Solving the Wilson Feeder crisis - charter schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think so. Especially languagenor Montessori.

You want 6th graders with no exposure to Montessori or immersion to start middle school?

No, these schools need to be more in line with Latin or other traditional schools. They need to be pulling from the Wilson feeder elementary schools, drawing them away from Deal and Hardy.

Except for the fact that charters are supposed to fill a curriculum void (language, Montessori, gifted ed, STEM, special ed, etc...), or pursue a civic mission, like education equity, *not* address overcrowding in a wealthy public school area. DCPS is responsible for planning to address that.

Of course, the city can get around that by allowing into Ward 3 a charter that fills a city-wide curriculum void. But I'd still much prefer that DCPS address overcrowding with high quality public schools, and that the city-wide charters be placed more centrally, accessible to the whole city, and further away from the private school kids.

Charters have used the curriculum gaps to expand, but that's not really the primary purpose. The charters movement began as an effort apply practical innovation which could be applied to the education landscape (public and private). In many ways DCPS has followed that lead in terms of expanding immersion, Montessori, etc.

But in reality, charters are mostly private entities carving out fiefdoms within the public ed landscape. As long as public dollars are being spent on charters the money should address structural inequities in public education, although that logic applies to the Wilson zone in a very different way than OP thinks.

A cryptic response. How does that logic apply to Wilson, exactly?

not really -- Wilson feed is the embodiment of inequity in DC public ed. Charters aren't intended to exacerbate this inequity by serving the overserved

But they are not overserved by a long shot. And moreover, one of the main problems is that they are serving so many OOB kids- kids who are lower SES, which is then offering all that overserved benefits to the underserved. You can't say that Deal/Wlison is overserved when 41%/30% of the students are from other parts of the city.

First of all, the "Wilson feed" is not Wilson -- that includes Janney, Lafayette, Mann and the rest of Upper Caucasia. Secondly, Wilson has a much small rate of at-risk than other HS in DC. Step out of your bubble and breath in the air the rest of dc public ed community breaths.

Please, educate me on how Wilson feeders are overserved. Other than by simply having kids who achieve.

They get to use all of their designated funding and raise a truckload more to cadillac the whole experience. They don't get screwed out of necessary at-risk funds that get absorbed into the budgets rather than provided the much need supports for struggling kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think so. Especially languagenor Montessori.

You want 6th graders with no exposure to Montessori or immersion to start middle school?

No, these schools need to be more in line with Latin or other traditional schools. They need to be pulling from the Wilson feeder elementary schools, drawing them away from Deal and Hardy.

Except for the fact that charters are supposed to fill a curriculum void (language, Montessori, gifted ed, STEM, special ed, etc...), or pursue a civic mission, like education equity, *not* address overcrowding in a wealthy public school area. DCPS is responsible for planning to address that.

Of course, the city can get around that by allowing into Ward 3 a charter that fills a city-wide curriculum void. But I'd still much prefer that DCPS address overcrowding with high quality public schools, and that the city-wide charters be placed more centrally, accessible to the whole city, and further away from the private school kids.

Charters have used the curriculum gaps to expand, but that's not really the primary purpose. The charters movement began as an effort apply practical innovation which could be applied to the education landscape (public and private). In many ways DCPS has followed that lead in terms of expanding immersion, Montessori, etc.

But in reality, charters are mostly private entities carving out fiefdoms within the public ed landscape. As long as public dollars are being spent on charters the money should address structural inequities in public education, although that logic applies to the Wilson zone in a very different way than OP thinks.

A cryptic response. How does that logic apply to Wilson, exactly?

not really -- Wilson feed is the embodiment of inequity in DC public ed. Charters aren't intended to exacerbate this inequity by serving the overserved

But they are not overserved by a long shot. And moreover, one of the main problems is that they are serving so many OOB kids- kids who are lower SES, which is then offering all that overserved benefits to the underserved. You can't say that Deal/Wlison is overserved when 41%/30% of the students are from other parts of the city.

