DC privates educating suburban kids

[Anonymous]

I'm going to take by $10k college tuition windfall and keep quiet. I suggest other DC residents do the same.

I was under the impression that was phased out...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely agree with pp. We wanted our kid to go to Visitation. But no, all of the suburban girls had to prove how "cool" they were by going to school in "G'town". I thought the Catholics should behave better...guess not...given the priest scandal and lack of women leaders.
DC people don't have a choice with the publics...people in MD and VA have good choices.

My kid was just as smart or smarter than any other kid...at an Ivy now. Every time I see those cars driving into the city schools from MD and VA -- it really irks me.

Good heavens...haven't you posted on this in the past? Your kid is in college now...let it go!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm going to take by $10k college tuition windfall and keep quiet. I suggest other DC residents do the same.

I was under the impression that was phased out...

There was some discussion of means-testing it, but I'm not sure it ever happened. Anyone know?

[Anonymous]

according to DC.gov, limited to applicants whose Federal Adjusted Gross Income does not exceed $1 million annually.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps the suburbs should do the same thing with its private institutions. From now on, all those fancy country clubs in Maryland will give preference or lower dues to Maryland residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps the suburbs should do the same thing with its private institutions. From now on, all those fancy country clubs in Maryland will give preference or lower dues to Maryland residents.

Wait. You guys give tax-exempt status to fancy private golf clubs? Suckers...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools are businesses are should not be held to any standard like that, OP. Ridiculous.

- DC Resident.

Actually, they are required to serve the public good under their tax exemption unlike a for-profit business. As a neighbor of several of them, I can tell you that I would look upon them quite differently if our child was not accepted and I would be inclined to oppose all construction projects they wish to undertake, etc. in the future. They definitely understand that they need to keep their neighbors happy, so they actually do accept the very local kids on a preferred basis. But if you live out of the immediate neighborhood, they don't care where you live.

You are exhibit A of these neighbors who buy homes near private schools and then extort things (like admissions for their kids) in return for not harassing the schools over construction or other issues. Unbelievably selfish. You live in a major Metropolitan community, not a gated community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm going to take by $10k college tuition windfall and keep quiet. I suggest other DC residents do the same.

I was under the impression that was phased out...

It has not been phased out. My cousin will be a freshman at a state school this fall and will be getting the break in tuition. She will be graduating from a VA private in a few weeks.

[Anonymous]

This is silly. If you had your wish, some of the more competitive privates (i.e. Sidwell, NCS/STA, GDS, Maret) would actually become LESS competitive and lose prestige/standing, if they had to reserve the majority of their spots just for D.C. residents. They would have far fewer applicants to choose from and arguably have to lessen their standards to fill their classes. They would have fewer top students, less socioeconomic diversity and their national rankings would decline. The fact that they draw students from DC, MD and VA makes those schools all the more interesting and all the more competitive.

I know this topic has been brought up before, but this is just one thing that continues to irk me. Don’t DC privates have some responsibility to the city and its residents especially since most (if not all) are tax exempt entities. I remember Anthony Williams wasn’t too happy about this, and now I can totally see his point. Why isn’t there a tier system that will allow for qualified city children to get in first before taking in suburban kids (I’d feel better about this if we had a commuter tax but that is a different issue all together). This about scarce resources being given to people who don’t even live here. Don’t get me wrong, most of the kids and families are great but I’m tired of seeing qualified DC children losing out on their first or second choice schools that seem to be filled with suburban kids that come from areas with already good public schools. That’s not fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I posted before, private schools should give DC residents either a break in tuition, a preference in application, or a combination of both. we all know they don't HAVE to. Its more of a question of what they Should Do.

Personally, I think private schools should have to publish a list of how many DC residents BY Ward they enroll in order to keep their tax exempt status. What public good are they achieving in DC by educating MD and VA youth.

Oh, puleeze. It's thoughts like this that keep DC from having full voting rights. You think that the city government should get to pick and choose tax exempt status based on their subjective assessment of the relative good that a school is providing to the city? All that would lead to is private schools admitting a bunch of offspring of Mayor Fenty's fraternity brothers (even though their parents could afford tuition anywhere, based on the lucrative city contracts the mayor swings their way). Whether a group is tax exempt should not be subject to political whims. Grow up, and in few years, we'll reconsider giving you more of a voting responsibility.

Really? I was unaware voting rights were contingent upon prudently exercising them.

[Anonymous]

Yes and we don't need some suburban nanny pants to give us "her blessing" to vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I posted before, private schools should give DC residents either a break in tuition, a preference in application, or a combination of both. we all know they don't HAVE to. Its more of a question of what they Should Do.

Personally, I think private schools should have to publish a list of how many DC residents BY Ward they enroll in order to keep their tax exempt status. What public good are they achieving in DC by educating MD and VA youth.

Oh, puleeze. It's thoughts like this that keep DC from having full voting rights. You think that the city government should get to pick and choose tax exempt status based on their subjective assessment of the relative good that a school is providing to the city? All that would lead to is private schools admitting a bunch of offspring of Mayor Fenty's fraternity brothers (even though their parents could afford tuition anywhere, based on the lucrative city contracts the mayor swings their way). Whether a group is tax exempt should not be subject to political whims. Grow up, and in few years, we'll reconsider giving you more of a voting responsibility.

Really? I was unaware voting rights were contingent upon prudently exercising them.

Someone call in the Teabaggers! I'm sure they'll want to know about this egregious breech of our fundamental rights! What's that? They heard there were some black folk living in DC, so they're not coming?!?

V. disappointing...

[Anonymous]

oh my, I thought OP was joking. I mean of all the things to be resentful over. I'm a multi-generational Washingtonian (yeah, I grew up here and so did my great-grandparents and everyone in between) and find it laughable that we should get some sort of edge here. Come on. Give us voting rights and a good commuter tax but we really shouldn't feel entitled to a spot at STA.

[Anonymous]

I always thought people moved to the burbs to avoid people of different colors and to get free public school spots. Why do they need to move way out there and pollute the environment by driving their kids back into the city? Stay at your own publics/privates out in the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Awwww...I think it's so sweet that you're so concerned about "fairness" for D.C. residents. Since you're so interested in "fairness" and preserving "scarce resources", I'm assuming that you also want private schools to reflect the demographics in the D.C. area (i.e. reserve 56% of spots for D.C. Blacks, 33% for D.C. Whites and 8.3% for D.C. Hispanics--in order to be comparable to the city's racial make up). I mean, you wouldn't possibly want to reserve all of those D.C. spots for privileged people in Georgetown and Upper Northwest now, would you?

Anonymous wrote: I know this topic has been brought up before, but this is just one thing that continues to irk me. Don’t DC privates have some responsibility to the city and its residents especially since most (if not all) are tax exempt entities. I remember Anthony Williams wasn’t too happy about this, and now I can totally see his point. Why isn’t there a tier system that will allow for qualified city children to get in first before taking in suburban kids (I’d feel better about this if we had a commuter tax but that is a different issue all together). This about scarce resources being given to people who don’t even live here. Don’t get me wrong, most of the kids and families are great but I’m tired of seeing qualified DC children losing out on their first or second choice schools that seem to be filled with suburban kids that come from areas with already good public schools. That’s not fair.