DCPS students shafted again - sign petition to keep Jelleff field public

[Anonymous]

Once again, parking concerns are why we can't have nice things. https://thedcline.org/2019/12/18/following-jelleff-fight-burleith-bristles-over-districts-plans-to-upgrade-a-nearby-field-to-regulation-size/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on. Stop drinking the DCLS Kool-Aid. Selfish, lazy staff are a chronic problem. To be sure there are some good, even a few outstanding, teachers. But a lot of them would never give up their free parking so they students have a place on school property to play.

This has ... what to do with Maret and now other private schools locking in a sweetheart deal on a public soccer field?

+1 As someone mentioned up thread, if Maret wanted to live the values it claims to espouse, it could dig up its parking lot and put it underground as Sidwell did and have room for a regulation size playing field. But they have decided it’s better that they mooch off DC taxpayers.

DC taxpayers have been paying for Bowser’s friends to live large off of no-bid DC contracts (with no results) in their PG mini-mansions. Meanwhile the Maret community has footed the cost of actual physical infrastructure improvements at Jelleff. Your kids benefit from those improvements paid for by Maret. If there are moochers in this equation, they are not from Maret.

Once again...

Maret uses the land for free.

DC can afford the improvements too.

My kids don’t benefit from Maret’s improvements; the handful of times they have been on the field, it was non-prime hours when other fields were available.

Bowser being shady does not make Maret’s (also no-bid) deal less corrupt.

Next?

+1. I find it shocking that the primary defense Maret seems to use is that DC is so corrupt that their little piece of corruption means nothing. Who wants people with that type of morality educating their children? (And who is dim enough to pay $40k/year for amoral instruction?)

And let it be known that Maret is sucking off the taxpayer teat because not only are they paying a ridiculously low price for Jelleff, they also don’t pay property taxes as a nonprofit organization (albeit a wealthy nonprofit that pays its head of school 400k/year which is 4x more than it will pay the DC govt to use Jelleff.)

And Maret effectively frees up coveted places in good Upper Northwest schools that would otherwise be filled by Maret kids. This way, you can get an out of bounds seat for your child in one of those schools instead of being stuck in some Mediocre to failing public school in your neighborhood. And even though their kids are not using the public schools, Maret parents in DC still pay through the nose in taxes to support DCPS, one of the best-funded school systems on a per capita student basis in the nation. (Hoe much of that money actually reaches the classroom, as opposed to being sucked away through waste, fraud and ineptitude is a different issue.) And parents obviously pay Maret tuition on top of that. So don’t begrudge a tax break for Maret and other nonprofits. By the way, nonprofits are a huge employment sector in the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on. Stop drinking the DCLS Kool-Aid. Selfish, lazy staff are a chronic problem. To be sure there are some good, even a few outstanding, teachers. But a lot of them would never give up their free parking so they students have a place on school property to play.

This has ... what to do with Maret and now other private schools locking in a sweetheart deal on a public soccer field?

+1 As someone mentioned up thread, if Maret wanted to live the values it claims to espouse, it could dig up its parking lot and put it underground as Sidwell did and have room for a regulation size playing field. But they have decided it’s better that they mooch off DC taxpayers.

DC taxpayers have been paying for Bowser’s friends to live large off of no-bid DC contracts (with no results) in their PG mini-mansions. Meanwhile the Maret community has footed the cost of actual physical infrastructure improvements at Jelleff. Your kids benefit from those improvements paid for by Maret. If there are moochers in this equation, they are not from Maret.

Once again...

Maret uses the land for free.

DC can afford the improvements too.

My kids don’t benefit from Maret’s improvements; the handful of times they have been on the field, it was non-prime hours when other fields were available.

Bowser being shady does not make Maret’s (also no-bid) deal less corrupt.

Next?

+1. I find it shocking that the primary defense Maret seems to use is that DC is so corrupt that their little piece of corruption means nothing. Who wants people with that type of morality educating their children? (And who is dim enough to pay $40k/year for amoral instruction?)

And let it be known that Maret is sucking off the taxpayer teat because not only are they paying a ridiculously low price for Jelleff, they also don’t pay property taxes as a nonprofit organization (albeit a wealthy nonprofit that pays its head of school 400k/year which is 4x more than it will pay the DC govt to use Jelleff.)