First of all, the "Wilson feed" is not Wilson -- that includes Janney, Lafayette, Mann and the rest of Upper Caucasia. Secondly, Wilson has a much small rate of at-risk than other HS in DC. Step out of your bubble and breath in the air the rest of dc public ed community breaths.

Please, educate me on how Wilson feeders are overserved. Other than by simply having kids who achieve.

They get to use all of their designated funding and raise a truckload more to cadillac the whole experience. They don't get screwed out of necessary at-risk funds that get absorbed into the budgets rather than provided the much need supports for struggling kids.[/quot

The first part sounds more like self-serve. The second is the fault of DCPS. What do families WOTP have to do with mismanagement of funds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mega-elementary school is a ridiculous idea.

The other alternatives are build 1100+ new seats WOTP (at around $100K/seat) or send 1100+ kids EOTP for elementary school. Or maybe lose those kids to privates and Bethesda.

If you send my kid on an hour commute to MS or HS, you will lose us to private or MD. If we wanted long commutes, we would live in the subury.

More importantly, you would not find an educator in the country who would say that a mega elementary school would be good for the kids.

So, fine, build more schools. Why not? It’s beside the point that there is capacity on the other side of town if they haven’t managed development accordingly.

It's not an hour commute from Mt. Pleasant to MacFarland or Shepherd Park to Wells.
Also, if you go to private, we'll still have your taxes and not have to educate your kids. If you go to MD, we'll get the transfer tax when you sell your house and someone else (who will earn plenty of money and pay plenty of taxes) will replace you. DC, and DCPS, don't really care if you stay or not.

From my home — and from much of upper NW to Mt. Pleasant is 15-20 minutes by car, probably 40 minutes minimum by public transportation. What high school woth so much free space are you envisioning sending the Wilson kids to? The space is mostly in East of the River, I believe.

Meanwhile, we don’t own my home, we rent, mainly to have flexibility for schools when faced with the uncertainty of DC schools. We moved once to be near our preschool and once to get the ES right. We can move again, and you will get no transfer tax.

Finally, There are lots of people like me. And when we all move, who is going to buy our homes and rent our apartments when their kids will then go to a poorly-conceived elementary school and MS and HS far outside the neighborhood? Real estate values — and property taxes — will plummet.

Young professionals without kids. The largest, wealthiest and fastest growing demographic in the city.

Truth is families with children use the most city services (schools, summer camps, rec centers and fields, free transit, tax deductions). We are just not the most desired residents from a city planner's perspective -- my family's $150K in income is taxed at a lower rate than the single person across the street. They also eat out more and don't use schools etc.

As for holding property values, my Ward 4 home has appreciated 100% in the 10 years since we bought it. And our IB DCPS schools are 1- and 2- STARs. But we are near a Metro, which is more important.

Young professionals without kids are not buying the zillions of 4 bedroom Colonial SFHs with a yard in Upper NW.

This is the core of the problem: much of the family friendly housing in the city is in Ward 3. That does a lot to make Deal huge.

Upper NW needs to upzone.

But DC shouldn’t want to be a city of transient millennials. If they want people to put down roots and be proud of the city and their communities, they should want families to stay and raise kids here. That means both supporting family sized housing and supporting good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mega-elementary school is a ridiculous idea.

The other alternatives are build 1100+ new seats WOTP (at around $100K/seat) or send 1100+ kids EOTP for elementary school. Or maybe lose those kids to privates and Bethesda.

If you send my kid on an hour commute to MS or HS, you will lose us to private or MD. If we wanted long commutes, we would live in the subury.

More importantly, you would not find an educator in the country who would say that a mega elementary school would be good for the kids.

So, fine, build more schools. Why not? It’s beside the point that there is capacity on the other side of town if they haven’t managed development accordingly.

It's not an hour commute from Mt. Pleasant to MacFarland or Shepherd Park to Wells.
Also, if you go to private, we'll still have your taxes and not have to educate your kids. If you go to MD, we'll get the transfer tax when you sell your house and someone else (who will earn plenty of money and pay plenty of taxes) will replace you. DC, and DCPS, don't really care if you stay or not.

