School Choice => School Chance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been waitlisted for everything for three years in a row. Here's what I think: this is a taste of what poorer people experience ALL THE TIME. You watch other people's kids go to a fancier, nicer, wonderful school that you could have gone to....if not for the fact that you lost the lottery, the lottery being who gets born rich or poor. It seems so unfair. It is unfair. This is how other people -- most of the people around the world -- live all the time.

Yep. It is a check on your privilege to be sure. You realize that you in fact have no entitlement to a high-quality education for your child just by dint of who you are (or even what neighborhood you live in, in many cases). You realize that it is kind of you against the world to find a good situation for your kid. Nobody is going to hand it to you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote: Totally disheartened by a system that gives you the impression of great choices but then dangles them in front of you like candy you can never reach.

This is not how charters are supposed to work, is it? Why can't they expand to absorb the crazy demand?

Sorry, but you sound like a two-year-old

Agree but then again this is Wound Licking Day for many, so I get the knee-jerk "it's not fair" responses.

NP. I get the disappointment, but saying "it's not fair" is still petulant because it usually (especially today) means that someone else got something that you wanted or felt you deserved. Everyone is paying the taxes, and someone always gets in. Be as disappointed as you gotta be, but lose the entitlement. Your kid doesn't deserve that 1 PK3 seat any more than the kid who got it.

Well... it is inherently unfair. We're all paying taxes and only some of us are getting free pre-k.

Everyone in DC could have free PreK if they want it. If you don't want the school, that's your problem but every year there are Dcps schools that have open spots.

why do you keep posting this. Nobody is going to say commute from Petworth to Capitol Heights for an open spot.

Then they need to own that. There are seats available. Stop saying you were "shut out" and "have no options." There are options, but you don't want to take them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote: Totally disheartened by a system that gives you the impression of great choices but then dangles them in front of you like candy you can never reach.

This is not how charters are supposed to work, is it? Why can't they expand to absorb the crazy demand?

Sorry, but you sound like a two-year-old

Agree but then again this is Wound Licking Day for many, so I get the knee-jerk "it's not fair" responses.

NP. I get the disappointment, but saying "it's not fair" is still petulant because it usually (especially today) means that someone else got something that you wanted or felt you deserved. Everyone is paying the taxes, and someone always gets in. Be as disappointed as you gotta be, but lose the entitlement. Your kid doesn't deserve that 1 PK3 seat any more than the kid who got it.

Well... it is inherently unfair. We're all paying taxes and only some of us are getting free pre-k.

Everyone in DC could have free PreK if they want it. If you don't want the school, that's your problem but every year there are Dcps schools that have open spots.

why do you keep posting this. Nobody is going to say commute from Petworth to Capitol Heights for an open spot.

Then they need to own that. There are seats available. Stop saying you were "shut out" and "have no options." There are options, but you don't want to take them.

Do you even live in DC? Saying "there are seats available!" is so absurd when you're talking about someone living far away and trying to commute to a school across the entire city. It's like telling someone in west Texas to stop complaining about the lack of abortion clinics because there are clinics available in East Texas. It's just not realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Totally disheartened by a system that gives you the impression of great choices but then dangles them in front of you like candy you can never reach.

This is not how charters are supposed to work, is it? Why can't they expand to absorb the crazy demand?

Sorry, but you sound like a two-year-old

Agree but then again this is Wound Licking Day for many, so I get the knee-jerk "it's not fair" responses.

NP. I get the disappointment, but saying "it's not fair" is still petulant because it usually (especially today) means that someone else got something that you wanted or felt you deserved. Everyone is paying the taxes, and someone always gets in. Be as disappointed as you gotta be, but lose the entitlement. Your kid doesn't deserve that 1 PK3 seat any more than the kid who got it.

Well... it is inherently unfair. We're all paying taxes and only some of us are getting free pre-k.

Everyone in DC could have free PreK if they want it. If you don't want the school, that's your problem but every year there are Dcps schools that have open spots.

why do you keep posting this. Nobody is going to say commute from Petworth to Capitol Heights for an open spot.

Then they need to own that. There are seats available. Stop saying you were "shut out" and "have no options." There are options, but you don't want to take them.

What's your point? For all that people talk about "free daycare," what PK parents are looking for is a longterm school. It just happens to (often) start at PK here, so that's where we're all starting. In the long term, a severely low performing school that adds 2 hrs to your (and your kid's) commute time daily is not really an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice because if you lived in VA or MoCo your school would have been decided for you - at kindergarten, earliest - based on your address. At least you have a *chance* for something other than your address-based school. Some win, some don't.

OP here: Frankly we'd be okay going to school with our neighbors (middle class, working and poor), but the most motivated of them leave for charters, leaving us with one choice: an Struggling IB that people like me leave ASAP.

I agree that it sucks. It frustrates me that we have created a system where you can live in a neighborhood filled with motivated parents and children, but the IB school sucks because those people are spread out to a bunch of non-neighborhood schools, and some people are shut out of those other options and are stuck with the crap IB school that would be good if those other options didn't exist.

