DC's Progessives and Liberals Choose Real Estate Over Kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Again, you're displaying the dearth of your knowledge of DC public and public charter schools. Charter schools are required to do active marketing and recruiting. They are required to hold blind lotteries for admission. One of the most sought after charters in the city, Yu Ying, is 41% black, 10% Asian, 27% white, 6% hispanic and 16% multiracial. ( http://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/230/ ) Do you really think the only reason parents wait overnight outside Yu Ying's gates to enter their lottery is because all the families who go there are wealthy?

You sound like someone living in a bubble of age or geography. You're either 15 years old or you've never (or only recently) set foot in DC. The most specious thing about your argument is the way it mirrors the thinking of people who prefer schools segregated by class and zip code.

I ask in all seriousness, was that your intent?"


I don't know who you're talking to - I wrote the comment about liberal delusion and have not written anything else in this thread. FWIW, I've lived in DC for decades, have kids in DCPS, and vote Dem. That doesn't change the fact that the very stats you cite prove my point - 41% black is far less (close to half) of the percentage of black kids in school in DC. If you know anything about poverty, you would know that the kids who are homeless or living below the poverty level don't have parents who have access to the internet to apply for a lottery, let alone the time and wherewithal to do it. They are not reached by Yu Ying's (or other "top" charters) outreach efforts, in part because they probably are functionally illiterate. The "diversity" that you and upper middle class liberals seek by standing in line for a charter lottery is not true social-economic diversity, as the very process of getting into a charter is one that excludes the poorest kids in this city.

I'm the PP you're addressing but pretty confused about what point you're trying to make. If you're trying to say that poor people in DC don't have access to charters, you're wrong.

Data from the from the first two years of the My School DC lottery system show that the majority of lottery applicants were from Wards 7 and 8, the poorest wards in the city.
https://ms-dc.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2015_r1_applicants_byward.pdf

The match rate was also highest in Wards 7 and 8: https://ms-dc.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2015_r1_match_rate_ward.pdf

On diversity, I really can't understand why 41% black in a city where the majority of the students are black doesn't count as diverse enough for you. Are you saying that every school needs to match city wide demographics, or what? I've also lived in DC for a couple of decades and, other than a few places in Brooklyn, NY, my kid's charter is probably the most diverse place I've ever been. Like, ever.

I get it that economic and geographic segregation exist in a hardcore way and that it's on display in our public schools. But I can't figure out what you're going for in your argument about poor people and charters here. And I'm searching for a word to describe what I feel about your assumption that poor = functionally illiterate. I mean, really? What is it that you actually know about poor people?

[Anonymous]

20:18 again with the link for the rest of stats on My School DC lotteries: http://www.myschooldc.org/resources/data/