From my home — and from much of upper NW to Mt. Pleasant is 15-20 minutes by car, probably 40 minutes minimum by public transportation. What high school woth so much free space are you envisioning sending the Wilson kids to? The space is mostly in East of the River, I believe.

Meanwhile, we don’t own my home, we rent, mainly to have flexibility for schools when faced with the uncertainty of DC schools. We moved once to be near our preschool and once to get the ES right. We can move again, and you will get no transfer tax.

Finally, There are lots of people like me. And when we all move, who is going to buy our homes and rent our apartments when their kids will then go to a poorly-conceived elementary school and MS and HS far outside the neighborhood? Real estate values — and property taxes — will plummet.

Young professionals without kids. The largest, wealthiest and fastest growing demographic in the city.

Truth is families with children use the most city services (schools, summer camps, rec centers and fields, free transit, tax deductions). We are just not the most desired residents from a city planner's perspective -- my family's $150K in income is taxed at a lower rate than the single person across the street. They also eat out more and don't use schools etc.

As for holding property values, my Ward 4 home has appreciated 100% in the 10 years since we bought it. And our IB DCPS schools are 1- and 2- STARs. But we are near a Metro, which is more important.

Young professionals without kids are not buying the zillions of 4 bedroom Colonial SFHs with a yard in Upper NW.

This is the core of the problem: much of the family friendly housing in the city is in Ward 3. That does a lot to make Deal huge.

Upper NW needs to upzone.

But DC shouldn’t want to be a city of transient millennials. If they want people to put down roots and be proud of the city and their communities, they should want families to stay and raise kids here. That means both supporting family sized housing and supporting good schools.

So SFHs or upzone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mega-elementary school is a ridiculous idea.

The other alternatives are build 1100+ new seats WOTP (at around $100K/seat) or send 1100+ kids EOTP for elementary school. Or maybe lose those kids to privates and Bethesda.

If you send my kid on an hour commute to MS or HS, you will lose us to private or MD. If we wanted long commutes, we would live in the subury.

More importantly, you would not find an educator in the country who would say that a mega elementary school would be good for the kids.

So, fine, build more schools. Why not? It’s beside the point that there is capacity on the other side of town if they haven’t managed development accordingly.

It's not an hour commute from Mt. Pleasant to MacFarland or Shepherd Park to Wells.
Also, if you go to private, we'll still have your taxes and not have to educate your kids. If you go to MD, we'll get the transfer tax when you sell your house and someone else (who will earn plenty of money and pay plenty of taxes) will replace you. DC, and DCPS, don't really care if you stay or not.

From my home — and from much of upper NW to Mt. Pleasant is 15-20 minutes by car, probably 40 minutes minimum by public transportation. What high school woth so much free space are you envisioning sending the Wilson kids to? The space is mostly in East of the River, I believe.

Meanwhile, we don’t own my home, we rent, mainly to have flexibility for schools when faced with the uncertainty of DC schools. We moved once to be near our preschool and once to get the ES right. We can move again, and you will get no transfer tax.

Finally, There are lots of people like me. And when we all move, who is going to buy our homes and rent our apartments when their kids will then go to a poorly-conceived elementary school and MS and HS far outside the neighborhood? Real estate values — and property taxes — will plummet.

Young professionals without kids. The largest, wealthiest and fastest growing demographic in the city.

Truth is families with children use the most city services (schools, summer camps, rec centers and fields, free transit, tax deductions). We are just not the most desired residents from a city planner's perspective -- my family's $150K in income is taxed at a lower rate than the single person across the street. They also eat out more and don't use schools etc.

As for holding property values, my Ward 4 home has appreciated 100% in the 10 years since we bought it. And our IB DCPS schools are 1- and 2- STARs. But we are near a Metro, which is more important.

Young professionals without kids are not buying the zillions of 4 bedroom Colonial SFHs with a yard in Upper NW.

This is the core of the problem: much of the family friendly housing in the city is in Ward 3. That does a lot to make Deal huge.

Upper NW needs to upzone.

But DC shouldn’t want to be a city of transient millennials. If they want people to put down roots and be proud of the city and their communities, they should want families to stay and raise kids here. That means both supporting family sized housing and supporting good schools.

