Why don't out of boundary parents work on their own schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the folks who have lived in DC for generations who try to lottery into better schools across the park. It's the hipsters who buy into Petworth, Shaw, etc. who somehow feel they have just as much right to attend Janney as those who spend their life savings to buy a tiny, run down $1M center hall colonial in AU park. You moved to a transitional neighborhood. Now own it.

This X 2,000,000. I can't stand them. They're so insufferable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:0P here. I am not against out of boundary students per se. What I am against is the overcrowding in our high-performing schools because parents of low performing schools won't take the hard and uncomfortable actions to increase standards at their schools.

And do any of the points people made here about WHY those parents can't take effective action resonating with you?

Or are you just covering your ears, singing la-la-la, and pretending that all those parents have your money and advantages and time?

Those are structural barriers. They are very difficult to overcome. You need to grasp that factor if you want to really understand the problem rather than fling shit.

What are these "structural barriers "you keep prattling on about? Democrats control every elected office in this city.

Let me spell it out again, since you can't read the big words. Money. Time. Education level of parents, too.

Political parties have nothing to do with these factors. Turn off Fox and look around yourself. Or just go private. Then you won't have to worry about nasty OOB parents.

Money? DC PS spends the same amount of money per kid per school. And more than the burbs. And I pay my taxes so I deserve my school.
Time? Make time for the education of your child.

Look, did you come here for actual answers to your question? They've been amply provided.

If you don't like these answers, or are incapable of understanding them, then hold on to your initial assumption that all OOB families are lazy. Stop pressing for a chorus of "We agree with you! You are SO RIGHT."

Why not go private? I'm genuinely curious. You won't have to deal with OOB problems then. You claim that you're wealthy and hard-working and basically a superior creature in all regards.

Why do you want to be in a public school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Often "your schools are great" because the parents have money. Money equals resources. Money equals time (to volunteer, to fundraise, to XYZ). It's a tremendously complex issue and it can't be boiled down to the usual nonsense about hard workers versus free-riders. Stop trying.

So let me get this straight: You're saying that when people go to OOB schools, they're free-riding off the in-bounds parents who have enough money and time to have made their own schools great? Are you sure you don't want to revise your statement?

No. That is not what my statement says. Reread it.

I'm trying, but I keep reaching the same conclusion. You're saying the great schools are great because of money. The in-bounds parents have money, which gives them the time and resources to make the school great. I don't really disagree with that claim. I also think "great" is often measured by student test scores, which are correlated with money too. I also think it's easier for schools to be "great" when they avoid bad behavior and other family struggles, which are sadly often inversely correlated with money. So, yeah, the wealthiest neighborhoods more easily breed strong public schools. I get that.

But that doesn't mean schools which aren't in the wealthiest neighborhoods cannot be great too. But as I read OP's post, she's pointing out that if the most stable families and the most capable students from up-and-coming neighborhoods abandon their local schools to attend the public schools from wealthy neighborhoods, then they're making it even harder for their own local schools to ever improve. And to put it bluntly, they're free-riding off the money/resources/time of the wealthy neighborhood.

For the record, I don't live in a wealthy neighborhood, so this isn't about walling off my own schools from anyone else. Indeed, my neighborhood is one where many families look for OOB options. So I get that it's daunting to work on your in-bounds schools. But I'm realistic enough to see that if all the most capable families are refusing to use the local school, the local school will get worse, not better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try convincing your neighbors not to go private. Methinks OP is mad b/c her kid didn't get into Sidwell and has to go to school with gasp FARMS kids instead of the Obamas. #firstworldproblems

Or OP should convince more of her neighbors to go private so the IB school is less crowded.

Right now, the system allows people to apply OOB. It's easier to fill out the lottery application than to work on an IB school. (not to mention, what kind of work would actually have a marked quick/immediate impact? If I gave $10 million to my IB school tomorrow it could do a lot, but most of the kids who go there would still have parents who were young, had limited educations and work histories, and other barriers. Most kids would still be below grade level and many have been exposed to traumas many DCUM readers cannot even believe. That's not something that changes overnight).