That's not really true though. If it weren't for the charters, those motivated families would have moved. We are one of them, and we never would have considered our IB school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Totally disheartened by a system that gives you the impression of great choices but then dangles them in front of you like candy you can never reach.

This is not how charters are supposed to work, is it? Why can't they expand to absorb the crazy demand?

Sorry, but you sound like a two-year-old

Agree but then again this is Wound Licking Day for many, so I get the knee-jerk "it's not fair" responses.

NP. I get the disappointment, but saying "it's not fair" is still petulant because it usually (especially today) means that someone else got something that you wanted or felt you deserved. Everyone is paying the taxes, and someone always gets in. Be as disappointed as you gotta be, but lose the entitlement. Your kid doesn't deserve that 1 PK3 seat any more than the kid who got it.

Well... it is inherently unfair. We're all paying taxes and only some of us are getting free pre-k.

Everyone in DC could have free PreK if they want it. If you don't want the school, that's your problem but every year there are Dcps schools that have open spots.

why do you keep posting this. Nobody is going to say commute from Petworth to Capitol Heights for an open spot.

Then they need to own that. There are seats available. Stop saying you were "shut out" and "have no options." There are options, but you don't want to take them.

What's your point? For all that people talk about "free daycare," what PK parents are looking for is a longterm school. It just happens to (often) start at PK here, so that's where we're all starting. In the long term, a severely low performing school that adds 2 hrs to your (and your kid's) commute time daily is not really an option.

The long-term option, in DC, as in most of the rest of the country, is your IB school, and you are guaranteed admission there. You have as much control over that as anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been waitlisted for everything for three years in a row. Here's what I think: this is a taste of what poorer people experience ALL THE TIME. You watch other people's kids go to a fancier, nicer, wonderful school that you could have gone to....if not for the fact that you lost the lottery, the lottery being who gets born rich or poor. It seems so unfair. It is unfair. This is how other people -- most of the people around the world -- live all the time.

This might be one of the most insightful things I've EVER read on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice because if you lived in VA or MoCo your school would have been decided for you - at kindergarten, earliest - based on your address. At least you have a *chance* for something other than your address-based school. Some win, some don't.

OP here: Frankly we'd be okay going to school with our neighbors (middle class, working and poor), but the most motivated of them leave for charters, leaving us with one choice: an Struggling IB that people like me leave ASAP.

Sounds like you should move to the 'burbs, where people just go to their local schools (or to private).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Totally disheartened by a system that gives you the impression of great choices but then dangles them in front of you like candy you can never reach.

This is not how charters are supposed to work, is it? Why can't they expand to absorb the crazy demand?

Sorry, but you sound like a two-year-old

Agree but then again this is Wound Licking Day for many, so I get the knee-jerk "it's not fair" responses.

NP. I get the disappointment, but saying "it's not fair" is still petulant because it usually (especially today) means that someone else got something that you wanted or felt you deserved. Everyone is paying the taxes, and someone always gets in. Be as disappointed as you gotta be, but lose the entitlement. Your kid doesn't deserve that 1 PK3 seat any more than the kid who got it.

Well... it is inherently unfair. We're all paying taxes and only some of us are getting free pre-k.

Everyone in DC could have free PreK if they want it. If you don't want the school, that's your problem but every year there are Dcps schools that have open spots.

why do you keep posting this. Nobody is going to say commute from Petworth to Capitol Heights for an open spot.

Then they need to own that. There are seats available. Stop saying you were "shut out" and "have no options." There are options, but you don't want to take them.

What's your point? For all that people talk about "free daycare," what PK parents are looking for is a longterm school. It just happens to (often) start at PK here, so that's where we're all starting. In the long term, a severely low performing school that adds 2 hrs to your (and your kid's) commute time daily is not really an option.

But isn't that what most people do to get to an HRCS? Most HRCSs would add two hours to my daily commute time because almost all of them are in Ward 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it the case that most school systems don't have PK3 or PK4? Seems you have to think of it as a luxury or should only be for at risk kids. Tax dollars could be used to fund other parts of education process and those that can make other arrangements.

DC has almost-universal PK3 and PK4 because the DCPS programs (except for in Ward 3) are funded by Head Start dollars. We wouldn't have it if we didn't have so many low-income families.

Sometimes I think they should make pre-K income-based... I probably wouldn't qualify but that just seems more fair.

If they did that the schools
Would turn to shit, again. Free preschool is the gateway that gets high SES families into them at all and every ear more and more stay which eventually turns the school around in 10 years or so.

The only school I know where this is actually true is Brent. All the JKLM schools were already good years ago. In all other cases, high SES families stay for free preK and then move to the burbs, or to NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been waitlisted for everything for three years in a row. Here's what I think: this is a taste of what poorer people experience ALL THE TIME. You watch other people's kids go to a fancier, nicer, wonderful school that you could have gone to....if not for the fact that you lost the lottery, the lottery being who gets born rich or poor. It seems so unfair. It is unfair. This is how other people -- most of the people around the world -- live all the time.