Most of DC is suburban-type neighborhoods. I was just thinking yesterday while walking around how different DC is from most east-coast cities, in that the urban part of it is really very small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mega-elementary school is a ridiculous idea.

The other alternatives are build 1100+ new seats WOTP (at around $100K/seat) or send 1100+ kids EOTP for elementary school. Or maybe lose those kids to privates and Bethesda.

If you send my kid on an hour commute to MS or HS, you will lose us to private or MD. If we wanted long commutes, we would live in the subury.

More importantly, you would not find an educator in the country who would say that a mega elementary school would be good for the kids.

So, fine, build more schools. Why not? It’s beside the point that there is capacity on the other side of town if they haven’t managed development accordingly.

It's not an hour commute from Mt. Pleasant to MacFarland or Shepherd Park to Wells.
Also, if you go to private, we'll still have your taxes and not have to educate your kids. If you go to MD, we'll get the transfer tax when you sell your house and someone else (who will earn plenty of money and pay plenty of taxes) will replace you. DC, and DCPS, don't really care if you stay or not.

From my home — and from much of upper NW to Mt. Pleasant is 15-20 minutes by car, probably 40 minutes minimum by public transportation. What high school woth so much free space are you envisioning sending the Wilson kids to? The space is mostly in East of the River, I believe.

Meanwhile, we don’t own my home, we rent, mainly to have flexibility for schools when faced with the uncertainty of DC schools. We moved once to be near our preschool and once to get the ES right. We can move again, and you will get no transfer tax.

Finally, There are lots of people like me. And when we all move, who is going to buy our homes and rent our apartments when their kids will then go to a poorly-conceived elementary school and MS and HS far outside the neighborhood? Real estate values — and property taxes — will plummet.

Young professionals without kids. The largest, wealthiest and fastest growing demographic in the city.

Truth is families with children use the most city services (schools, summer camps, rec centers and fields, free transit, tax deductions). We are just not the most desired residents from a city planner's perspective -- my family's $150K in income is taxed at a lower rate than the single person across the street. They also eat out more and don't use schools etc.

As for holding property values, my Ward 4 home has appreciated 100% in the 10 years since we bought it. And our IB DCPS schools are 1- and 2- STARs. But we are near a Metro, which is more important.

Young professionals without kids are not buying the zillions of 4 bedroom Colonial SFHs with a yard in Upper NW.

This is the core of the problem: much of the family friendly housing in the city is in Ward 3. That does a lot to make Deal huge.

Upper NW needs to upzone.

But DC shouldn’t want to be a city of transient millennials. If they want people to put down roots and be proud of the city and their communities, they should want families to stay and raise kids here. That means both supporting family sized housing and supporting good schools.

So SFHs or upzone?

Upzone to denser housing - 3-5 BD townhouses and apartment blocks. SFHs are basically the reason why housing costs inside the beltway are ludicrous.

[Anonymous]

There is no “crisis”

Students aren’t bring taught in the open air, buildings aren’t collapsing from the weight from too many bodies in them.

There is a problem, no political will to implement a solution to that problem, mostly because there is no city-wide, or Council-wife agreement on the urgency of the problem.

Even if people agreed on that, no one seems willing to share in the sacrifice needed to solve the problem.

It is a mess and isn’t going away no matter how many DCUM threads you start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think so. Especially languagenor Montessori.

You want 6th graders with no exposure to Montessori or immersion to start middle school?

No, these schools need to be more in line with Latin or other traditional schools. They need to be pulling from the Wilson feeder elementary schools, drawing them away from Deal and Hardy.

Except for the fact that charters are supposed to fill a curriculum void (language, Montessori, gifted ed, STEM, special ed, etc...), or pursue a civic mission, like education equity, *not* address overcrowding in a wealthy public school area. DCPS is responsible for planning to address that.

Of course, the city can get around that by allowing into Ward 3 a charter that fills a city-wide curriculum void. But I'd still much prefer that DCPS address overcrowding with high quality public schools, and that the city-wide charters be placed more centrally, accessible to the whole city, and further away from the private school kids.

