BASIS: PCSB staff recommends conditional continuance due to SWD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

No, charters are federally required to serve kids with disabilities, and kids with disabilities are entitled to the least restrictive environment. Other charters figured it out and Basis has to as well. Period. BTW SN charters exist already.

BASIS simply can't fulfill its mission as the DC public HS offering the most math and science rigor while serving kids with a wide range of disabilities well without a dramatic increase in funding per capita. They just can't afford to hire the resource staff they'd need to do this. If they're forced to water down their curriculum to accommodate students with disabilities at the expense of their math whizzes, what they're going to do is exit the DC stage in search of greener pastures. No doubt that Texas would be thrilled to gain another BASIS campus, with no quibbles about how well SN and ELL students are accommodated by the franchise in the Lone Star State. In that case, you might be better off pointing the finger at the DC Council and Mayor for failing to pony up for funding than the BASIS franchise.

If they can’t comply with the law, I guess they have to shut down.

[Anonymous]

There's nothing stopping them from opening more schools in Texas. It's not like they have a nationwide limit on the number of schools they're allowed to operate. DC has enough schools and if they exit, fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

THIS. In the last 20 years, DCPS could have competed with charter "niche" educational programs by innovating, using the best school systems in other big cities as models. They could have ramped up their test-in HS magnet programs to offer BASIS level academics fed by test-in MS programs, like NYC, Chicago and Boston do. They could have introduced bona fide academic tracking across core subjects in most of their MS programs. They could even have created superior language immersion programs, with lotteries for native speakers across the board. DCPS didn't bother, hence almost half the public school students in the city are enrolled in charters, including the great majority of UMC families outside the Deal-Wilson catchment areas. Good for you, PP, for not demanding that a cash-strapped charter provides your student with state of the art SN programming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

No, charters are federally required to serve kids with disabilities, and kids with disabilities are entitled to the least restrictive environment. Other charters figured it out and Basis has to as well. Period. BTW SN charters exist already.

BASIS simply can't fulfill its mission as the DC public HS offering the most math and science rigor while serving kids with a wide range of disabilities well without a dramatic increase in funding per capita. They just can't afford to hire the resource staff they'd need to do this. If they're forced to water down their curriculum to accommodate students with disabilities at the expense of their math whizzes, what they're going to do is exit the DC stage in search of greener pastures. No doubt that Texas would be thrilled to gain another BASIS campus, with no quibbles about how well SN and ELL students are accommodated by the franchise in the Lone Star State. In that case, you might be better off pointing the finger at the DC Council and Mayor for failing to pony up for funding than the BASIS franchise.

What makes you so sure they can't accomodate more? Are you a Basis admin? Also, SN kids do come along with extra -- but not enough-- dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

THIS. In the last 20 years, DCPS could have competed with charter "niche" educational programs by innovating, using the best school systems in other big cities as models. They could have ramped up their test-in HS magnet programs to offer BASIS level academics fed by test-in MS programs, like NYC, Chicago and Boston do. They could have introduced bona fide academic tracking across core subjects in most of their MS programs. They could even have created superior language immersion programs, with lotteries for native speakers across the board. DCPS didn't bother, hence almost half the public school students in the city are enrolled in charters, including the great majority of UMC families outside the Deal-Wilson catchment areas. Good for you, PP, for not demanding that a cash-strapped charter provides your student with state of the art SN programming.

Except NYC is in the process of dismantling theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

No, charters are federally required to serve kids with disabilities, and kids with disabilities are entitled to the least restrictive environment. Other charters figured it out and Basis has to as well. Period. BTW SN charters exist already.

BASIS simply can't fulfill its mission as the DC public HS offering the most math and science rigor while serving kids with a wide range of disabilities well without a dramatic increase in funding per capita. They just can't afford to hire the resource staff they'd need to do this. If they're forced to water down their curriculum to accommodate students with disabilities at the expense of their math whizzes, what they're going to do is exit the DC stage in search of greener pastures. No doubt that Texas would be thrilled to gain another BASIS campus, with no quibbles about how well SN and ELL students are accommodated by the franchise in the Lone Star State. In that case, you might be better off pointing the finger at the DC Council and Mayor for failing to pony up for funding than the BASIS franchise.

If they can’t comply with the law, I guess they have to shut down.