And Maret effectively frees up coveted places in good Upper Northwest schools that would otherwise be filled by Maret kids. This way, you can get an out of bounds seat for your child in one of those schools instead of being stuck in some Mediocre to failing public school in your neighborhood. And even though their kids are not using the public schools, Maret parents in DC still pay through the nose in taxes to support DCPS, one of the best-funded school systems on a per capita student basis in the nation. (Hoe much of that money actually reaches the classroom, as opposed to being sucked away through waste, fraud and ineptitude is a different issue.) And parents obviously pay Maret tuition on top of that. So don’t begrudge a tax break for Maret and other nonprofits. By the way, nonprofits are a huge employment sector in the District.

Oh please. 40% of Maret kids are from VA or MD yet DC taxpayers are subsidizing the property tax break that makes their private school tuition cheaper, not to mention gifting them the public park that enables Maret to avoid doing capital improvements that every other dC private has had to do. Maret takes far more from DC in the form of tax revenues foregone for a valuable piece of land than it gives back to the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on. Stop drinking the DCLS Kool-Aid. Selfish, lazy staff are a chronic problem. To be sure there are some good, even a few outstanding, teachers. But a lot of them would never give up their free parking so they students have a place on school property to play.

This has ... what to do with Maret and now other private schools locking in a sweetheart deal on a public soccer field?

+1 As someone mentioned up thread, if Maret wanted to live the values it claims to espouse, it could dig up its parking lot and put it underground as Sidwell did and have room for a regulation size playing field. But they have decided it’s better that they mooch off DC taxpayers.

DC taxpayers have been paying for Bowser’s friends to live large off of no-bid DC contracts (with no results) in their PG mini-mansions. Meanwhile the Maret community has footed the cost of actual physical infrastructure improvements at Jelleff. Your kids benefit from those improvements paid for by Maret. If there are moochers in this equation, they are not from Maret.

Once again...

Maret uses the land for free.

DC can afford the improvements too.

My kids don’t benefit from Maret’s improvements; the handful of times they have been on the field, it was non-prime hours when other fields were available.

Bowser being shady does not make Maret’s (also no-bid) deal less corrupt.

Next?

+1. I find it shocking that the primary defense Maret seems to use is that DC is so corrupt that their little piece of corruption means nothing. Who wants people with that type of morality educating their children? (And who is dim enough to pay $40k/year for amoral instruction?)

And let it be known that Maret is sucking off the taxpayer teat because not only are they paying a ridiculously low price for Jelleff, they also don’t pay property taxes as a nonprofit organization (albeit a wealthy nonprofit that pays its head of school 400k/year which is 4x more than it will pay the DC govt to use Jelleff.)

And Maret effectively frees up coveted places in good Upper Northwest schools that would otherwise be filled by Maret kids. This way, you can get an out of bounds seat for your child in one of those schools instead of being stuck in some Mediocre to failing public school in your neighborhood. And even though their kids are not using the public schools, Maret parents in DC still pay through the nose in taxes to support DCPS, one of the best-funded school systems on a per capita student basis in the nation. (Hoe much of that money actually reaches the classroom, as opposed to being sucked away through waste, fraud and ineptitude is a different issue.) And parents obviously pay Maret tuition on top of that. So don’t begrudge a tax break for Maret and other nonprofits. By the way, nonprofits are a huge employment sector in the District.

Oh please. 40% of Maret kids are from VA or MD yet DC taxpayers are subsidizing the property tax break that makes their private school tuition cheaper, not to mention gifting them the public park that enables Maret to avoid doing capital improvements that every other dC private has had to do. Maret takes far more from DC in the form of tax revenues foregone for a valuable piece of land than it gives back to the community.

