Integration and DC Schools -- A high priority? Yay or nay?

[Anonymous]

Median “not black” HHI is like 140k, white and Asian were median HHI of 160 something last time I looked. Median black much lower because, like it or not, there’s not a lot of poor white (or even Hispanic, despite more in the region) people in DC proper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy in DC today gets = typical middle class life of 30-40 years ago.

Nope, but many of us are aware this is what you tell yourself to justify calling yourself middle class when you are not.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people grew up being told they were middle class by their parents, who were also not middle class. Like maybe they were for a minute when their parents were really young, but these are people with white collar parents who bought real estate and invested in the stock market in the 80s and now have a lot of money. None of their family is middle class. But they cling to this self perception of being middle class because they remember eating TV dinners when they were 6 and their dad was still a resident, or their parents didn't have real money until they were 14 or 15 and vacations went from road trips to the jersey shore to multi-week European vacations. It's like a weird self-delusion.

Yes there are richer people and those people do NOT send their kids to DCPS. But this idea that you are middle class because you don't own a vacation home in Aspen is freaking weird. Some of you need some perspective.

There are relatively few middle class people in DC. We have a ton of rich people and a ton of poor people and not many in the middle. If you live West of the park, and don't live in a tiny apartment, you almost certainly are not middle class.

There are plenty of actual middle class people in DC. It's just that people struggle to look past race to see it.

Middle class black and hispanic families (there are tons) are viewed as poor by most white people. But they aren't. I know many such families with HHIs in probably the 90-150k range. Solidly middle class.

Middle class white families are often just assumed to be wealthier than they are, by other white families and by black and hispanic families. But they have similar incomes to the middle class black and hispanic families. I'd say on average the middle class white families probably have a little more money than the middle class black/hispanic families (maybe 130-190k). But, again, solidly middle class.

These are people who, like my family, live in apartments or less expensive housing in neighborhoods far from metro, or east of the river. Some of us were able to purchase real estate (condos or east of the river homes) before rates went up, so we are building wealth, but our homes are not appreciating the way the homes of wealthier people in the area, plus we are dealing with 30 yr mortgages and lower incomes so we pay a larger portion of our incomes to housing. We mostly have cars by necessity (a major difference between us and poor and working class families in DC, many of whom must rely on public transit even from neighborhoods that are poorly served). We take basic vacation, save for college but in a much more modest way than the rest of you, and MUST send our kids to public schools -- there is no other option.

We know we are often invisible to you at school. Either because you misperceive our socioeconomic status (again, assuming if we are black or brown then we must be poorer than we are, and assuming if we are white then we must be richer than we are) or because of that specific kind of situational blindness privileged people have where they only really "see" other privileged people because that is who you consider a peer and therefore the only sort of person you compare yourself to or view yourself in league with.

Ok, well, as an empirical matter, DC has a lot of people with very low incomes (one-fifth of the city get food stamps) and a lot of people with very high incomes (we have proportionately the most people in the country with at least $5 million in assets) so our middle class is smaller than what you typically see elsewhere.

Uh, if you want to be empirical about it, you are going to have to provide actual numbers because I do not actually believe that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities. I think that's just a self serving argument for people who want the public school system to cater to the needs of poor people and the whims of rich people and ignore everyone in between.

Do you even live here? DCPS makes no secret of the fact that it focuses on kids at the very bottom. A lot of families who aren't rich or poor find that very frustrating because they feel like the school system ignores their kids' needs.

Honestly, I could be on board with that approach if they were actually doing a good job at it. Instead, they just evoke that as a justification to do nothing at the Mayor/Chancellor/Council level. There are some specific schools (eg Moten) that buck the trend, but as a whole DC is not doing a good job at this ostensible focus.

It’s the smart and poor kids who get nothing. The UMC/MC parents of smart kids, who get shut down when they ask the school system for anything above the basics, will go private or get outside “enrichment.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Median “not black” HHI is like 140k, white and Asian were median HHI of 160 something last time I looked. Median black much lower because, like it or not, there’s not a lot of poor white (or even Hispanic, despite more in the region) people in DC proper.

This is households, not households with school-aged children. 41% of adults in DC are white, but only 24% of children in DC are white. Lots of white DINKs.

