Charter School Impact on Public & Private School Enrollments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me there's a serious battle afoot. The privates, parochials and public schools all have their crosshairs on charters, because they see their students (and therefore, their funding) going over to charters in ever increasing numbers. That would certainly explain the vitriol and FUD campaign of vague, nonspecific and irrelevant accusations about Latin, BASIS and the others.

Dc has been at Private for 6 years. I am one of only a handful of parents at DC's school who live in a ward other than ward 3. 90% of parents at Sidwell, Maret,STA,NCS,GDS et al are from ward 3( Foxhall,Wesley Hghts,Chevy Chase,Spring Valley) NOVA or MOCO, so Charter Schools are not even on their radar. I don't thnk these privates " have the charters in their cross hairs". Though all of these parents would say that their child attends private for the academics, and the "community" or moral compass , small class size etc... guess what: their local public school down the street is great and free and they don't send their kid there. This is not about the classroom.

I think Basis has a great concept, but it will only appeal to those already looking at Charters and that is only a handful of familes at any big private. Certainly not enough for anyone to get paranoid about suspicious neg PR.

Few in the richest parts of Ward 3 and Ward 2 care about charters or education outside of the neighborhood school (that drives real-estate values a bit) and where they are paying tuition unless they are political or policy oriented for work or as a hobby. If you added all of these people up, you would have fewer than two thousand.

I think total enrollment at Sidwell is 1200, same at GDS, WIS might be a bit smaller, Beauvoir , NCS,STA added together is about 2000, Maret about 500, so not a huge group of people, but more than 2,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting analysis. Thank you to whoever posted this and to the Cato institute for sponsoring this research and posting it here.

In my familiy's own case, the analysis definitely rings true. Had my child not gotten into Yu Ying, we would have considered Washington International School, but likely rejected it over its tuition (around $30,000/year). We probably would have settled on a privately run Chinese program on Saturdays or Sundays, in addition to public school.

I'm all for giving parents more "choice" in education. I recognize there are different ways of doing this - school vouchers and charter schools being two methods.

I am stunned that anyone from Cato reads this blog.

I must agree. Cato himself would abhor this blog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me there's a serious battle afoot. The privates, parochials and public schools all have their crosshairs on charters, because they see their students (and therefore, their funding) going over to charters in ever increasing numbers. That would certainly explain the vitriol and FUD campaign of vague, nonspecific and irrelevant accusations about Latin, BASIS and the others.

Dc has been at Private for 6 years. I am one of only a handful of parents at DC's school who live in a ward other than ward 3. 90% of parents at Sidwell, Maret,STA,NCS,GDS et al are from ward 3( Foxhall,Wesley Hghts,Chevy Chase,Spring Valley) NOVA or MOCO, so Charter Schools are not even on their radar. I don't thnk these privates " have the charters in their cross hairs". Though all of these parents would say that their child attends private for the academics, and the "community" or moral compass , small class size etc... guess what: their local public school down the street is great and free and they don't send their kid there. This is not about the classroom.

I think Basis has a great concept, but it will only appeal to those already looking at Charters and that is only a handful of familes at any big private. Certainly not enough for anyone to get paranoid about suspicious neg PR.

Few in the richest parts of Ward 3 and Ward 2 care about charters or education outside of the neighborhood school (that drives real-estate values a bit) and where they are paying tuition unless they are political or policy oriented for work or as a hobby. If you added all of these people up, you would have fewer than two thousand.

I think total enrollment at Sidwell is 1200, same at GDS, WIS might be a bit smaller, Beauvoir , NCS,STA added together is about 2000, Maret about 500, so not a huge group of people, but more than 2,000.

Those are the very people the previous poster set aside. The balance in the richest parts of Wards 2 and 3 who care at all for education outside of their own circumstance are said to number fewer than 2k. Could be around 200, actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me there's a serious battle afoot. The privates, parochials and public schools all have their crosshairs on charters, because they see their students (and therefore, their funding) going over to charters in ever increasing numbers. That would certainly explain the vitriol and FUD campaign of vague, nonspecific and irrelevant accusations about Latin, BASIS and the others.