As a 501c3, Maret is exempt from property tax. https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/publication/exemption-dc-real-property-tax

[Anonymous]

The comments to the latest Washington Post on the Maret Jelleff debacle are far more insightful
than the article itself.
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-a-fight-over-a-city-athletic-field-turned-into-a-woke-off-of-washingtons-well-off/2019/12/06/fc2d14dc-07c9-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html%3foutputType=amp

What a poorly researched article:
1) The author tries (and fails) to equate the student body of Maret, a private school with a $40K/year tuition, with that of Hardy Middle School, a public school that has a student body that is 63% Black and Latino and 30% economically disadvantaged (i.e. outright poor). Less than a quarter of Maret's student body receive some financial aid, which means that 75% of Maret's population is wealthy by any standard.
2) The author neglects to mention that 7 other public schools other than Hardy (plus the Boys and Girls Club) Washington have requested access to Jelleff fields, a fact documented in other more balanced news articles.
3) Completely missing from this article is the mention of the finances of this deal that have fueled so much community outrage (what Graham Vyse dismissively terms the “woke-off”)—and the fact that the city paid $15 million to purchase this land and has committed another $7 million to renovate Jelleff’s rec center. Yet Maret received a backroom no-bid contract that gives it exclusive access to the field during the most popular weekday hours for a mere $95,000/year from a city that according to Maret parent Jack Evans is “flush with cash.” The role of disgraced DC councilmember Jack Evans in this deal, who is under federal investigation for corruption, is yet another glaring omission of this article.
4) Not sure why the author put “windowless basement” in quotes, the Boys and Girls Club do in fact, spend their afternoons in a windowless basement because they don't have access to Jelleff.
5) The author’s quote of Maret parent Celina Gerbic (who the author fails to identify as a private school development director) who fears being assaulted by a community member at Jelleff is little more than fearmongering. There has been no indication of violence, just disgust at the exclusive use of a public facility by Maret, which for some reason has not identified sufficient finances to pay for a private field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on. Stop drinking the DCLS Kool-Aid. Selfish, lazy staff are a chronic problem. To be sure there are some good, even a few outstanding, teachers. But a lot of them would never give up their free parking so they students have a place on school property to play.

This has ... what to do with Maret and now other private schools locking in a sweetheart deal on a public soccer field?

+1 As someone mentioned up thread, if Maret wanted to live the values it claims to espouse, it could dig up its parking lot and put it underground as Sidwell did and have room for a regulation size playing field. But they have decided it’s better that they mooch off DC taxpayers.

DC taxpayers have been paying for Bowser’s friends to live large off of no-bid DC contracts (with no results) in their PG mini-mansions. Meanwhile the Maret community has footed the cost of actual physical infrastructure improvements at Jelleff. Your kids benefit from those improvements paid for by Maret. If there are moochers in this equation, they are not from Maret.

Once again...

Maret uses the land for free.

DC can afford the improvements too.

My kids don’t benefit from Maret’s improvements; the handful of times they have been on the field, it was non-prime hours when other fields were available.

Bowser being shady does not make Maret’s (also no-bid) deal less corrupt.

Next?

+1. I find it shocking that the primary defense Maret seems to use is that DC is so corrupt that their little piece of corruption means nothing. Who wants people with that type of morality educating their children? (And who is dim enough to pay $40k/year for amoral instruction?)

And let it be known that Maret is sucking off the taxpayer teat because not only are they paying a ridiculously low price for Jelleff, they also don’t pay property taxes as a nonprofit organization (albeit a wealthy nonprofit that pays its head of school 400k/year which is 4x more than it will pay the DC govt to use Jelleff.)

And Maret effectively frees up coveted places in good Upper Northwest schools that would otherwise be filled by Maret kids. This way, you can get an out of bounds seat for your child in one of those schools instead of being stuck in some Mediocre to failing public school in your neighborhood. And even though their kids are not using the public schools, Maret parents in DC still pay through the nose in taxes to support DCPS, one of the best-funded school systems on a per capita student basis in the nation. (Hoe much of that money actually reaches the classroom, as opposed to being sucked away through waste, fraud and ineptitude is a different issue.) And parents obviously pay Maret tuition on top of that. So don’t begrudge a tax break for Maret and other nonprofits. By the way, nonprofits are a huge employment sector in the District.

Oh please. 40% of Maret kids are from VA or MD yet DC taxpayers are subsidizing the property tax break that makes their private school tuition cheaper, not to mention gifting them the public park that enables Maret to avoid doing capital improvements that every other dC private has had to do. Maret takes far more from DC in the form of tax revenues foregone for a valuable piece of land than it gives back to the community.