I think the general trend is still there for households with school-aged children, but it's not going to be quite as stark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy in DC today gets = typical middle class life of 30-40 years ago.

Nope, but many of us are aware this is what you tell yourself to justify calling yourself middle class when you are not.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people grew up being told they were middle class by their parents, who were also not middle class. Like maybe they were for a minute when their parents were really young, but these are people with white collar parents who bought real estate and invested in the stock market in the 80s and now have a lot of money. None of their family is middle class. But they cling to this self perception of being middle class because they remember eating TV dinners when they were 6 and their dad was still a resident, or their parents didn't have real money until they were 14 or 15 and vacations went from road trips to the jersey shore to multi-week European vacations. It's like a weird self-delusion.

Yes there are richer people and those people do NOT send their kids to DCPS. But this idea that you are middle class because you don't own a vacation home in Aspen is freaking weird. Some of you need some perspective.

There are relatively few middle class people in DC. We have a ton of rich people and a ton of poor people and not many in the middle. If you live West of the park, and don't live in a tiny apartment, you almost certainly are not middle class.

There are plenty of actual middle class people in DC. It's just that people struggle to look past race to see it.

Middle class black and hispanic families (there are tons) are viewed as poor by most white people. But they aren't. I know many such families with HHIs in probably the 90-150k range. Solidly middle class.

Middle class white families are often just assumed to be wealthier than they are, by other white families and by black and hispanic families. But they have similar incomes to the middle class black and hispanic families. I'd say on average the middle class white families probably have a little more money than the middle class black/hispanic families (maybe 130-190k). But, again, solidly middle class.

These are people who, like my family, live in apartments or less expensive housing in neighborhoods far from metro, or east of the river. Some of us were able to purchase real estate (condos or east of the river homes) before rates went up, so we are building wealth, but our homes are not appreciating the way the homes of wealthier people in the area, plus we are dealing with 30 yr mortgages and lower incomes so we pay a larger portion of our incomes to housing. We mostly have cars by necessity (a major difference between us and poor and working class families in DC, many of whom must rely on public transit even from neighborhoods that are poorly served). We take basic vacation, save for college but in a much more modest way than the rest of you, and MUST send our kids to public schools -- there is no other option.

We know we are often invisible to you at school. Either because you misperceive our socioeconomic status (again, assuming if we are black or brown then we must be poorer than we are, and assuming if we are white then we must be richer than we are) or because of that specific kind of situational blindness privileged people have where they only really "see" other privileged people because that is who you consider a peer and therefore the only sort of person you compare yourself to or view yourself in league with.

Ok, well, as an empirical matter, DC has a lot of people with very low incomes (one-fifth of the city get food stamps) and a lot of people with very high incomes (we have proportionately the most people in the country with at least $5 million in assets) so our middle class is smaller than what you typically see elsewhere.

Uh, if you want to be empirical about it, you are going to have to provide actual numbers because I do not actually believe that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities. I think that's just a self serving argument for people who want the public school system to cater to the needs of poor people and the whims of rich people and ignore everyone in between.

Do you even live here? DCPS makes no secret of the fact that it focuses on kids at the very bottom. A lot of families who aren't rich or poor find that very frustrating because they feel like the school system ignores their kids' needs.

Honestly, I could be on board with that approach if they were actually doing a good job at it. Instead, they just evoke that as a justification to do nothing at the Mayor/Chancellor/Council level. There are some specific schools (eg Moten) that buck the trend, but as a whole DC is not doing a good job at this ostensible focus.

It’s the smart and poor kids who get nothing. The UMC/MC parents of smart kids, who get shut down when they ask the school system for anything above the basics, will go private or get outside “enrichment.”

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy in DC today gets = typical middle class life of 30-40 years ago.

Nope, but many of us are aware this is what you tell yourself to justify calling yourself middle class when you are not.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people grew up being told they were middle class by their parents, who were also not middle class. Like maybe they were for a minute when their parents were really young, but these are people with white collar parents who bought real estate and invested in the stock market in the 80s and now have a lot of money. None of their family is middle class. But they cling to this self perception of being middle class because they remember eating TV dinners when they were 6 and their dad was still a resident, or their parents didn't have real money until they were 14 or 15 and vacations went from road trips to the jersey shore to multi-week European vacations. It's like a weird self-delusion.

