Woman goes to jail for lying about her residency to send kids to better school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a friend this happened to here. A "mean (DCUM?)" mom ratted her out to a neighbor who was a teacher at the school in question. MoCo has investigators that followed the child home to prove she lived out of district. The family had to get a lawyer and ended up moving to a tiny condo in the district so that the kid could stay in the school. No jail time though.

Really? We live in Fairfax, DH is a teacher at the same school as my kids. Every year we file a waiver form so that our kids can attend the same school he teaches at and each year it is approved (it's pretty much automatic for teachers). It's a teacher perk, more or less.

(For all you haters out there - we live in the same subdivision of the school they attend. Technically they should be attending the other school in the subdivision, which is a fine school. We just like the idea of the kids being at the same place as dad. We could easily move if we had to as well. And last but not least, ironically- the school they should be in is overcrowded and the county is moving some of those kids to different schools next year anyhow).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our public school system, funded by local taxes, is separate and unequal.

I agree with this. I have no idea why we fund public schools with local taxes. Essentiallly, if you can afford to live in a well-to-do neighborhood, your kids will go to better funded and higher quality schools. If you can't afford a good neighborhood, your schools will have less funding, likely overcrowded, and the education will not be as good. It's just the facts of the system we have.

I'm from the Akron area - it's urban. I'm certain that the school these kids were supposed to go to was probably not a good one. That doesn't justify what she did, but it highlights a real problem we have. I wish she would have found a better way to get what she wanted (having the kids live with grandpa for real or moving to a cheap apartment in the district she wanted her kids to attend, etc). She made a bad choice and there had to be a consequence. I think the 10 days in jail was not as damaging as the felony record she now has so that once she graduates with her special education teaching degree, all of her time and money will have been for naught.

Sad.

[Anonymous]

PP, DC doesnt do it that way. All schools get roughly teh same per pupil, with schools that have a poorer student body actually getting more.

[Anonymous]

Except in DC schools are allowed unlimited fundraising which means they can fund multiple positions and many extra resources. They work incredibly hard to raise all that money, but it does allow them quite a few extras that enhance the quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, DC doesnt do it that way. All schools get roughly teh same per pupil, with schools that have a poorer student body actually getting more.

That is not what the poster is saying: many states fund school districts (not individual schools) through local property taxes, so Grosse Pointe/Birmingham schools are great while the Detroit schools are in the tank. Scarsdale v Mount Vernon to look at a New York example.

[Anonymous]

I know what she was saying and I'm simply pointing out that it's not what we do in DC. And therefore not particularly relevant to a thread on DC public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know what she was saying and I'm simply pointing out that it's not what we do in DC. And therefore not particularly relevant to a thread on DC public schools.

I don't get how that is not relevant. DC schools are a school district just like FFX and MoCo. With the exception of parents raising money, a school in Silver Spring doesn't get less than a school in Bethesda just because the property taxes may be lower in Silver Spring - the schools are all in one district. A school in Silver Spring, however, may receive more than a school in Capital Heights because they are in two different school districts.

[Anonymous]

I guess no one is interested in the topic of middle class families quietly lying to get into preferred schools, even though they have plenty of other options, like paying for private. This is of a lot of interest to me since I am not in a boundary for one of the few great DC public schools, but pay taxes, and still think it would be wrong to fake an address. Very sad, I must be alone in this. I always thought the families in our economic level who chose public did so because they believed in a level playing field. Apparently most of us just want private school settings for free. Too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know what she was saying and I'm simply pointing out that it's not what we do in DC. And therefore not particularly relevant to a thread on DC public schools.

I don't get how that is not relevant. DC schools are a school district just like FFX and MoCo. With the exception of parents raising money, a school in Silver Spring doesn't get less than a school in Bethesda just because the property taxes may be lower in Silver Spring - the schools are all in one district. A school in Silver Spring, however, may receive more than a school in Capital Heights because they are in two different school districts.

Your ignorance of the DC school system shows.

All the DCPS schools are in one district. (In theory, the charters are in the same district, but while Fenty was Mayor he tried to screw them at every possible opportunity.) In any case, DCPS schools and the higher performing charters are all in one system: they are all funded via the "per pupil funding formula." Any $cratch on top of that is parent/PTA fundraising. God bless 'em.

[Anonymous]

I agree that our schools are separate but unequal yet think that changing the funding won't solve the problem alone. Schools in poor neighborhoods need much more funding, like bases in Iraq need more funding than bases in other countries, because the government has to try to replicate the effects of nearly invaluable social goods -- parental education, involvement, strong family structure.

[Anonymous]

No, DCPS is no longer funded by a per pupil funding. Rhee changed it a few years ago and it's led to huge funding inequities as were recently covered by the Washington Post. The Post just looked at high schools, but elementary and middle schools experienced the same inequities.

Some schools, despite having high FARM numbers and ESL populations were getting thousands of dollars LESS per student. The differences at times added up to $1million less in the overall operating budget of certain schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that our schools are separate but unequal yet think that changing the funding won't solve the problem alone. Schools in poor neighborhoods need much more funding, like bases in Iraq need more funding than bases in other countries, because the government has to try to replicate the effects of nearly invaluable social goods -- parental education, involvement, strong family structure.

Why do people keep repeating this lie. There is strong parental involvement and family structure in poor neighborhoods. The difference is that a poor family in Congress Heights would not have the same access or clout to call the chancellor, mayor, etc. and make their concerns heard. These people care about their children's education just as much as you care about your children's education PP. Do they have the flexibility and time to chaperone school field trips (almost non-existent in the poorer schools), donate $$ for a teacher's assistance or art instructor, or attend every PTA meeting (kinda difficult if the parent(s) are working mulitiple jobs to pay the rent? Probably not. However, that does not mean they are any less interested in their children's education. I would counter that but for the poorer families taking a very strong interest in obtaining better educations for their children, the DC charter movement would have been non-existent. Fathers and mothers of children economically disadvantaged in this city, without any hesitation, jumped into charter ocean to provide an education that was once denied to them for their chidren. The economically advantaged families in this city put their baby toes in the water to test it before taking a dive. Stop spreading the lies that poor families are not involved or interested in their children's education. How would you even know

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/06/AR2011020603122.html

The post article about the funding inequities at DC high schools.

[Anonymous]

I am going to be very unpc here but, poster 9:36 I would hazard to say that many poor parents actually have pretty low expectations of their child's school and accept that that is they way it is. Many can not fathom their kids going to college or leaving the hood and don't really know how to push for that type of change. That said there is always a minority 10-20% that do want change for the their children and work hard to find other options. And you are right that is feeding the charter school movement. But let's be honest it is not the majority of parents in poor schools. If you worked in one of these schools you would find that many of these parents can not even wrap their minds over how to pay rent let alone long term. I recognize it is totally unfair to say a person should be thinking about college when I am not sure if ...name your senario.. I will be homeless or if I will have childcare because my job won't give me a set schedule or I live in a totally unsafe area where other prey on my kids to join a gang, but we do have to be honest that the human capital and ability to look forward is absent in these neighborhoods and it affects the well being of their schools.

[Anonymous]

2/11/11 at 9:14 - What are you talking about? Of course DCPS gets the uniform per student funding formula. The difference is that DCPS gets the funding earlier than charters.