As a 501c3, Maret is exempt from property tax. https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/publication/exemption-dc-real-property-tax

Yes we know that. That’s why we are discussing Maret’s lack of contribution to the DC coffers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The comments to the latest Washington Post on the Maret Jelleff debacle are far more insightful
than the article itself.
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-a-fight-over-a-city-athletic-field-turned-into-a-woke-off-of-washingtons-well-off/2019/12/06/fc2d14dc-07c9-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html%3foutputType=amp

What a poorly researched article:
1) The author tries (and fails) to equate the student body of Maret, a private school with a $40K/year tuition, with that of Hardy Middle School, a public school that has a student body that is 63% Black and Latino and 30% economically disadvantaged (i.e. outright poor). Less than a quarter of Maret's student body receive some financial aid, which means that 75% of Maret's population is wealthy by any standard.
2) The author neglects to mention that 7 other public schools other than Hardy (plus the Boys and Girls Club) Washington have requested access to Jelleff fields, a fact documented in other more balanced news articles.
3) Completely missing from this article is the mention of the finances of this deal that have fueled so much community outrage (what Graham Vyse dismissively terms the “woke-off”)—and the fact that the city paid $15 million to purchase this land and has committed another $7 million to renovate Jelleff’s rec center. Yet Maret received a backroom no-bid contract that gives it exclusive access to the field during the most popular weekday hours for a mere $95,000/year from a city that according to Maret parent Jack Evans is “flush with cash.” The role of disgraced DC councilmember Jack Evans in this deal, who is under federal investigation for corruption, is yet another glaring omission of this article.
4) Not sure why the author put “windowless basement” in quotes, the Boys and Girls Club do in fact, spend their afternoons in a windowless basement because they don't have access to Jelleff.
5) The author’s quote of Maret parent Celina Gerbic (who the author fails to identify as a private school development director) who fears being assaulted by a community member at Jelleff is little more than fearmongering. There has been no indication of violence, just disgust at the exclusive use of a public facility by Maret, which for some reason has not identified sufficient finances to pay for a private field.

Nor did the Post article mention how the indifferent staff at Hardy jealously hoard their free parking lot that takes up a significant part of the Hardy site. Why can’t Hardy staff ride public transportation like other DCPS school staff? That parking lot would be a great addition to Hardy athletic space so that the Hardy students don’t have to beg for a place to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The comments to the latest Washington Post on the Maret Jelleff debacle are far more insightful
than the article itself.
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-a-fight-over-a-city-athletic-field-turned-into-a-woke-off-of-washingtons-well-off/2019/12/06/fc2d14dc-07c9-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html%3foutputType=amp

What a poorly researched article:
1) The author tries (and fails) to equate the student body of Maret, a private school with a $40K/year tuition, with that of Hardy Middle School, a public school that has a student body that is 63% Black and Latino and 30% economically disadvantaged (i.e. outright poor). Less than a quarter of Maret's student body receive some financial aid, which means that 75% of Maret's population is wealthy by any standard.
2) The author neglects to mention that 7 other public schools other than Hardy (plus the Boys and Girls Club) Washington have requested access to Jelleff fields, a fact documented in other more balanced news articles.
3) Completely missing from this article is the mention of the finances of this deal that have fueled so much community outrage (what Graham Vyse dismissively terms the “woke-off”)—and the fact that the city paid $15 million to purchase this land and has committed another $7 million to renovate Jelleff’s rec center. Yet Maret received a backroom no-bid contract that gives it exclusive access to the field during the most popular weekday hours for a mere $95,000/year from a city that according to Maret parent Jack Evans is “flush with cash.” The role of disgraced DC councilmember Jack Evans in this deal, who is under federal investigation for corruption, is yet another glaring omission of this article.
4) Not sure why the author put “windowless basement” in quotes, the Boys and Girls Club do in fact, spend their afternoons in a windowless basement because they don't have access to Jelleff.
5) The author’s quote of Maret parent Celina Gerbic (who the author fails to identify as a private school development director) who fears being assaulted by a community member at Jelleff is little more than fearmongering. There has been no indication of violence, just disgust at the exclusive use of a public facility by Maret, which for some reason has not identified sufficient finances to pay for a private field.

Wow. Paragraph 1 is surprising and shows that DCPS hasn’t made much progress is raising Hardy’s reputation and enrollment numbers in Upper Northwest, unless schools are compelled to shift to Hardy (for example, John Eaton).

