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DC Public and Public Charter Schools
Rhee? A poll of your opinion
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Anonymous
| Bunker Hill? |
Anonymous
What was her take on what it takes to get white parents to enroll in schools? I could not bring myself to read the piece (see related thread....) |
Anonymous
| 16:42 and 21:18, can you be specific about what Rhee has done to hurt the schools you're thinking of? |
Anonymous
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How has Rhee hurt our school?
Services through headquarters are still spotty. Budgets are constantly "frozen" meaning no copy paper by May, paychecks go missing for teachers, temperature extremes in the building have children in coats in one room and sweltering in another. No funds for programs that make the school attractive in the first place (language and music) since those things were created under a different superintendent. And let's talk about the culture of fear. Good people are terrified that they could be axed next. Personally, I'm scared that our principal might be axed. This is a great leader, but not Brian Betts nor one of the hand-chosen few. If our administrator gets fired (or quits to work in a more sane system) I'm done with DCPS. Rhee talks a great story and I was behind her the first year. It stinks to be a parent in DCPS right now. |
Anonymous
| Honestly? This explains the great philosophical appeal of charter schools. The director of a charter school is her(his) own Michelle Rhee. So the "chancellor" is in the building every day and responsive to parents and their concerns. Control at the absolute most local level. |
Anonymous
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How has Rhee hurt our school:
To begin, she closed many of the ES in our Ward and combined schools, thereby increasing class sizes. The class sizes were already at or above max. She increased the population of the school by including seventh and eighth graders She removed foreign language curriculum from the school and called it budget cuts. I call it making more money for the charter schools, because that is what many of the parents opted to do. with their children upon learning about many of the decisions. The school was one of the few high performing ES schools outside of the west of park schools. As parents, DH and I were initially comfortable sending our DC to the inbound school. We ended up on one of the coveted charter wait list and finally in. It was only foresight that I applied in the lottery as we would have been happy with the DCPS ES. When we removed our child from DCPS the funny thing is that his teacher was sad to see our DC leave, but happy to get a better opportunity. This is from a DCPS teacher currently in the system. Another thing Rhee has done to the school--reduced morale in the faculty. I believe in getting rid of underperforming schools, but don't mess with the schools and teachers that are doing it right, inspite of the crappy schools. Yes, I know DCPS had crappy schools prior to Rhee. DH and I knew that we would send our DC to private middle schools and probably high schools, but not ES. The ES had at one time actually been a good ES, but I see it deteriorating. Deteriorating because those who can get out, are getting out or will get out. |
Anonymous
Do you mind sharing what ward? What school? |
Anonymous
| Ward 5. Langdon is the affected school. It received students from two other ES and the school became an ES and MS. The school use to offer Spanish and the students matriculated in the sixth grade. To make matters worst, the high school feeder school became Spingarn. I would have taken a second and third job to pay for private school before allowing my child to attend that school. Langdon still maintains its montessori program, and there is a good principal at the school. The parents did lobby to not only maintain the foreign language curriculum, but increase the support of foreign language. I guess we lack te political clout to make effective changes in DCPS, so we walk with our transfer papers right into the charters. Every dollar DCPS has to pay a charter school to educate a District child is another dollar lost in the DCPS system. |
Anonymous
Remember, charters are public schools . Every dollar you walk out of DCPS is a dollar for choice in the public system 
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Anonymous
They are only pubic schools to the extent that they are publicly funded and many are located in former DCPS schools. Charter schools may terminate a child's acceptance in a school if they find that the parents are not participatory or the child is a problem child. DCPS must accept all students. Charters do not. |
Anonymous
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The above is totally, 100% untrue. I accept that you may not have time to fact -check. Charters have a transparent admissions system that is lottery based; hence, they are actually much fairer to 'get into' than DCPS schools which admit FIRST based on geography, then to lottery for overflow. Secondly, they are not allowed to sign any parent to a binding document on participation (which I personally would be in strong favor of, would you not?) - rather, like any school (I challenge you to find a DCPS school which does not) they can suggest and encourage parent participation. 3rd, to expel a student they must adhere to a discipline policy and document the process like any other school - public or private. What, you think they are immune to lawsuits? Finally, very few charters in DC occupy released DCPS buildings; the Mayor has done everything humanly possible to obstruct the logical occupancy of public school buildings by public charter school children. Hence, they have looked elsewhere for real estate.
Please substantiate your claims above if you persist in them. Thanks
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Anonymous
As a board member at a DC public charter school I'd like to thank you for clarifying that reality. So few people understand what charters schools are, and how we do what we do. Your description helps. I am sure your school appreciates you! DC PCS parent |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Gee, I'm a board member at a PCS and I fully admit, charters hurt DCPS. (Full disclosure, I'm both a DCPS and a charter school parent.)
Charters can kick kids out (typically after they've received 90% of their per pupil allotment) and their "lotteries" aren't always that. They come with lots and lots of requirements on top of signing up for a chance for a spot. There are a few (very few) good charters in DC. Read Jay Mathews love letter to KIPP--what is it called, "Work Hard: Be nice" or something like that? Half of the Kipsters vanish along the way. Yes, some drop out completely, but the ones that aren't old enough end up right back in their local public school. |
Anonymous
| Bad charters, of which there are many, also hurt students by cheating them out of several grades of learning. These students then end up back in DCPS, several grades behind. |