Yes there are richer people and those people do NOT send their kids to DCPS. But this idea that you are middle class because you don't own a vacation home in Aspen is freaking weird. Some of you need some perspective.

There are relatively few middle class people in DC. We have a ton of rich people and a ton of poor people and not many in the middle. If you live West of the park, and don't live in a tiny apartment, you almost certainly are not middle class.

There are plenty of actual middle class people in DC. It's just that people struggle to look past race to see it.

Middle class black and hispanic families (there are tons) are viewed as poor by most white people. But they aren't. I know many such families with HHIs in probably the 90-150k range. Solidly middle class.

Middle class white families are often just assumed to be wealthier than they are, by other white families and by black and hispanic families. But they have similar incomes to the middle class black and hispanic families. I'd say on average the middle class white families probably have a little more money than the middle class black/hispanic families (maybe 130-190k). But, again, solidly middle class.

These are people who, like my family, live in apartments or less expensive housing in neighborhoods far from metro, or east of the river. Some of us were able to purchase real estate (condos or east of the river homes) before rates went up, so we are building wealth, but our homes are not appreciating the way the homes of wealthier people in the area, plus we are dealing with 30 yr mortgages and lower incomes so we pay a larger portion of our incomes to housing. We mostly have cars by necessity (a major difference between us and poor and working class families in DC, many of whom must rely on public transit even from neighborhoods that are poorly served). We take basic vacation, save for college but in a much more modest way than the rest of you, and MUST send our kids to public schools -- there is no other option.

We know we are often invisible to you at school. Either because you misperceive our socioeconomic status (again, assuming if we are black or brown then we must be poorer than we are, and assuming if we are white then we must be richer than we are) or because of that specific kind of situational blindness privileged people have where they only really "see" other privileged people because that is who you consider a peer and therefore the only sort of person you compare yourself to or view yourself in league with.

Ok, well, as an empirical matter, DC has a lot of people with very low incomes (one-fifth of the city get food stamps) and a lot of people with very high incomes (we have proportionately the most people in the country with at least $5 million in assets) so our middle class is smaller than what you typically see elsewhere.

Uh, if you want to be empirical about it, you are going to have to provide actual numbers because I do not actually believe that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities. I think that's just a self serving argument for people who want the public school system to cater to the needs of poor people and the whims of rich people and ignore everyone in between.

Check out the CFO reporting, the biggest tax paying group in terms of N is the second highest tax bracket. The vast majority of the density is over 100k

Folks, there is a difference between saying that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities, and saying there are NO middle class people in DC. Also public schools are like the prime place you're going to run into middle class families, because they cannot afford private. 20 years ago, MC people in DC could afford parochial schools, but that's not really true anymore unless you have special circumstances (living in an inherited home, for instance, or on a special parish scholarship).

If your kids are in DC public schools, a lot of the families there are middle class. True middle class, not fake DCUM middle class, but like families with HHIs over 90k but below 200k. If you don't think this is the case, you might want to look at your own biases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy in DC today gets = typical middle class life of 30-40 years ago.

Nope, but many of us are aware this is what you tell yourself to justify calling yourself middle class when you are not.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people grew up being told they were middle class by their parents, who were also not middle class. Like maybe they were for a minute when their parents were really young, but these are people with white collar parents who bought real estate and invested in the stock market in the 80s and now have a lot of money. None of their family is middle class. But they cling to this self perception of being middle class because they remember eating TV dinners when they were 6 and their dad was still a resident, or their parents didn't have real money until they were 14 or 15 and vacations went from road trips to the jersey shore to multi-week European vacations. It's like a weird self-delusion.

Yes there are richer people and those people do NOT send their kids to DCPS. But this idea that you are middle class because you don't own a vacation home in Aspen is freaking weird. Some of you need some perspective.

There are relatively few middle class people in DC. We have a ton of rich people and a ton of poor people and not many in the middle. If you live West of the park, and don't live in a tiny apartment, you almost certainly are not middle class.