[Anonymous]

I love how Maret boosters are keeping this topic on the front burner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The comments to the latest Washington Post on the Maret Jelleff debacle are far more insightful
than the article itself.
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-a-fight-over-a-city-athletic-field-turned-into-a-woke-off-of-washingtons-well-off/2019/12/06/fc2d14dc-07c9-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html%3foutputType=amp

What a poorly researched article:
1) The author tries (and fails) to equate the student body of Maret, a private school with a $40K/year tuition, with that of Hardy Middle School, a public school that has a student body that is 63% Black and Latino and 30% economically disadvantaged (i.e. outright poor). Less than a quarter of Maret's student body receive some financial aid, which means that 75% of Maret's population is wealthy by any standard.
2) The author neglects to mention that 7 other public schools other than Hardy (plus the Boys and Girls Club) Washington have requested access to Jelleff fields, a fact documented in other more balanced news articles.
3) Completely missing from this article is the mention of the finances of this deal that have fueled so much community outrage (what Graham Vyse dismissively terms the “woke-off”)—and the fact that the city paid $15 million to purchase this land and has committed another $7 million to renovate Jelleff’s rec center. Yet Maret received a backroom no-bid contract that gives it exclusive access to the field during the most popular weekday hours for a mere $95,000/year from a city that according to Maret parent Jack Evans is “flush with cash.” The role of disgraced DC councilmember Jack Evans in this deal, who is under federal investigation for corruption, is yet another glaring omission of this article.
4) Not sure why the author put “windowless basement” in quotes, the Boys and Girls Club do in fact, spend their afternoons in a windowless basement because they don't have access to Jelleff.
5) The author’s quote of Maret parent Celina Gerbic (who the author fails to identify as a private school development director) who fears being assaulted by a community member at Jelleff is little more than fearmongering. There has been no indication of violence, just disgust at the exclusive use of a public facility by Maret, which for some reason has not identified sufficient finances to pay for a private field.

Wow. Paragraph 1 is surprising and shows that DCPS hasn’t made much progress is raising Hardy’s reputation and enrollment numbers in Upper Northwest, unless schools are compelled to shift to Hardy (for example, John Eaton).

Half of DCPS students are at risk, and 85/90 percent are African American or Hispanic/Latino. What are you saying? The school isn’t segregated enough to have a “raised reputation”? Rich enough?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The comments to the latest Washington Post on the Maret Jelleff debacle are far more insightful
than the article itself.
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-a-fight-over-a-city-athletic-field-turned-into-a-woke-off-of-washingtons-well-off/2019/12/06/fc2d14dc-07c9-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html%3foutputType=amp

What a poorly researched article:
1) The author tries (and fails) to equate the student body of Maret, a private school with a $40K/year tuition, with that of Hardy Middle School, a public school that has a student body that is 63% Black and Latino and 30% economically disadvantaged (i.e. outright poor). Less than a quarter of Maret's student body receive some financial aid, which means that 75% of Maret's population is wealthy by any standard.
2) The author neglects to mention that 7 other public schools other than Hardy (plus the Boys and Girls Club) Washington have requested access to Jelleff fields, a fact documented in other more balanced news articles.
3) Completely missing from this article is the mention of the finances of this deal that have fueled so much community outrage (what Graham Vyse dismissively terms the “woke-off”)—and the fact that the city paid $15 million to purchase this land and has committed another $7 million to renovate Jelleff’s rec center. Yet Maret received a backroom no-bid contract that gives it exclusive access to the field during the most popular weekday hours for a mere $95,000/year from a city that according to Maret parent Jack Evans is “flush with cash.” The role of disgraced DC councilmember Jack Evans in this deal, who is under federal investigation for corruption, is yet another glaring omission of this article.
4) Not sure why the author put “windowless basement” in quotes, the Boys and Girls Club do in fact, spend their afternoons in a windowless basement because they don't have access to Jelleff.
5) The author’s quote of Maret parent Celina Gerbic (who the author fails to identify as a private school development director) who fears being assaulted by a community member at Jelleff is little more than fearmongering. There has been no indication of violence, just disgust at the exclusive use of a public facility by Maret, which for some reason has not identified sufficient finances to pay for a private field.

