Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget

[Anonymous]

Anyone who, in this day and age, in Washington, DC thinks that they can beat back charter dominance and growth browbeating parents has another thing coming.

We've been watching DCPS screw up for decades. We know how they make decisions based on anything other than pragmatic improvements to students' education and experience.

And while we appreciate the progress that's been made, it's not enough.

I say this as both a charter and DCPS parent.

Being in denial about why charters have been so very successful in DC means you don't really care about DC students OR parents.

[Anonymous]

should be "by" browbeating parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The city will spend astronomical amounts renovating schools, but only if they're DCPS. DC spent $180 million redoing Duke Ellington, which only has 600 or so students. Works out to about $300,000 per student.

Banneker got a $130 million renovation (700 students)

Not a renovation, but a new building on a new site. It will soon accommodate 800 students, which was half the point -- to expand from the 500 students that fit in the old building.

I don't know what the old building will get use for. Anyone?

It's been a swing space for other schools, currently Tubman. It will become the new Shaw Middle School starting in SY28-29.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-new-middle-school-euclid-street

Wait - DCPS does’t know that building isn’t in Shaw?

In the most recent planning documents DCPS calls it "Euclid Middle School" or "Middle School on Euclid St." But the feeders are almost the same as the old Shaw Middle School that closed in 2013.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The city will spend astronomical amounts renovating schools, but only if they're DCPS. DC spent $180 million redoing Duke Ellington, which only has 600 or so students. Works out to about $300,000 per student.

Banneker got a $130 million renovation (700 students)

There's a long list of DCPS high schools that have gotten $100 million+ renovations

How long exactly is that long list?

What portion of DCPS schools is it?

The city has spent $3 billion and counting remodeling public schools (but not charters!)...

Some of the renovations are really over the top. Apparently money is no object for some schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.

Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!

We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)

In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.

I don’t care about dcps at all. I care about students. All students in DC. DCPS does not do right by their students. They don’t provide the same opportunities that are offered in charters. No other school district in the area has lower standards than dcps. None. They are just not meeting the needs of students.

The opportunities DCPS offers, they hoard in certain schools - immersion elementary schools for Woodley Park and Mount Pleasant, but not for Colombia Heights or Brightwood. Charters provide a equal opportunity.

What about the other DCPS immersion schools -- Bruce Monroe, Columbia Heights Education campus, Marie Reed, Powell, and more?

Here is the list:
https://dcps.dc.gov/DL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.

Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!

We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)

In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.

I don’t care about dcps at all. I care about students. All students in DC. DCPS does not do right by their students. They don’t provide the same opportunities that are offered in charters. No other school district in the area has lower standards than dcps. None. They are just not meeting the needs of students.

The opportunities DCPS offers, they hoard in certain schools - immersion elementary schools for Woodley Park and Mount Pleasant, but not for Colombia Heights or Brightwood. Charters provide a equal opportunity.

What about the other DCPS immersion schools -- Bruce Monroe, Columbia Heights Education campus, Marie Reed, Powell, and more?

Here is the list:
https://dcps.dc.gov/DL

Houston and Cleveland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.

Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!

We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)

In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.

I don’t care about dcps at all. I care about students. All students in DC. DCPS does not do right by their students. They don’t provide the same opportunities that are offered in charters. No other school district in the area has lower standards than dcps. None. They are just not meeting the needs of students.

The opportunities DCPS offers, they hoard in certain schools - immersion elementary schools for Woodley Park and Mount Pleasant, but not for Colombia Heights or Brightwood. Charters provide a equal opportunity.

What about the other DCPS immersion schools -- Bruce Monroe, Columbia Heights Education campus, Marie Reed, Powell, and more?

Here is the list:
https://dcps.dc.gov/DL

What these people want is for DCPS to do a better job segregating their kids from poor kids. They're not interested in a dual-language option if it doesn't also do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.

Extremely under-enrolled schools are getting some pretty amazing renovations (but only if they're DCPS). Sorry charters!

How do 600 kids occupy 350,000 square feet? Do they take golf carts to each class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.

You're right. It's not equal. Charters don't teach all special ed kids. Don't pretend to care about equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.

Behold what DCPS will do for a school with fewer than 150 students per grade: https://perkinswill.com/project/ballou-senior-high-school/

hard to believe how small some of these dcps schools are. if they're that under-enrolled, they should be closed and consolidated, not given $100 million makeovers. spend that money where the kids actually are

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.[/quote]

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?[/quote]

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over. [/quote]

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.[/quote]

You're right. It's not equal. Charters don't teach all special ed kids. Don't pretend to care about equity.[/quote]

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.

Behold what DCPS will do for a school with fewer than 150 students per grade: https://perkinswill.com/project/ballou-senior-high-school/

hard to believe how small some of these dcps schools are. if they're that under-enrolled, they should be closed and consolidated, not given $100 million makeovers. spend that money where the kids actually are

Anacostia and Ballou have been eaten alive by charters. The city's response has been to turn them into Taj Mahals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.

Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!

We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)

In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.

I don’t care about dcps at all. I care about students. All students in DC. DCPS does not do right by their students. They don’t provide the same opportunities that are offered in charters. No other school district in the area has lower standards than dcps. None. They are just not meeting the needs of students.

The opportunities DCPS offers, they hoard in certain schools - immersion elementary schools for Woodley Park and Mount Pleasant, but not for Colombia Heights or Brightwood. Charters provide a equal opportunity.

What about the other DCPS immersion schools -- Bruce Monroe, Columbia Heights Education campus, Marie Reed, Powell, and more?

Here is the list:
https://dcps.dc.gov/DL

What these people want is for DCPS to do a better job segregating their kids from poor kids. They're not interested in a dual-language option if it doesn't also do that.

Yes, I think that PP was telling on herself. She wants the charter immersion because it also gives her a mostly UMC crowd. the DCPS dual language programs serving poorer students are not on her radar at all (and some of these schools do a really good job, like Bruce Munroe and Powell). So, what does she actually care about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.

+1 on this.

Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.

DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.

https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/

This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?

Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.

Behold what DCPS will do for a school with fewer than 150 students per grade: https://perkinswill.com/project/ballou-senior-high-school/

hard to believe how small some of these dcps schools are. if they're that under-enrolled, they should be closed and consolidated, not given $100 million makeovers. spend that money where the kids actually are

Anacostia and Ballou have been eaten alive by charters. The city's response has been to turn them into Taj Mahals.

So exhausting. The correct verb tense is not "has been" but "was."

THE OVER-THE-TOP HS RENOVATIONS HAPPENED A DECADE OR MORE AGO!

They were a flawed idea, they were properly criticized at the time, and this attempt at "build it and they will come" has not continued. All the renovations since are in schools that are robustly occupied and decidely in renovation.

Yes, the renovations are too expensive -- we would all love to know where the money is leaking to! Yes, DGS sucks at maintenance -- they just barely do it -- which is why schools need such extensive renovations once it happens.

All that is well-trod territory and is OLD NEWS.

You can have a fair discussion about DCPCS vs DCPS funding, but the whacko renovations are no more relevant to the conversation than the 2015 scandal at Options Charter School.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.[/quote]

How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?[/quote]

If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over. [/quote]

But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.[/quote]

You're right. It's not equal. Charters don't teach all special ed kids. Don't pretend to care about equity.[/quote]

+1[/quote]

St. Coletta is up for 20-year review this month and I'm very interested to see how it goes. I know there are some performance concerns.