Yes. It's far better to shut down something that serves many kids well so that then all kids can go on to schools where they are ALL served poorly. Oh well!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

THIS. In the last 20 years, DCPS could have competed with charter "niche" educational programs by innovating, using the best school systems in other big cities as models. They could have ramped up their test-in HS magnet programs to offer BASIS level academics fed by test-in MS programs, like NYC, Chicago and Boston do. They could have introduced bona fide academic tracking across core subjects in most of their MS programs. They could even have created superior language immersion programs, with lotteries for native speakers across the board. DCPS didn't bother, hence almost half the public school students in the city are enrolled in charters, including the great majority of UMC families outside the Deal-Wilson catchment areas. Good for you, PP, for not demanding that a cash-strapped charter provides your student with state of the art SN programming.

when your ultimate argument is that it is unfair for parents to seek legally entitled education for their disabled kids, you lose all credibility as an analyst of the situation. what you REALLY think is that SN kids don’t deserve any resources or anything that takes away from your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's nothing stopping them from opening more schools in Texas. It's not like they have a nationwide limit on the number of schools they're allowed to operate. DC has enough schools and if they exit, fine.

BASIS doesn't want to spread itself too thin, but can't be relied on to stay in DC indefinitely under the circumstances. They've already been beaten back on opening and elementary school, back in 2013.

DC doesn't have enough public schools graduating students who can handle the academics at our nations top colleges and universities, not remotely. SWW and Wilson haven't sent a student to MIT in over a decade. BASIS has sent four in just two years, from a graduating class of no more than 50 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's nothing stopping them from opening more schools in Texas. It's not like they have a nationwide limit on the number of schools they're allowed to operate. DC has enough schools and if they exit, fine.

That's fine. Let's go back to 1990s when no one who could afford to sent their kids to any public schools in DC. Ah, those were the good old days, I tell ya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

No, charters are federally required to serve kids with disabilities, and kids with disabilities are entitled to the least restrictive environment. Other charters figured it out and Basis has to as well. Period. BTW SN charters exist already.

BASIS simply can't fulfill its mission as the DC public HS offering the most math and science rigor while serving kids with a wide range of disabilities well without a dramatic increase in funding per capita. They just can't afford to hire the resource staff they'd need to do this. If they're forced to water down their curriculum to accommodate students with disabilities at the expense of their math whizzes, what they're going to do is exit the DC stage in search of greener pastures. No doubt that Texas would be thrilled to gain another BASIS campus, with no quibbles about how well SN and ELL students are accommodated by the franchise in the Lone Star State. In that case, you might be better off pointing the finger at the DC Council and Mayor for failing to pony up for funding than the BASIS franchise.

If they can’t comply with the law, I guess they have to shut down.

Yes. It's far better to shut down something that serves many kids well so that then all kids can go on to schools where they are ALL served poorly. Oh well!

If Basis can’t figure out how to serve an additional 20-30 kids with SN then they are doing a crap job as an organization. Clearly your view is that Basis shouldnt HAVE to comply with the law because Basis is special — ie your own special entitlement for your “advanced learner” because you’re scared of your IB school yet don’t want to move to MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

THIS. In the last 20 years, DCPS could have competed with charter "niche" educational programs by innovating, using the best school systems in other big cities as models. They could have ramped up their test-in HS magnet programs to offer BASIS level academics fed by test-in MS programs, like NYC, Chicago and Boston do. They could have introduced bona fide academic tracking across core subjects in most of their MS programs. They could even have created superior language immersion programs, with lotteries for native speakers across the board. DCPS didn't bother, hence almost half the public school students in the city are enrolled in charters, including the great majority of UMC families outside the Deal-Wilson catchment areas. Good for you, PP, for not demanding that a cash-strapped charter provides your student with state of the art SN programming.

when your ultimate argument is that it is unfair for parents to seek legally entitled education for their disabled kids, you lose all credibility as an analyst of the situation. what you REALLY think is that SN kids don’t deserve any resources or anything that takes away from your kid.

Again, if its so easy, simple, then why argue? I mean, its the law, isn't it. Should be a slam dunk to get whatever you think your kid is legally entitled to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

THIS. In the last 20 years, DCPS could have competed with charter "niche" educational programs by innovating, using the best school systems in other big cities as models. They could have ramped up their test-in HS magnet programs to offer BASIS level academics fed by test-in MS programs, like NYC, Chicago and Boston do. They could have introduced bona fide academic tracking across core subjects in most of their MS programs. They could even have created superior language immersion programs, with lotteries for native speakers across the board. DCPS didn't bother, hence almost half the public school students in the city are enrolled in charters, including the great majority of UMC families outside the Deal-Wilson catchment areas. Good for you, PP, for not demanding that a cash-strapped charter provides your student with state of the art SN programming.

when your ultimate argument is that it is unfair for parents to seek legally entitled education for their disabled kids, you lose all credibility as an analyst of the situation. what you REALLY think is that SN kids don’t deserve any resources or anything that takes away from your kid.

I don't think that resources supporting the highest performers in our public schools should be diverted into SN programming, correct. But I think that high-order SN programming is money well spent, vs. Taj Mahal HS and MS renovations in DC for half-empty buildings, one after the other. Poor resource allocation and lack of accountability in public school budgeting is the real problem in the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's nothing stopping them from opening more schools in Texas. It's not like they have a nationwide limit on the number of schools they're allowed to operate. DC has enough schools and if they exit, fine.