Nor did the Post article mention how the indifferent staff at Hardy jealously hoard their free parking lot that takes up a significant part of the Hardy site. Why can’t Hardy staff ride public transportation like other DCPS school staff? That parking lot would be a great addition to Hardy athletic space so that the Hardy students don’t have to beg for a place to play.

Hello Maret bot-nice to see you back here with your inane posts. By your logic That must make Maret staff indifferent as well because they are also jealously hoarding their private parking lot that takes up a significant part of the Maret site. Also Maret must have some very incompetent planning staff if they can’t find a way to buy or build a field of their own while charging 45k/per student/ per year. Why does not Maret dig up its parking lot as Sidwell did and put it underground so they have space for a field rather than mooching off of DC taxpayers.

[Anonymous]

The moochers appear to be the DC government employees who are at Hardy and tenaciously cling to their free on-site parking and other free perks. How about giving the students a break? Or is the mission really about the staff, not the students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on. Stop drinking the DCLS Kool-Aid. Selfish, lazy staff are a chronic problem. To be sure there are some good, even a few outstanding, teachers. But a lot of them would never give up their free parking so they students have a place on school property to play.

This has ... what to do with Maret and now other private schools locking in a sweetheart deal on a public soccer field?

+1 As someone mentioned up thread, if Maret wanted to live the values it claims to espouse, it could dig up its parking lot and put it underground as Sidwell did and have room for a regulation size playing field. But they have decided it’s better that they mooch off DC taxpayers.

DC taxpayers have been paying for Bowser’s friends to live large off of no-bid DC contracts (with no results) in their PG mini-mansions. Meanwhile the Maret community has footed the cost of actual physical infrastructure improvements at Jelleff. Your kids benefit from those improvements paid for by Maret. If there are moochers in this equation, they are not from Maret.

Once again...

Maret uses the land for free.

DC can afford the improvements too.

My kids don’t benefit from Maret’s improvements; the handful of times they have been on the field, it was non-prime hours when other fields were available.

Bowser being shady does not make Maret’s (also no-bid) deal less corrupt.

Next?

+1. I find it shocking that the primary defense Maret seems to use is that DC is so corrupt that their little piece of corruption means nothing. Who wants people with that type of morality educating their children? (And who is dim enough to pay $40k/year for amoral instruction?)

And let it be known that Maret is sucking off the taxpayer teat because not only are they paying a ridiculously low price for Jelleff, they also don’t pay property taxes as a nonprofit organization (albeit a wealthy nonprofit that pays its head of school 400k/year which is 4x more than it will pay the DC govt to use Jelleff.)

And Maret effectively frees up coveted places in good Upper Northwest schools that would otherwise be filled by Maret kids. This way, you can get an out of bounds seat for your child in one of those schools instead of being stuck in some Mediocre to failing public school in your neighborhood. And even though their kids are not using the public schools, Maret parents in DC still pay through the nose in taxes to support DCPS, one of the best-funded school systems on a per capita student basis in the nation. (Hoe much of that money actually reaches the classroom, as opposed to being sucked away through waste, fraud and ineptitude is a different issue.) And parents obviously pay Maret tuition on top of that. So don’t begrudge a tax break for Maret and other nonprofits. By the way, nonprofits are a huge employment sector in the District.

Nope, you pay your taxes just like everyone else. Then you can choose to send your kids public or private. If private, you pay. That’s the deal. No breaks for you.

And what about the families who live in Va and Md? Using DC public rec facilities but not paying any taxes. How about Maret only allows the kids who are DC residents to practice at Jelleff? The other kids can practice where they pay taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The moochers appear to be the DC government employees who are at Hardy and tenaciously cling to their free on-site parking and other free perks. How about giving the students a break? Or is the mission really about the staff, not the students?

You really must live your whole life in a bubble to have such a distorted view of the realities of daily for most people. No wonder you can’t see clearly. Go find some actual facts to support your position. Go ahead. We’ll wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The moochers appear to be the DC government employees who are at Hardy and tenaciously cling to their free on-site parking and other free perks. How about giving the students a break? Or is the mission really about the staff, not the students?

For the zillionth time, staff at public schools don't make facilities decisions. You seem to think they're just like private schools (only shabbier). They're not.