Please don't just take a spot at a charter school because you want free care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why should I have to "be involved" in some crappy school I'm forced to go to because I didn't win the lottery to get my kid into a "top tier" charter? My kids deserve a great school, but I'm not an educator or a school administrator. I chose a different career. It's my right to complain if I don't like the school, and it's the school's job to be better. This whole mantra of parent involvement is ridiculous -- why not leave running the school to the people who have chosen running a school as their job? Do your jobs!

Why? Let's see... Hmmm, well maybe because for the time your kid is there it benefits the school for you to channel your concerns re: what you don't like into ideas (however small) for wjat would work better, even if only for your kid's class?

But grumbling and complaining and then crossing your arms and saying "Hey school, you chose this as uour career, not my job to fix it. Do your job!", well, that's some lovely role modling you're doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should I have to "be involved" in some crappy school I'm forced to go to because I didn't win the lottery to get my kid into a "top tier" charter? My kids deserve a great school, but I'm not an educator or a school administrator. I chose a different career. It's my right to complain if I don't like the school, and it's the school's job to be better. This whole mantra of parent involvement is ridiculous -- why not leave running the school to the people who have chosen running a school as their job? Do your jobs!

Why? Let's see... Hmmm, well maybe because for the time your kid is there it benefits the school for you to channel your concerns re: what you don't like into ideas (however small) for wjat would work better, even if only for your kid's class?

But grumbling and complaining and then crossing your arms and saying "Hey school, you chose this as uour career, not my job to fix it. Do your job!", well, that's some lovely role modling you're doing.

Meant to say VB it benefits the school AND YOUR KID. Not just the school. Even if your kid is just yhere for a month it is still better for kids to have faint improvements kvef no improvements.

[Anonymous]

Is public school OP. You get what you get, and you don't get upset.

There is no requirement to be engaged in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here - the "free care" gripe that I would have is that the charters don't have as much funding as DCPS schools do toward freebies. If people want to get more freebies from their schools, they should either be lobbying their politicians to get the mismanagement sorted out at DCPS schools, or if not to shift more funding over to charters so that they CAN offer them. Otherwise, it's boosters who are often shouldering a lot of that burden for the extras. Money for a lot of this stuff doesn't just fall out of the trees, and people should be aware and considerate of that.

Secondly, the other gripe I would have is that some parents just seem to apply to whatever charter they can get, as opposed to parents who are specifically interested in just one charter, for example for language or other specialized offerings. If you aren't interested in the specialized offerings, then please don't clog the process unnecessarily for those who are.

Yup, we sure did! I applied to every charter that was a reasonable distance from our home, and a few that were farther away. I also played the DCPS lottery, putting down our mediocre IB school as our first choice. We got into our IB school, and wait-listed at EVERY charter we applied to. The week before school started, we got a call from a highly regarded language immersion school, and accepted the spot immediately. Since then, we have gotten behind this school's language and are doing are best to be engaged parents and support our child's education. But I would have just as easily gotten behind a different langauge or "specialized offering" if our kid had been accepted at a different school. My alternative to "clogging the process" was to enroll my kid in a school that would MAYBE been ok until MAYBE 3rd grade...then what? Can't afford private school. While I empathize with the families who may have loved a spot at our kids' school because of an affinity for special attributes of the curriculum, they do not deserve a spot any more than any other child in this PUBLIC charter school. Becoming involved in the new language and culture of my child's school has enriched not only his educational experience, but our whole family as well.

OP Here - Yes, then you are a great example of what families SHOULD be doing! I hope others will follow your example and support

If you indeed get behind the mission of the charter that you ended up, then great.

But DO NOT for example apply to a school like Yu Ying, and when you get in, complain about the fact that they have a big emphasis on Chinese. If you get into a charter that has a specialized focus, DO NOT then proceed to gripe and complain about said specialized focus. If the lottery get into a school that expects students to take x number of AP courses or some other expectation, accept that, rather than complaining, fighting, trying to change the school, and disparaging the school for it. You won't get any sympathy from anyone if you do, you are only going to piss off the people who WERE looking for that specialized focus, who'd just as soon have you hit the road and go to some other school that meets your needs more appropriately. Or, better yet, if you think a school's specialized focus is not aligned with your needs, do everyone else a favor and don't apply to it in the first place.

