits for your arguments and you might be able to make them a reality if you gave several million dollars to a school, but without the additional resources your ideas don't work. And the quality of the education, which costs money, will always be more important than any diversity goals.

Tell me a prestigious school in dc and I will tell you what do they say about racial diversity and their metrics. You might not care, which is fine, but schools do advertise their diversity.

Newsflash rich minorities like being around other rich minorities. They still don’t want to mingle with the poor, including poor whites.

Ding ding ding!!