Fenty's Sons to Attend DC Public School

[jsteele]

The Washington Post is reporting that Mayor Fenty again said that his twin sons will begin attending DC public schools when they finish their current school. This means that they should start attending DCPS next fall.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2009/02/fenty_reiterates_pledge_my_kid.html

The boys' current school goes up to 3rd grade, their current grade. Fenty is in-bounds for West Elementary. I wonder if the family is entering any out-of-bounds lotteries or charter school lotteries? Could they being heading to Oyster to like the Rhee and Reinoso children? Will this become the next DCUM obsession?

[Anonymous]

I doubt it--the crazy obsessers are mostly to be found on the private schools thread...

[Anonymous]

I don't see why Fenty has to disrupt his children's education by switching schools, just to assuage all that political hoopla. Obama's kids are in private school. Nobody is throwing stones at the white house about it. Fenty should do what he thinks is best for his kids and not what looks best politically.

[Anonymous]

I don't see why Fenty has to disrupt his children's education by switching schools

Your reading comprehension is really top-notch.

anyhoo -- I have a musing about Oyster, and DC officials who decide relatively late in the Oyster process (say, 4th grade vs. K) that they want their children to go there.

I've seen that Oyster's classes are large, or as someone on another thread put it, Oyster can be a victim of its own popularity. With classes of 26+, etc.

Doesn't it stretch those teacher resources even more when people like Rhee, Reinoso, maybe Fenty, and who knows how many incoming Obama officials push their kids into the Oyster classrooms (and circumvent the enrollment process, which presumably sat the correct # of kids in the first place)?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see why Fenty has to disrupt his children's education by switching schools, just to assuage all that political hoopla. Obama's kids are in private school. Nobody is throwing stones at the white house about it. Fenty should do what he thinks is best for his kids and not what looks best politically.

The school which Fenty's kids attend only goes up to the third grade. Unless that school adds additional grades, the boys have to go to a new school regardless.

Fenty is in a different situation than Obama. First, Fenty repeatedly said that his kids would attend public school. To that extent, he is the one who made it a political issue. He could have easily said that his children's schooling was a personal mater. Moreover, Fenty seized control of the school system and has made remaking it a cornerstone of his administration. Many suspect that he does not truly support public education and favors its replacement by commercialized schools (such as that in which Rhee once taught). His failure to have his own kids attend public schools raises further questions about his commitment to public schools.

It's interesting that Fenty almost always answers the school question by saying that his kids will go to public school when they finish their current school. Since the school should end this year, why doesn't he say "they will go to public school next fall"? I wouldn't be surprised if the current school did add a grade.

[Anonymous]

I just disagree with using his children's education as part of political posturing. You can be committed to something, without dragging your children into the cause.

[Anonymous]

My take, as was my take last year when the current school added 3d grade, is that the school will add 4th grade next year. There are only about 30 students total at the school, so it shouldn't be too hard to add a grade.

If Fenty HIMSELF hadn't made where his kids go to school such a prominent issue, I wouldn't care... but HE did. Just more empty words from Fenty. If he expects MY kids to go to his DCPS, I expect the same from him.

[Anonymous]

To say that it is a 'personal decision' is a slightly specious argument. Fenty, by definition, is a public servant. Moreover, he belongs to a class of public servants (DC's political overclass) who create public policy that we, the people, live by. In overwhelmingly Democrat DC, these policy makers usually support public schools exclusive to charter, private and voucher options. When Fenty does not live according to the public policy he has a hand in creating, it is a personal decision. It is also hypocrisy. When you add in all his cohorts in policy making skirting public schools while extolling them for everyone else's child, it becomes simply immoral.

I have zero issues with public policy makers who break with lockstep public school support choosing to send their children to private school. I wish President Obama had sent his children to public school; however, he has come out in support of charters so I feel he has met the public halfway. He is not denying choice to people who do not have as many options as he and his wife have.

[Anonymous]

My DS attends school with Mayor Fenty's sons. The school is definitely not adding a grade next year. It is a very small private school and somewhat offers protection to his sons and his family. As he does seem committed to his sons entering DCPS next year, I hope the media - and the public - quite frankly -allow his sons to have some of the sense of normalcy that they now have at their current school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS attends school with Mayor Fenty's sons. The school is definitely not adding a grade next year. It is a very small private school and somewhat offers protection to his sons and his family. As he does seem committed to his sons entering DCPS next year, I hope the media - and the public - quite frankly -allow his sons to have some of the sense of normalcy that they now have at their current school.

I am curious about what Fenty's kids need to be protected from?

[Anonymous]

do fenty's children have any developmental issues? does the school that they currently attend have special programs for children with issies/disabilities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:. . . In overwhelmingly Democrat DC . . .

Democratic. It's an adjective, not a political football. Using the noun form where the adjective is called for just makes you sound like a moron and a partisan hack. From the rest of your thoughtful and well-written post, you're obviously not a moron. Really, do yourself a favor and drop that particular Limbaugh affectation for proper English -- 90% of this city will take you more seriously and the Fox News crowd will still know what you mean. [/rant]

[Anonymous]

Rhee's girls are in-boundary for Oyster. Totally above board. Reinoso's pre-k acceptance was supposedly off the Spanish-dominant lottery for non-siblings. Wow. What were the odds on that? Anyway...

Imagine if Fenty's got 2, English-dominant kids into Oyster if there's a lottery for 4th grade? There will be pitchforks on Conn Ave if they got some type of preference for 2 slots.

Personally, I don't care where they go in DCPS or charter so long as they have to go through the democratic (?) process like the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

What is the school that they curretnly attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. . . In overwhelmingly Democrat DC . . .

Democratic. It's an adjective, not a political football. Using the noun form where the adjective is called for just makes you sound like a moron and a partisan hack. From the rest of your thoughtful and well-written post, you're obviously not a moron. Really, do yourself a favor and drop that particular Limbaugh affectation for proper English -- 90% of this city will take you more seriously and the Fox News crowd will still know what you mean. [/rant]

Ugh. Yes, that was indeed a rant.

(And I'm an INDEPENDENT - the most politically disenfranchised voters in America - in DC.)