There are plenty of actual middle class people in DC. It's just that people struggle to look past race to see it.

Middle class black and hispanic families (there are tons) are viewed as poor by most white people. But they aren't. I know many such families with HHIs in probably the 90-150k range. Solidly middle class.

Middle class white families are often just assumed to be wealthier than they are, by other white families and by black and hispanic families. But they have similar incomes to the middle class black and hispanic families. I'd say on average the middle class white families probably have a little more money than the middle class black/hispanic families (maybe 130-190k). But, again, solidly middle class.

These are people who, like my family, live in apartments or less expensive housing in neighborhoods far from metro, or east of the river. Some of us were able to purchase real estate (condos or east of the river homes) before rates went up, so we are building wealth, but our homes are not appreciating the way the homes of wealthier people in the area, plus we are dealing with 30 yr mortgages and lower incomes so we pay a larger portion of our incomes to housing. We mostly have cars by necessity (a major difference between us and poor and working class families in DC, many of whom must rely on public transit even from neighborhoods that are poorly served). We take basic vacation, save for college but in a much more modest way than the rest of you, and MUST send our kids to public schools -- there is no other option.

We know we are often invisible to you at school. Either because you misperceive our socioeconomic status (again, assuming if we are black or brown then we must be poorer than we are, and assuming if we are white then we must be richer than we are) or because of that specific kind of situational blindness privileged people have where they only really "see" other privileged people because that is who you consider a peer and therefore the only sort of person you compare yourself to or view yourself in league with.

Ok, well, as an empirical matter, DC has a lot of people with very low incomes (one-fifth of the city get food stamps) and a lot of people with very high incomes (we have proportionately the most people in the country with at least $5 million in assets) so our middle class is smaller than what you typically see elsewhere.

Uh, if you want to be empirical about it, you are going to have to provide actual numbers because I do not actually believe that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities. I think that's just a self serving argument for people who want the public school system to cater to the needs of poor people and the whims of rich people and ignore everyone in between.

Check out the CFO reporting, the biggest tax paying group in terms of N is the second highest tax bracket. The vast majority of the density is over 100k

Folks, there is a difference between saying that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities, and saying there are NO middle class people in DC. Also public schools are like the prime place you're going to run into middle class families, because they cannot afford private. 20 years ago, MC people in DC could afford parochial schools, but that's not really true anymore unless you have special circumstances (living in an inherited home, for instance, or on a special parish scholarship).

If your kids are in DC public schools, a lot of the families there are middle class. True middle class, not fake DCUM middle class, but like families with HHIs over 90k but below 200k. If you don't think this is the case, you might want to look at your own biases.

yeah, literally no one said there isn't a middle class. this conversation, before it went off the rails, stemmed from rich people pretending they are middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy in DC today gets = typical middle class life of 30-40 years ago.

Nope, but many of us are aware this is what you tell yourself to justify calling yourself middle class when you are not.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people grew up being told they were middle class by their parents, who were also not middle class. Like maybe they were for a minute when their parents were really young, but these are people with white collar parents who bought real estate and invested in the stock market in the 80s and now have a lot of money. None of their family is middle class. But they cling to this self perception of being middle class because they remember eating TV dinners when they were 6 and their dad was still a resident, or their parents didn't have real money until they were 14 or 15 and vacations went from road trips to the jersey shore to multi-week European vacations. It's like a weird self-delusion.

Yes there are richer people and those people do NOT send their kids to DCPS. But this idea that you are middle class because you don't own a vacation home in Aspen is freaking weird. Some of you need some perspective.

There are relatively few middle class people in DC. We have a ton of rich people and a ton of poor people and not many in the middle. If you live West of the park, and don't live in a tiny apartment, you almost certainly are not middle class.

There are plenty of actual middle class people in DC. It's just that people struggle to look past race to see it.

Middle class black and hispanic families (there are tons) are viewed as poor by most white people. But they aren't. I know many such families with HHIs in probably the 90-150k range. Solidly middle class.

Middle class white families are often just assumed to be wealthier than they are, by other white families and by black and hispanic families. But they have similar incomes to the middle class black and hispanic families. I'd say on average the middle class white families probably have a little more money than the middle class black/hispanic families (maybe 130-190k). But, again, solidly middle class.