If you think your school is too overcrowded, why don't you work on your own school by getting the principal and chancellor to cap class sizes, build an expansion, or shrink the boundaries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop asking if you can get in if you are OOB. It's that type of behavior that will never fix the schools.

I agree OB. Let's get rid of OOB entirely. I vote for citywide lottery; let's level the playing field. When all schools are educating all students to proficiency or above for testing we can revert back to neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

I think OOB comes with financial incentives. The principals can get $$ for the OOB kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop asking if you can get in if you are OOB. It's that type of behavior that will never fix the schools.

I agree OB. Let's get rid of OOB entirely. I vote for citywide lottery; let's level the playing field. When all schools are educating all students to proficiency or above for testing we can revert back to neighborhood schools.

I actually really like this idea.

[Anonymous]

Because energetic parents don't change schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop asking if you can get in if you are OOB. It's that type of behavior that will never fix the schools.

I agree OB. Let's get rid of OOB entirely. I vote for citywide lottery; let's level the playing field. When all schools are educating all students to proficiency or above for testing we can revert back to neighborhood schools.

I actually really like this idea.

And make private illegal. School quality issues dead over night.

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting question when viewed through the lens of city-wide DCPSes and charters. Here we have a group of parents/founders who have literally sweat over the establishment of schools that are now highly coveted by all. These people did actually make their own success.

They didn't like their options, so they literally created a new one, and the neighbors are arguing they should receive special treatment because they live across the street.

The problem with this question is that for most people, there is what's best for society, but for parents, it's what's best for my kid TODAY. There's never any getting beyond that people, folks will always choose the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the folks who have lived in DC for generations who try to lottery into better schools across the park. It's the hipsters who buy into Petworth, Shaw, etc. who somehow feel they have just as much right to attend Janney as those who spend their life savings to buy a tiny, run down $1M center hall colonial in AU park. You moved to a transitional neighborhood. Now own it.

We don't give a fuck what you mind or don't mind, Granny. Go back to collecting Prescious Moments figurines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the folks who have lived in DC for generations who try to lottery into better schools across the park. It's the hipsters who buy into Petworth, Shaw, etc. who somehow feel they have just as much right to attend Janney as those who spend their life savings to buy a tiny, run down $1M center hall colonial in AU park. You moved to a transitional neighborhood. Now own it.

Us "hipsters" do not want to have anything to do with you award 3 suburbanites. Trust me. We are either in our IB school or charter. You snobs are repulsive to us.

Plus, we actually want diverse populations in our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the folks who have lived in DC for generations who try to lottery into better schools across the park. It's the hipsters who buy into Petworth, Shaw, etc. who somehow feel they have just as much right to attend Janney as those who spend their life savings to buy a tiny, run down $1M center hall colonial in AU park. You moved to a transitional neighborhood. Now own it.

This X 2,000,000. I can't stand them. They're so insufferable.

Because your overpriced house is going to lose value. I would be mad too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the folks who have lived in DC for generations who try to lottery into better schools across the park. It's the hipsters who buy into Petworth, Shaw, etc. who somehow feel they have just as much right to attend Janney as those who spend their life savings to buy a tiny, run down $1M center hall colonial in AU park. You moved to a transitional neighborhood. Now own it.

What if you lived here for generations in Shaw? What if you are a hipster in Congress Heights? Can you be more specific about the rules for upper cacausia?

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe that no one has called troll by now.

TROLL TROLL TROLL TROLL TROLL.

Either that or too stupid to live.

And FWIW, my kids go to a WOTP desirable school. I take zero credit for making the school what it is today, I paid my money and jumped on that successful bandwagon. Schools turn around when there is a confluence of events that can be hard to replicate. And the WOTP schools with the well known initials are in large part successful today because they were long able to recruit well prepared students from across the city when their in-boundary populations alone could not sustain them. It is beyond hypocritical to criticize the system that both kept those schools successful and drained the motivated families from less successful schools. Shame on anyone that does not recognize the hypocrisy.