That's fine. Let's go back to 1990s when no one who could afford to sent their kids to any public schools in DC. Ah, those were the good old days, I tell ya.

DC charters are doing fine with SN kids right now and will continue to improve with or without Basis. The loss of Basis is just an issue for parents who want their kids to grind but refuse to consider Banneker. (Cue the “Banneker’s low SAT scores!” nonsense in 3-2-1 …)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

No, charters are federally required to serve kids with disabilities, and kids with disabilities are entitled to the least restrictive environment. Other charters figured it out and Basis has to as well. Period. BTW SN charters exist already.

BASIS simply can't fulfill its mission as the DC public HS offering the most math and science rigor while serving kids with a wide range of disabilities well without a dramatic increase in funding per capita. They just can't afford to hire the resource staff they'd need to do this. If they're forced to water down their curriculum to accommodate students with disabilities at the expense of their math whizzes, what they're going to do is exit the DC stage in search of greener pastures. No doubt that Texas would be thrilled to gain another BASIS campus, with no quibbles about how well SN and ELL students are accommodated by the franchise in the Lone Star State. In that case, you might be better off pointing the finger at the DC Council and Mayor for failing to pony up for funding than the BASIS franchise.

If they can’t comply with the law, I guess they have to shut down.

Yes. It's far better to shut down something that serves many kids well so that then all kids can go on to schools where they are ALL served poorly. Oh well!

If Basis can’t figure out how to serve an additional 20-30 kids with SN then they are doing a crap job as an organization. Clearly your view is that Basis shouldnt HAVE to comply with the law because Basis is special — ie your own special entitlement for your “advanced learner” because you’re scared of your IB school yet don’t want to move to MoCo.

PP here. I don't actually think they will have an issue to serve 20 more kids. I do have an issue with the attitude that the only priority that matters in this city is serving SN kids and that there is nothing more to the equasion that that.

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The crux of the problem is that the ed powers in this city want to have it both ways: they want to continue to underfund charters relative to DCPS programs on a per capita basis while requiring the latter to provide DCPS-level support for SN students and English Language Learners. They don't want students with disabilities and poor kids to be excluded from the best public schools, but refuse to provide the GT education that would help the brightest poor kids students enjoy strong representation in the public HS programs offering the most rigor. They want high-performing test-in magnets that compare to the top performers in other US cities, but won't support the requisite K-8 prep and ability grouping to create them. Something has to give, with the charter board, OSSE and the Mayor's office turning a blind eye because they boxed themselves into a corner long ago. At BASIS, conveniently, it's support for SN and ELL. As long as a couple students a year from BASIS continue to crack MIT and Yale, no politician is going to mess with BASIS DC. It's no secret that the franchise has found far more fertile ground to expand its public school empire in Texas and Louisiana than in DC. The Charter Board is toothless without political backing.

Excellent summation. To that I would add that the failure of DCPS to address the bolded sentence is WHY ---20 years into charter schools---charters went from the original intent of being "niche" educational programs: dual language, montessori/experiential learning, etc.---into serving 45% of the kids currently using public education in the District. So now that charters are essentially a parallel school system, the first sentence---creating unreasonable expectations for charters as a result of underfunding---has become the reality.
What I would like to see is a charter that is expressly special-ed---like a charter version of LAB. And with an admissions system that either lets you lottery for it with an existing IEP, OR allows a charter to charter transfer for kids who are identified as needing greater services than the charter can provide. That would seem to be much more practical than the current world---which expects all schools to be all things for SPED kids. I have a SPED kid. We would never have lotteried DC into a program like BASIS and then demanded that BASIS accommodate DC. That would have unreasonable for both the schools and DC.

THIS. In the last 20 years, DCPS could have competed with charter "niche" educational programs by innovating, using the best school systems in other big cities as models. They could have ramped up their test-in HS magnet programs to offer BASIS level academics fed by test-in MS programs, like NYC, Chicago and Boston do. They could have introduced bona fide academic tracking across core subjects in most of their MS programs. They could even have created superior language immersion programs, with lotteries for native speakers across the board. DCPS didn't bother, hence almost half the public school students in the city are enrolled in charters, including the great majority of UMC families outside the Deal-Wilson catchment areas. Good for you, PP, for not demanding that a cash-strapped charter provides your student with state of the art SN programming.

when your ultimate argument is that it is unfair for parents to seek legally entitled education for their disabled kids, you lose all credibility as an analyst of the situation. what you REALLY think is that SN kids don’t deserve any resources or anything that takes away from your kid.

Again, if its so easy, simple, then why argue? I mean, its the law, isn't it. Should be a slam dunk to get whatever you think your kid is legally entitled to.

If I was in charge of Basis, sure. But all the Basis boosters here are saying they don’t think Basis should have to do it.