These are people who, like my family, live in apartments or less expensive housing in neighborhoods far from metro, or east of the river. Some of us were able to purchase real estate (condos or east of the river homes) before rates went up, so we are building wealth, but our homes are not appreciating the way the homes of wealthier people in the area, plus we are dealing with 30 yr mortgages and lower incomes so we pay a larger portion of our incomes to housing. We mostly have cars by necessity (a major difference between us and poor and working class families in DC, many of whom must rely on public transit even from neighborhoods that are poorly served). We take basic vacation, save for college but in a much more modest way than the rest of you, and MUST send our kids to public schools -- there is no other option.

We know we are often invisible to you at school. Either because you misperceive our socioeconomic status (again, assuming if we are black or brown then we must be poorer than we are, and assuming if we are white then we must be richer than we are) or because of that specific kind of situational blindness privileged people have where they only really "see" other privileged people because that is who you consider a peer and therefore the only sort of person you compare yourself to or view yourself in league with.

Ok, well, as an empirical matter, DC has a lot of people with very low incomes (one-fifth of the city get food stamps) and a lot of people with very high incomes (we have proportionately the most people in the country with at least $5 million in assets) so our middle class is smaller than what you typically see elsewhere.

Uh, if you want to be empirical about it, you are going to have to provide actual numbers because I do not actually believe that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities. I think that's just a self serving argument for people who want the public school system to cater to the needs of poor people and the whims of rich people and ignore everyone in between.

Check out the CFO reporting, the biggest tax paying group in terms of N is the second highest tax bracket. The vast majority of the density is over 100k

Folks, there is a difference between saying that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities, and saying there are NO middle class people in DC. Also public schools are like the prime place you're going to run into middle class families, because they cannot afford private. 20 years ago, MC people in DC could afford parochial schools, but that's not really true anymore unless you have special circumstances (living in an inherited home, for instance, or on a special parish scholarship).

If your kids are in DC public schools, a lot of the families there are middle class. True middle class, not fake DCUM middle class, but like families with HHIs over 90k but below 200k. If you don't think this is the case, you might want to look at your own biases.

For DC proper, the middle class number economists use actually caps out around $180 (though it’s as high as $250 in Arlington). That said, there are actually not a lot of families at our Ward 6 elementary school in the $90K to $200 bracket. There are some families who have landed there recently because of RIFs, but actually I think there may be more at risk families than $90K-$180K families, because we have very few families with only one parent working, our school is majority IB and the IB median income is well above $200K and that includes recent college grads, retired people, etc. Of the ES kid having age group, it looks like the family median income is around $300K.

[Anonymous]

there are a lot of people in dc who work for the government, non-profit sector, or less than full-time (contracts/gigs). these are not all especially high paying jobs. not everyone is a 2 parent family either. unless you purchased your home years ago, 100-200k does not leave a lot leftover after housing expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy in DC today gets = typical middle class life of 30-40 years ago.

Nope, but many of us are aware this is what you tell yourself to justify calling yourself middle class when you are not.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people grew up being told they were middle class by their parents, who were also not middle class. Like maybe they were for a minute when their parents were really young, but these are people with white collar parents who bought real estate and invested in the stock market in the 80s and now have a lot of money. None of their family is middle class. But they cling to this self perception of being middle class because they remember eating TV dinners when they were 6 and their dad was still a resident, or their parents didn't have real money until they were 14 or 15 and vacations went from road trips to the jersey shore to multi-week European vacations. It's like a weird self-delusion.

Yes there are richer people and those people do NOT send their kids to DCPS. But this idea that you are middle class because you don't own a vacation home in Aspen is freaking weird. Some of you need some perspective.

There are relatively few middle class people in DC. We have a ton of rich people and a ton of poor people and not many in the middle. If you live West of the park, and don't live in a tiny apartment, you almost certainly are not middle class.

There are plenty of actual middle class people in DC. It's just that people struggle to look past race to see it.

Middle class black and hispanic families (there are tons) are viewed as poor by most white people. But they aren't. I know many such families with HHIs in probably the 90-150k range. Solidly middle class.

