School Choice => School Chance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why people think they "deserve" something more than their neighborhood school. You knew what it was when you moved there, right?

All the rest - OOB, charters - that's above and beyond what you have a right to. This shouldn't have been news to you.

+1.

But, whiners love to whine. It's human nature.

Better to not engage them, simply say "Have a nice day!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "but I pay taxes!" argument would be more compelling if your taxes only paid for education.

At this point, I'm wondering what my taxes actually DO pay for because the city services are less than ideal. But that's for another thread!

They pay for, among other things, great and improved care for the homeless. Ask the Mayor.

They also pay for hundred-million renovations of failing schools. Ask the Mayor (and previous ones)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "but I pay taxes!" argument would be more compelling if your taxes only paid for education.

At this point, I'm wondering what my taxes actually DO pay for because the city services are less than ideal. But that's for another thread!

They pay for, among other things, great and improved care for the homeless. Ask the Mayor.

They also pay for hundred-million renovations of failing schools. Ask the Mayor (and previous ones)

And sweetheart deals for your contracting or consulting company, if you gave enough money to Bowser's campaign. There also may be a sweet, highly-paid, do-nothing-to-very-little DC job for you, if you gave enough to The Bowse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "but I pay taxes!" argument would be more compelling if your taxes only paid for education.

At this point, I'm wondering what my taxes actually DO pay for because the city services are less than ideal. But that's for another thread!

They pay for, among other things, great and improved care for the homeless. Ask the Mayor.

They also pay for hundred-million renovations of failing schools. Ask the Mayor (and previous ones)

And sweetheart deals for your contracting or consulting company, if you gave enough money to Bowser's campaign. There also may be a sweet, highly-paid, do-nothing-to-very-little DC job for you, if you gave enough to The Bowse.

If you guys think that DC is bad, you'd last 10 seconds in CA. Per student school expenditures half the size of DC, rotten test scores, crumbling roads, poor public transit, lines at the DMV that go out the door. The low tax states in the South have even worse outcomes. You get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

You all have a choice: move out of DC if you want better schools as part of your "right" without having to lottery for a charter!!

[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.

It wouldn't be, because then middle-class families on whom you count to make it good would have been living in NW and the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all have a choice: move out of DC if you want better schools as part of your "right" without having to lottery for a charter!!

Not really. The suburban schools suck, too...unless you want to pay exorbitant prices to live in Potomac proper, Bethesda, or McLean, among very few others. The rule is that wealthy and/or highly educated families create the best local schools -- hasn't this always been the case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a part of me that finds the whole process really unjust, especially for something as important as a child's education. It's left completely to chance. We didn't get shut out completely -- got into our IB school -- but it wasn't one of our top choices because it isn't a viable long term option. So my choices now are either to play this totally random lottery again next year and hope my kid gets lucky, pay for private school, or move. It sucks.

Or go to your neighborhood school. Interesting how you don't list that as a choice.

I found that interesting too - go and make it better!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a part of me that finds the whole process really unjust, especially for something as important as a child's education. It's left completely to chance. We didn't get shut out completely -- got into our IB school -- but it wasn't one of our top choices because it isn't a viable long term option. So my choices now are either to play this totally random lottery again next year and hope my kid gets lucky, pay for private school, or move. It sucks.

Or go to your neighborhood school. Interesting how you don't list that as a choice.

I found that interesting too - go and make it better!

Why didn't I think about that? Me and three other high SESfamilies are totally gonna turn out IB around. We are enough to overcome 99% FARMS and 60% ESL,no PTA and rotten test scores. Thanks for that advice. I'm getting right on that.

[ediebear]

What is your IB school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "but I pay taxes!" argument would be more compelling if your taxes only paid for education.

At this point, I'm wondering what my taxes actually DO pay for because the city services are less than ideal. But that's for another thread!

They pay for, among other things, great and improved care for the homeless. Ask the Mayor.

They also pay for hundred-million renovations of failing schools. Ask the Mayor (and previous ones)

And sweetheart deals for your contracting or consulting company, if you gave enough money to Bowser's campaign. There also may be a sweet, highly-paid, do-nothing-to-very-little DC job for you, if you gave enough to The Bowse.

If you guys think that DC is bad, you'd last 10 seconds in CA. Per student school expenditures half the size of DC, rotten test scores, crumbling roads, poor public transit, lines at the DMV that go out the door. The low tax states in the South have even worse outcomes. You get what you pay for.

Nope, the point is that we don't get what we pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all have a choice: move out of DC if you want better schools as part of your "right" without having to lottery for a charter!!

Not really. The suburban schools suck, too...unless you want to pay exorbitant prices to live in Potomac proper, Bethesda, or McLean, among very few others. The rule is that wealthy and/or highly educated families create the best local schools -- hasn't this always been the case?

this is patently ridiculous. there are huge swaths of Fairfax County and MoCo where the schools are solid-to-excellent, and the home prices are on par with a cookie-cutter rowhouse in Petworth or Eckington or Trinidad. But you would never be caught dead in Rockville or Fairfax City.

this is why a lot of us roll our eyes at the annual whining on this match day. The whiners almost always have choices, they just don't like them.

[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've struck out twice now and thought this exact same thing.

So very true. I thought about this a lot after our first two lottery experiences. The DC public school lottery was one of my first experiences with random luck landing me (and my family)in a worse situation than those around me. It feels crazy to say this, but I learned a huge life lesson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "but I pay taxes!" argument would be more compelling if your taxes only paid for education.

At this point, I'm wondering what my taxes actually DO pay for because the city services are less than ideal. But that's for another thread!

They pay for, among other things, great and improved care for the homeless. Ask the Mayor.

They also pay for hundred-million renovations of failing schools. Ask the Mayor (and previous ones)

And sweetheart deals for your contracting or consulting company, if you gave enough money to Bowser's campaign. There also may be a sweet, highly-paid, do-nothing-to-very-little DC job for you, if you gave enough to The Bowse.

If you guys think that DC is bad, you'd last 10 seconds in CA. Per student school expenditures half the size of DC, rotten test scores, crumbling roads, poor public transit, lines at the DMV that go out the door. The low tax states in the South have even worse outcomes. You get what you pay for.

Nope, the point is that we don't get what we pay for.

Yes, you do. Lower tax jurisdictions have much worse services. Plenty of places like NY and NJ have much higher taxes than DC (2.5% property taxes in NJ), and they don't get free prek for two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "but I pay taxes!" argument would be more compelling if your taxes only paid for education.

At this point, I'm wondering what my taxes actually DO pay for because the city services are less than ideal. But that's for another thread!

They pay for, among other things, great and improved care for the homeless. Ask the Mayor.

They also pay for hundred-million renovations of failing schools. Ask the Mayor (and previous ones)

And sweetheart deals for your contracting or consulting company, if you gave enough money to Bowser's campaign. There also may be a sweet, highly-paid, do-nothing-to-very-little DC job for you, if you gave enough to The Bowse.

If you guys think that DC is bad, you'd last 10 seconds in CA. Per student school expenditures half the size of DC, rotten test scores, crumbling roads, poor public transit, lines at the DMV that go out the door. The low tax states in the South have even worse outcomes. You get what you pay for.

Nope, the point is that we don't get what we pay for.

Yes, you do. Lower tax jurisdictions have much worse services. Plenty of places like NY and NJ have much higher taxes than DC (2.5% property taxes in NJ), and they don't get free prek for two years.

See, you are contradicting yourself.

BTW, I don't care about other cities, I care about DC. And, as previous PP said, we do NOT get what we pay.