I'm in the same boat, and I think it always ends up for the best. In my case, my commute is going to be substantially easier by attending my IB over all the other options I am waitlisted for. Because my IB doesn't seem very promising past K, I'm now open to moving. Who knows? Perhaps a place in the suburbs will turn out to be much much better for my kid than staying in DC. There are so many unknowns, that staying optimistic is the only way I know to stop worrying and enjoy life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it the case that most school systems don't have PK3 or PK4? Seems you have to think of it as a luxury or should only be for at risk kids. Tax dollars could be used to fund other parts of education process and those that can make other arrangements.

DC has almost-universal PK3 and PK4 because the DCPS programs (except for in Ward 3) are funded by Head Start dollars. We wouldn't have it if we didn't have so many low-income families.

Sometimes I think they should make pre-K income-based... I probably wouldn't qualify but that just seems more fair.

If they did that the schools
Would turn to shit, again. Free preschool is the gateway that gets high SES families into them at all and every ear more and more stay which eventually turns the school around in 10 years or so.

The only school I know where this is actually true is Brent. All the JKLM schools were already good years ago. In all other cases, high SES families stay for free preK and then move to the burbs, or to NW.

Add to Brent - Ross, Stoddert, Eaton, Hearst, Shepherd as schools that have come along in the last 10 years with greater IB participation. Possibly Marie Reed, Bancroft, SWWFS heading that direction...at least that's my view of NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it the case that most school systems don't have PK3 or PK4? Seems you have to think of it as a luxury or should only be for at risk kids. Tax dollars could be used to fund other parts of education process and those that can make other arrangements.

DC has almost-universal PK3 and PK4 because the DCPS programs (except for in Ward 3) are funded by Head Start dollars. We wouldn't have it if we didn't have so many low-income families.

Sometimes I think they should make pre-K income-based... I probably wouldn't qualify but that just seems more fair.

It's moving that way already. At least a dozen schools serving some of the poorest parts of the city have auto acceptances for all IB PK3 and PK4 students. It's called the early access program http://dcps.dc.gov/page/pre-kindergarten-pk3-and-pk4

And Ward 3 remains bereft of pk3 or any charter schools. Not for lack of demand, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Totally disheartened by a system that gives you the impression of great choices but then dangles them in front of you like candy you can never reach.

This is not how charters are supposed to work, is it? Why can't they expand to absorb the crazy demand?

Sorry, but you sound like a two-year-old

Agree but then again this is Wound Licking Day for many, so I get the knee-jerk "it's not fair" responses.

NP. I get the disappointment, but saying "it's not fair" is still petulant because it usually (especially today) means that someone else got something that you wanted or felt you deserved. Everyone is paying the taxes, and someone always gets in. Be as disappointed as you gotta be, but lose the entitlement. Your kid doesn't deserve that 1 PK3 seat any more than the kid who got it.

Well... it is inherently unfair. We're all paying taxes and only some of us are getting free pre-k.

Everyone in DC could have free PreK if they want it. If you don't want the school, that's your problem but every year there are Dcps schools that have open spots.

why do you keep posting this. Nobody is going to say commute from Petworth to Capitol Heights for an open spot.

Then they need to own that. There are seats available. Stop saying you were "shut out" and "have no options." There are options, but you don't want to take them.

What's your point? For all that people talk about "free daycare," what PK parents are looking for is a longterm school. It just happens to (often) start at PK here, so that's where we're all starting. In the long term, a severely low performing school that adds 2 hrs to your (and your kid's) commute time daily is not really an option.

1. To the PP, yes, I live in DC. My child goes to our IB school, which is not great but is working for us.
2. PK parents should not rely on the lottery to save them from their IB school. If you don't get into your IB school in PK3 or PK4, you will definitely get in for kindergarten.
3. Saying that it is unfair that you didn't get into someone else's IB school is ridiculous.

Deal with the reality that is in front of you, which is that there are almost no seats available for charter schools, that there are waitlists (sometimes of IB kids) for even the crappiest school in Petworth, and make your decisions accordingly. My decision, when faced with that information, was to send my child to our IB school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been waitlisted for everything for three years in a row. Here's what I think: this is a taste of what poorer people experience ALL THE TIME. You watch other people's kids go to a fancier, nicer, wonderful school that you could have gone to....if not for the fact that you lost the lottery, the lottery being who gets born rich or poor. It seems so unfair. It is unfair. This is how other people -- most of the people around the world -- live all the time.

I'm in the same boat, and I think it always ends up for the best. In my case, my commute is going to be substantially easier by attending my IB over all the other options I am waitlisted for. Because my IB doesn't seem very promising past K, I'm now open to moving. Who knows? Perhaps a place in the suburbs will turn out to be much much better for my kid than staying in DC. There are so many unknowns, that staying optimistic is the only way I know to stop worrying and enjoy life.

+10000.