Middle class white families are often just assumed to be wealthier than they are, by other white families and by black and hispanic families. But they have similar incomes to the middle class black and hispanic families. I'd say on average the middle class white families probably have a little more money than the middle class black/hispanic families (maybe 130-190k). But, again, solidly middle class.

These are people who, like my family, live in apartments or less expensive housing in neighborhoods far from metro, or east of the river. Some of us were able to purchase real estate (condos or east of the river homes) before rates went up, so we are building wealth, but our homes are not appreciating the way the homes of wealthier people in the area, plus we are dealing with 30 yr mortgages and lower incomes so we pay a larger portion of our incomes to housing. We mostly have cars by necessity (a major difference between us and poor and working class families in DC, many of whom must rely on public transit even from neighborhoods that are poorly served). We take basic vacation, save for college but in a much more modest way than the rest of you, and MUST send our kids to public schools -- there is no other option.

We know we are often invisible to you at school. Either because you misperceive our socioeconomic status (again, assuming if we are black or brown then we must be poorer than we are, and assuming if we are white then we must be richer than we are) or because of that specific kind of situational blindness privileged people have where they only really "see" other privileged people because that is who you consider a peer and therefore the only sort of person you compare yourself to or view yourself in league with.

Ok, well, as an empirical matter, DC has a lot of people with very low incomes (one-fifth of the city get food stamps) and a lot of people with very high incomes (we have proportionately the most people in the country with at least $5 million in assets) so our middle class is smaller than what you typically see elsewhere.

Uh, if you want to be empirical about it, you are going to have to provide actual numbers because I do not actually believe that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities. I think that's just a self serving argument for people who want the public school system to cater to the needs of poor people and the whims of rich people and ignore everyone in between.

Check out the CFO reporting, the biggest tax paying group in terms of N is the second highest tax bracket. The vast majority of the density is over 100k

Folks, there is a difference between saying that DC has a smaller middle class than other cities, and saying there are NO middle class people in DC. Also public schools are like the prime place you're going to run into middle class families, because they cannot afford private. 20 years ago, MC people in DC could afford parochial schools, but that's not really true anymore unless you have special circumstances (living in an inherited home, for instance, or on a special parish scholarship).

If your kids are in DC public schools, a lot of the families there are middle class. True middle class, not fake DCUM middle class, but like families with HHIs over 90k but below 200k. If you don't think this is the case, you might want to look at your own biases.

For DC proper, the middle class number economists use actually caps out around $180 (though it’s as high as $250 in Arlington). That said, there are actually not a lot of families at our Ward 6 elementary school in the $90K to $200 bracket. There are some families who have landed there recently because of RIFs, but actually I think there may be more at risk families than $90K-$180K families, because we have very few families with only one parent working, our school is majority IB and the IB median income is well above $200K and that includes recent college grads, retired people, etc. Of the ES kid having age group, it looks like the family median income is around $300K.

My family is at a Ward 6 elementary. We have an HHI of 160k. We are white. We know a number of families at the school, both white and black, who we know to be at a similar income level because we know them well enough to know what they do and their general finances, which are similar to ours. Our school is majority IB but there are still 30-40% of families who are OOB (we are one of them). We don't live that far away, but we live in a school boundary with lower median HHI, in part because our IB school is not very well regarded. Lots of people from our boundary have lotteried into our school, which I know because they are my neighbors. We also know many people at the school from other less expensive neighborhoods around the Hill, including families who lotteried in from across the river.

"It looks like" the family median income is around 300k? Think hard about the assumptions you are making when you assert this.

You are just proving the point that the wealthy people in DCPS simply do not see the middle class people at their schools, and assume they are all either poor or rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there are a lot of people in dc who work for the government, non-profit sector, or less than full-time (contracts/gigs). these are not all especially high paying jobs. not everyone is a 2 parent family either. unless you purchased your home years ago, 100-200k does not leave a lot leftover after housing expenses.

This. Lots of feds in jobs paying like 80 or 90k. Also people who work for the city. Lots of single parent households, too, or household where one person makes 100-150k and the other person works part time or contract because when they had kids, their income was less than daycare costs (but they had too much money to qualify for subsidized programs). So you might have one income at 140k and the other person making 30k working PT to make their childcare situation work out. Maybe once the kids are old enough, that person can go FT and the family will finally get up over 200k, but just barely.

