Ward/neighborhood preferences for Charter School admissions

[Anonymous]

What do people think of this idea? We had better start asking our council members what they think. Hearing that Tommy Wells may be introducing a bill to give ward-based admissions preferences for charter schools.

[Anonymous]

I live in Chevy Chase DC and send the kids to private.

I cannot WAIT to have Ward 3 preference for charters! A Ward-3 dominant charter would be the one thing that would cause me to reconsider staying in private. Murch wasn't enough, but a charter that is full of neighborhood kids AND can set its own curriculum? Dreamy.

Wait -- what's that you're saying?

[Anonymous]

Yes, let's give it a try. I would love for our neighborhood school to be run by an organization more nimble and adept than DCPS.

Don't get me wrong, DCPS has a good group of people working there, but DCPS and its political leaders lack the ability to institute radical change, and the system is too unwieldy in its current form. What Ward Two needs is much different than what Ward Seven needs, what we need in elementary is different form what we need in high school, and so on . . .

[Anonymous]

Right, but if you live in a neighborhood with no decent schools ( charter or otherwise ) and you want to go to a great established charter in another ward?

[Anonymous]

Horrible idea. How much "preference" would the ward residents get? We already have the neighborhood schools, why make the charters have to take a certain % of kids. I hope this bill does not pass!! Horrible, horrible, horrible!!

[Anonymous]

I think this is a bad idea.

How do you deal with temporary locations? Let's use MV for example - last year families in DuPont would get priority. But now that they are in Columbia Heights the DuPont families would have taken the spots and nothing left for the Columbia Heights priority? And what about 2 years from now when they move to the new location? How do you accomodate families at that point?

It is easy to complain about this - but there is no easy solution.

[Anonymous]

AWFUL. AWFUL. 11:49 has the idea - given that many of these schools have no permanent location, especially when they start, it's absurd to think that neighborhood preference should be established.

And Ward 3 will never have any charters because the rents in that area are too high; so what's the point for them? And so what if those in Ward 8 have preference to their charters - no one is commuting from Wards 1, 2, 3, 4 across the river to them anyways.

[Anonymous]

I can't think of a single reason why this idea makes sense.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a bad idea for two reasons: 1) the temporary charter locations as PP noted; 2) the fact that charters by their nature do and are supposed to be offering something "different" in terms of educational philosophy/language. Just because you live close to Yu Ying does not mean you want Chinese immersion (or insert any school - montessori and Spanish at LAMB, Hebrew at Sela, green focus and Spanishat MV, expeditionary learning at Cap City, arts integration at Creative Minds, and on and on). Essentially it sets up a system where a preference is wasted because the family does not want that charter school or worse, a family with no interest in what the school is offering takes a space just because of the preference. The point of charter schools is choice and part of that choice is finding a school and program that fits your family and child. Location preference kills that choice.

[Anonymous]

This is largely a bad idea for the following reasons: Those who need choice most because their neighborhood schools aren't cutting it will lose out once again because few to no charter schools locate in those areas. Likewise on the other end of the spectrum: those who live in expensive neighborhoods will have no charter options (not that I care but to the extent that they're interested in such special offers as language or need access to alternative learning models it's not fair). By the same token, it would be horribly unfair to tell those who live near a specialty charter school that's now where they feed into (oh, btw, your children now all speak Mandarin Chinese). The moving around of charters is a problem, too.

I could see an exception to this conclusion in the following situation: If a charter moves into a former public school building/boundary and commits to DC educational standards, then I'd be in favor. This would be a convincing move to unhinge a neighborhood school from the DCPS shackles and give it the autonomy to serve its students well. (Not to mention that this would be a welcome opportunity to test whether charters can truly deliver on that promise.)

[Anonymous]

EXCEPT Y'ALL- if DCPS brought in a charter to run a neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

yes, I am ok with the exception outlined above. But otherwise, horrible idea. People who can afford to buy near a good neighborhood school can already buy their way into a decent school. The charter school lottery as it exists provides a more level playing field. And these schools are moving around like crazy, which would make it a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

In general, I think it is a bad idea except if the "charter" school is a neighborhood school as the second to last poster outlined.

[Anonymous]

Maybe we could actually get a middle school in Ward 6, with the majority of Ward 6 kids!

[Anonymous]

Love it. BASIS Bitches! It's in my 'hood.