Dc has been at Private for 6 years. I am one of only a handful of parents at DC's school who live in a ward other than ward 3. 90% of parents at Sidwell, Maret,STA,NCS,GDS et al are from ward 3( Foxhall,Wesley Hghts,Chevy Chase,Spring Valley) NOVA or MOCO, so Charter Schools are not even on their radar. I don't thnk these privates " have the charters in their cross hairs". Though all of these parents would say that their child attends private for the academics, and the "community" or moral compass , small class size etc... guess what: their local public school down the street is great and free and they don't send their kid there. This is not about the classroom.

I think Basis has a great concept, but it will only appeal to those already looking at Charters and that is only a handful of familes at any big private. Certainly not enough for anyone to get paranoid about suspicious neg PR.

Few in the richest parts of Ward 3 and Ward 2 care about charters or education outside of the neighborhood school (that drives real-estate values a bit) and where they are paying tuition unless they are political or policy oriented for work or as a hobby. If you added all of these people up, you would have fewer than two thousand.

I don't know what you meant by "few", PP, but I have had many conversations with ward 3 neighbors who are interested in charters such as Latin and BASIS. While we are all IB for great ESs, many of us are IB for Hardy MS, and Hardy is not an acceptable option for us. Even those who are IB for Deal have concerns about MS. This situation leaves us with few options. Move out of DC, deplete our life savings sending (multiple) children to privates starting in 6th, or give charters like Latin and BASIS a try. I see more and more families choosing the third option. Of course, the third option becomes more attractive as more families make this choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me there's a serious battle afoot. The privates, parochials and public schools all have their crosshairs on charters, because they see their students (and therefore, their funding) going over to charters in ever increasing numbers. That would certainly explain the vitriol and FUD campaign of vague, nonspecific and irrelevant accusations about Latin, BASIS and the others.

This is silly, at least on the private school front. My children are at one of those always-talked-about private schools but we considered switching them to charter school recently for financial reasons. We were pretty open about it with families from school since everyone knew about our job situation at the time, and not one of the families we talked to had even heard of our lottery-pick charter schools, despite tons of press coverage and endless discussions on DCUM. I'm not saying that the charters aren't worth serious consideration, but the private school world is not even paying attention for the most part. I think the exceptions would be some of the less popular religious-based schools or the tiniest independent schools, but most of the latter are in the suburbs anyway. The notion that Sidwell, Georgetown Day, WIS, and the Cathedral schools will lose potential students to charter schools is nonsense. In fact, our children's school (again, rightly or wrongly) has people practically running each other over in an attempt to get in. There's no shortage of rich people in DC.

They lost my kids. We value living in a more urban/mixed use area of the city and as a result our neighborhood public school is not an option. If we had not gotten into a well-regarded charter we would have gone private. In fact, our social circle is almost entirely made up of families that can easily afford private school and are (for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to valuing racial and SES diversity in our children's schools and ease of commute) choosing charters instead.

It is one thing to be able to say that" we have the money to afford private" and another thing to be admitted, have the money and choose not to go or, as this thread postulates: private school parents pulling their kids out of private and going charter. It is like saying that, well, I got into Harvard, Princeton and Yale, but I chose to go to the University of Maryland because, " I wanted more SES diversity" . It doesn't happen.

BTW, lot's of diversity in private schools in Washington; rich people of every color, nationality, political and sexuality persuasion.

This thread does not postulate only pulling a chld out of private for charter. This thread discusses competition, which also occurs when you are deciding where to send your child initially and where you will lottery/apply. Charters and public schools are actively competing for the "business" of students who live in areas of DC where a few years ago private was the only option. Yes, there are always people who are going to choose an expensive private for their own reasons, just like there are always going to be parents who choose a religious school for their own reasons. But what I think we are seeing now and will continue to see in DC are legions of families who can afford private school and would have gone private but now see certain charters as a valid option.

[Anonymous]

Read the March forums when decision letters come out form Private schools. Being able to afford private school does not always or even usually translate into "going private" As in, oh, we make 1.5 million a year, so we have decided DC will go to Sidwell next year, NOT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read the March forums when decision letters come out form Private schools. Being able to afford private school does not always or even usually translate into "going private" As in, oh, we make 1.5 million a year, so we have decided DC will go to Sidwell next year, NOT.