One thing I am learning from this thread is how many public school families in DC are apparently totally oblivious to how other people live. I am hoping a lot of these posts are from people in upper NW where I do think the schools are mostly UMC people with few middle class families, because it's so hard to lottery into those schools and it's expensive to live there. But in the rest of the city, there are lots of middle class families in publics. We live in Ward 5 and this describes most people we know. We're all employed with steady income, we can afford things like a car and activities for kids. A lot of us live in apartments or in houses inherited from family that we could never actually afford to buy.

This thread is definitely making me feel invisible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there are a lot of people in dc who work for the government, non-profit sector, or less than full-time (contracts/gigs). these are not all especially high paying jobs. not everyone is a 2 parent family either. unless you purchased your home years ago, 100-200k does not leave a lot leftover after housing expenses.

This. Lots of feds in jobs paying like 80 or 90k. Also people who work for the city. Lots of single parent households, too, or household where one person makes 100-150k and the other person works part time or contract because when they had kids, their income was less than daycare costs (but they had too much money to qualify for subsidized programs). So you might have one income at 140k and the other person making 30k working PT to make their childcare situation work out. Maybe once the kids are old enough, that person can go FT and the family will finally get up over 200k, but just barely.

One thing I am learning from this thread is how many public school families in DC are apparently totally oblivious to how other people live. I am hoping a lot of these posts are from people in upper NW where I do think the schools are mostly UMC people with few middle class families, because it's so hard to lottery into those schools and it's expensive to live there. But in the rest of the city, there are lots of middle class families in publics. We live in Ward 5 and this describes most people we know. We're all employed with steady income, we can afford things like a car and activities for kids. A lot of us live in apartments or in houses inherited from family that we could never actually afford to buy.

This thread is definitely making me feel invisible.

There are lot of middle class families of the type you describe in public school in upper NW too.

[Anonymous]

You inherited a house? Nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there are a lot of people in dc who work for the government, non-profit sector, or less than full-time (contracts/gigs). these are not all especially high paying jobs. not everyone is a 2 parent family either. unless you purchased your home years ago, 100-200k does not leave a lot leftover after housing expenses.

The median home ownership tenure in DC is 13.3 years, so yes, lots of people bought years ago. In my immediate neighborhood, where SFHs are all over $1mil, we were the last on our block to purchase, and that was 25 years ago at 1/3 of the current tax assessed value. Many people's income does not match the assessed value of their homes, but they have a lot of home equity to retire on.

[Anonymous]

OSSE used to do more cross-tabulation of student metrics. Using the metric that includes the most students (90% attendance) in the most recent year I could find (2018) and using metric percentages and totals to back out total population numbers, breakdown of at-risk among racial groups was follows:

White 4% at-risk
Asian 12%
Two or more races 23%
Hispanic/Latino 34%
Black/African-American 65%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there are a lot of people in dc who work for the government, non-profit sector, or less than full-time (contracts/gigs). these are not all especially high paying jobs. not everyone is a 2 parent family either. unless you purchased your home years ago, 100-200k does not leave a lot leftover after housing expenses.

The median home ownership tenure in DC is 13.3 years, so yes, lots of people bought years ago. In my immediate neighborhood, where SFHs are all over $1mil, we were the last on our block to purchase, and that was 25 years ago at 1/3 of the current tax assessed value. Many people's income does not match the assessed value of their homes, but they have a lot of home equity to retire on.

Most people in that situation will not sell their homes to retire on the proceeds because it doesn't make sense. You'd have to move well outside this area in order to realize any gains, because you still need a place to live and this entire area has expensive housing. That means leaving family and established community.

Most people in the situation you describe will retire in their homes (hopefully paid off) and hope that retirement savings plus social security buys them an okay life. The house doesn't get sold until they are forced to leave either to go into Medicaid-paid assisted living (which will be a downgrade and they will avoid as long as possible) or they die.

The. house becomes a windfall to the next generation. It will not substantially improve quality of life for the parents.