[Anonymous]

^^ Or else, what? You are going to huff and puff on an on line forum? It's a public school friends.

[Anonymous]

How else do you think SELA got its charter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How else do you think SELA got its charter?

What do you mean? How did Sela get their charter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: ^^ Or else, what? You are going to huff and puff on an on line forum? It's a public school friends.

There's no "or else" - the plain fact is, you are going to be ignored and marginalized if you aren't on board with what the charter is about - in which case, you would have been better off trying to find a more suitable option.

[Anonymous]

That's not true. Charters recruit the underserved and will work with the families to support them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: ^^ Or else, what? You are going to huff and puff on an on line forum? It's a public school friends.

There's no "or else" - the plain fact is, you are going to be ignored and marginalized if you aren't on board with what the charter is about - in which case, you would have been better off trying to find a more suitable option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why should I have to "be involved" in some crappy school I'm forced to go to because I didn't win the lottery to get my kid into a "top tier" charter? My kids deserve a great school, but I'm not an educator or a school administrator. I chose a different career. It's my right to complain if I don't like the school, and it's the school's job to be better. This whole mantra of parent involvement is ridiculous -- why not leave running the school to the people who have chosen running a school as their job? Do your jobs!

Huh. Here I was, thinking that educating my children was part of job as a parent. Silly, silly me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's not true. Charters recruit the underserved and will work with the families to support them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: ^^ Or else, what? You are going to huff and puff on an on line forum? It's a public school friends.

There's no "or else" - the plain fact is, you are going to be ignored and marginalized if you aren't on board with what the charter is about - in which case, you would have been better off trying to find a more suitable option.

"Underserved" is a broad and general term, it could mean of different things to different people. Charters more often than not target specific sectors of needs that they consider are underserved. What you consider 'underserved' might not align with what the charter considers underserved. For example, they may have based their mission on meeting the needs of an underserved community that wants language immersion - whereas you may think you are underserved in some other area and have no interest in language immersion. As such, you could well be mismatched, and I don't think there is any reasonable expectation that the charter would change its mission just for you.

[Anonymous]

OP, your heart is in the right place and I applaud that. Personally, however, I pay taxes in this city just like everyone else and I can't afford quality daycare. I don't qualify for subsidized and I need to work, so DC is going to whatever school we get into through the lottery. When DC is old enough for K then back to the neighborhood school, unless the charter really knocks my socks off.

[Anonymous]

Charter school = public school. End of story. I can write a charter about who I want in, what I want the parents to do, and unicorns for every student... but at the end of the day, when you take PUBLIC funds, you are responsible for educating the PUBLIC. What gets me is that the same parents who talk about only wanting some folks in charters will turn around and talk about how charters out perform DCPS. I used to think it was a lack of understanding, now I get that its willful blindness.
I am sorry that some charter folks do not have the money for private schools. Crap, we don't either. But you should not (you all obviously can, so go right ahead) approach a charter as a mini private. Unless of course you like drama and telling other parents that they are not involved enough. Good times.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: ^^ Or else, what? You are going to huff and puff on an on line forum? It's a public school friends.

There's no "or else" - the plain fact is, you are going to be ignored and marginalized if you aren't on board with what the charter is about - in which case, you would have been better off trying to find a more suitable option.

Who gives a shit. As long as my child is not ignored and receives an equal education, why would i or anyone else care if a bunch of harpies choose to ignore me, the parent. It's a public school. It cannot discharge students if the parents refuse to volunteer time and money to the school. In other words, it is not private. I know some of you mom and dads want a private school experience for your little darlings at rock bottom public funds dollars, but baby, it ain't happening.