Watching your friends relocate to the burbs for "schools"
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Anonymous
not that simple. But yes, in DC there is a correlation between crimes committed and poorly perforning students who are black. There is a reason that most upper income blacks bail on DC and the school long before the white folks do in DC. We will probably move in two year too unless we get into one of our two prefered charters. Some of its schools but after 15 years in the city I am over the crime. Im over the out of control, foul mouthed teens (see threads on Chik F le in Tenley), Im tired of the low expectations and low performance of elected officials, Im tired of the revolving door of repeat offenders, Im tired of my entire block reeking of weed every fucking day, Im tired of hearing parents scream :shut the fuck up before I beat your ass" on the playground at their kids, Im tired of those kids repeating the same behavior in my kids class. Im just fucking tired of living in a place where my kids will never grow up with neighorhood kids through high school, every morning 9 kids on the block scatter to 5 different schools. The upside is we will make a killing on real estate. |
Anonymous
I know plenty of parents in majority-white schools who move or go private. Don't think its always racism. |
Anonymous
Regardless of race, go back to your cave. |
Anonymous
Well, we live in DC and went on the William and Mary tour this summer. The Admission folks made it clear that out of state students are judged by different criteria. It's easier to get in if you are a Virginia resident. We've stuck it out in DC but given that Virginia has some excellent state schools, including William & Mary and UVA, it makes good fiscal sense to get out of the District. |
Anonymous
Thanks for posting this. I've seen better off black families move out sooner from public schools and urban setting in another major US city. The white families try to stick it out longer either due to altruism or fear of being labeled racist. It really takes commitment and involvement of people with and without kids to turn things around, and even then it can be a real struggle. Some people are more resistant to change than others. Change is hard, but not impossible, and it can take a long time. How much time do you wait for a break through if you have the means to make things better for your kid now? How much can you really help others going forward if they resist making the necessary changes? |
Anonymous
In other words, it's (some) blacks being racist. You have a point. |
Anonymous
Again, it's racism. The schools are fine. People rely on pretexts. |
Anonymous
That is not a true statement. Some of the schools are fine. Some are not. |
Anonymous
One still has a good chance of getting in from a nova high school. |
Anonymous
It's sometimes racism, but not always. DC is just in a weird place and time of income inequality and gentrification where different social and economic groups end up sharing the same public institutions. Schools, like any other public institution, vary in quality, with the disfavored classes getting screwed. This happens in all sectors of the economy and government, from housing to credit to medical care. It also happens in education. The schools are not "fine" in all cases -- in some cases they are crap, because that is how we treat our poor people in this country. I can't blame well-off parents for not wanting to share in that. It's something that's just usually not visible because rich people don't have to share such key resources with poor people. |
Anonymous
There's an active thread now open on the DCUm College Board on how easy/hard it is to get into the Virginia flagship schools from Northern VA. http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/574603.page |
Anonymous
Yeah. If these folks lived in Baltimore, in a working class white neighborhood, filled with tough looking guys with motorcycles, they would absolutely stay for middle school, and not run off to the suburbs. |
Anonymous
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I'm a city person: born in one, raised in another, I was over 35 before I got my driver's license. I went to public school and sent my kid to public schools. Diversity is important to us.
And DC is shattering every conviction I've ever had, now that we're on the verge of middle school. I have no fear of black people, or poverty, or concerns about my child's academic progress--I am just exhausted. I like our current charter well enough, but I'm tired of being in one or the bleeding edge older kid classes, where every other parent is looking for a lottery ticket out, where no one socializes, and where every thing seems like a struggle. I'm tired of seeing gross inefficiencies, tired of driving an hour every morning and another hour in the afternoon, to do a crosstown commute. I'm just tired, dc. |
Anonymous
What planet are you from? Crime and bad schools does not equal black people. You seem bent on keeping all people down. If a family from a poor neighborhood finds a better opportunity elsewhere, you declare it racism. You seem like a segregationist, wanting to keep people from mobilizing upward or outward so as not to mix with 'others'. |
Anonymous
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^^^ And, to further complicate matters, our choices within dc all seem to revolve around our child having LESS independence than they would in a nearby walkable suburb. In moco, they'd take the school bus by themselves. If we lived in silver spring, they'd be one of hundreds of kids I see walking alone--and not an outlier, trekking a mile through deserted residential streets. This city is not friendly to its children. The metro is burning, crime is up, and there's not even crossing guards, let alone police, monitoring anything. Its depressing--at ten, I was taking myself across my city to magnet school and now, at ten, my child can't even walk four blocks.
See you in silver spring . |