How many kids in the DC area do you think, PP, have families that make $1.5 million per year but end up in a charter school because they can't get into any private school? Not all private schools are as competitive as Sidwell.

I don't know of a single family at BASIS or Latin that is there because, despite their best efforts and ample wealth, their kids could not get into a private school. Of course, I don't know them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the March forums when decision letters come out form Private schools. Being able to afford private school does not always or even usually translate into "going private" As in, oh, we make 1.5 million a year, so we have decided DC will go to Sidwell next year, NOT.

How many kids in the DC area do you think, PP, have families that make $1.5 million per year but end up in a charter school because they can't get into any private school? Not all private schools are as competitive as Sidwell.

I don't know of a single family at BASIS or Latin that is there because, despite their best efforts and ample wealth, their kids could not get into a private school. Of course, I don't know them all.

I think you would agree with me if you read my whole post, instead of disecting part of it out to rebut. My point is same as yours. I was responding to a poster who said, that she knew many high SES people who " could choose to go private, but sent their DC to a charter instead. When I have heard this discussed people said, " we are applying to such as such... these are peole who could pay full tuition and fund a new athletci field or library. They did not say, " we are going private" . They land somewhere, and yes it will be some private and , no, it will not be a Charter school in Ward 1.

[Anonymous]

I'm not at the school every morning but I've seen at least one kid get dropped off at BASIS by limo, and I do know of several parents there who can definitely afford privates, but who chose not to go private.

[Anonymous]

We applied to two schools for preK for DS, a private school that was recommended by a college classmate of DH's who is on their board and Yu Ying b/c we really wanted DC to learn Chinese. We're not Chinese. Child was accepted at both, the charter off the waitlist. Thanks DCUM for how they number their waitlist! DC goes to Yu Ying. Easy choice and very happy there and will certainly consider staying there (DCI) until high school. For high school, DC will go to boarding school - family tradition and then to the same Ivy as his dad, grandfather, great grand...

[Anonymous]

Assuming they get into Ivy...or are you saying that your child does not need to compete, it's a done deal? Must be nice to know your child is going to an IVY, not based on intelligence, work ethic, test scores, etc. Must be nice to live in your world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming they get into Ivy...or are you saying that your child does not need to compete, it's a done deal? Must be nice to know your child is going to an IVY, not based on intelligence, work ethic, test scores, etc. Must be nice to live in your world.

^^. At least at the Ivy (I attended one), your kid will have Chinese and Chinese-American classmates. Mine attends YY with white and black kids, not kids who speak Chinese at home. There doesn't seem to be one in his entire grade. See the posts about the 2% bilingual-at-YY issue? Whoops, that makes me a basher/troll/hater. Forget that charters are gearted to low-SES AA kids and you're missing a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming they get into Ivy...or are you saying that your child does not need to compete, it's a done deal? Must be nice to know your child is going to an IVY, not based on intelligence, work ethic, test scores, etc. Must be nice to live in your world.

He's a legacy which means he'll get preference. The legacy admit rate at the Ivy he'll apply to is 1:3 not 1:10 as for general admissions. Does not mean he won't have to work. FYI, grades and SATs for admitted legacies are higher than admitted non-legacies at our Ivy so it's not a cakewalk even for legacies. We are also big donors (7 figures) which can't hurt.

So back on topic. Yes, we chose a public charter for our child instead of private school. Both DH and I attended private schools from K-12, college, grad schools. So it depends on what the public school offers. We love the diversity and inclusiveness as well as the immersion at Yu Ying. Our child is very happy there.

[Anonymous]

George W. Bush went to an Ivy as a legacy. Things like that pretty much knock the Ivies from their vaunted pedestals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We applied to two schools for preK for DS, a private school that was recommended by a college classmate of DH's who is on their board and Yu Ying b/c we really wanted DC to learn Chinese. We're not Chinese. Child was accepted at both, the charter off the waitlist. Thanks DCUM for how they number their waitlist! DC goes to Yu Ying. Easy choice and very happy there and will certainly consider staying there (DCI) until high school. For high school, DC will go to boarding school - family tradition and then to the same Ivy as his dad, grandfather, great grand...

This does not seem real.

Which boarding school?