Charters have used the curriculum gaps to expand, but that's not really the primary purpose. The charters movement began as an effort apply practical innovation which could be applied to the education landscape (public and private). In many ways DCPS has followed that lead in terms of expanding immersion, Montessori, etc.

But in reality, charters are mostly private entities carving out fiefdoms within the public ed landscape. As long as public dollars are being spent on charters the money should address structural inequities in public education, although that logic applies to the Wilson zone in a very different way than OP thinks.

A cryptic response. How does that logic apply to Wilson, exactly?

not really -- Wilson feed is the embodiment of inequity in DC public ed. Charters aren't intended to exacerbate this inequity by serving the overserved

But they are not overserved by a long shot. And moreover, one of the main problems is that they are serving so many OOB kids- kids who are lower SES, which is then offering all that overserved benefits to the underserved. You can't say that Deal/Wlison is overserved when 41%/30% of the students are from other parts of the city.

First of all, the "Wilson feed" is not Wilson -- that includes Janney, Lafayette, Mann and the rest of Upper Caucasia. Secondly, Wilson has a much small rate of at-risk than other HS in DC. Step out of your bubble and breath in the air the rest of dc public ed community breaths.

Please, educate me on how Wilson feeders are overserved. Other than by simply having kids who achieve.

They get to use all of their designated funding and raise a truckload more to cadillac the whole experience. They don't get screwed out of necessary at-risk funds that get absorbed into the budgets rather than provided the much need supports for struggling kids.

Ha, where did you get this idea?? Deal has the lowest per student funding of any middle school in the city (including the at risk/ Sped/ etc funding). http://dcpsbudget.ourdcschools.org/. The PTA raises less than $200,000 - which is less 1% of the school DCPS budget.
Wilson gets less funding per student than all other high schools by a wider margin. Wilson has raised less than $50,000 - .003% of its budget. There is no Cadillac anything.

[Anonymous]

Ha, where did you get this idea?? Deal has the lowest per student funding of any middle school in the city (including the at risk/ Sped/ etc funding). http://dcpsbudget.ourdcschools.org/. The PTA raises less than $200,000 - which is less 1% of the school DCPS budget.
Wilson gets less funding per student than all other high schools by a wider margin. Wilson has raised less than $50,000 - .003% of its budget. There is no Cadillac anything.


Deal and Wilson get less funding per student BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE FEWEST AT-RISK STUDENTS as a percentage of enrollment.

You want more money, find a way to shove in more poor and disadvantaged kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha, where did you get this idea?? Deal has the lowest per student funding of any middle school in the city (including the at risk/ Sped/ etc funding). http://dcpsbudget.ourdcschools.org/. The PTA raises less than $200,000 - which is less 1% of the school DCPS budget.
Wilson gets less funding per student than all other high schools by a wider margin. Wilson has raised less than $50,000 - .003% of its budget. There is no Cadillac anything.


Deal and Wilson get less funding per student BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE FEWEST AT-RISK STUDENTS as a percentage of enrollment.

You want more money, find a way to shove in more poor and disadvantaged kids.

They are also behemoths in terms of the number of students compared to every other school in the city and should be able to achieve a LOT with economies of scale (plus, the low numbers of low income students). The should have the lowest per pupil funding in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, where did you get this idea?? Deal has the lowest per student funding of any middle school in the city (including the at risk/ Sped/ etc funding). http://dcpsbudget.ourdcschools.org/. The PTA raises less than $200,000 - which is less 1% of the school DCPS budget.
Wilson gets less funding per student than all other high schools by a wider margin. Wilson has raised less than $50,000 - .003% of its budget. There is no Cadillac anything.


Deal and Wilson get less funding per student BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE FEWEST AT-RISK STUDENTS as a percentage of enrollment.

You want more money, find a way to shove in more poor and disadvantaged kids.

They are also behemoths in terms of the number of students compared to every other school in the city and should be able to achieve a LOT with economies of scale (plus, the low numbers of low income students). The should have the lowest per pupil funding in the city.

Sure, I don't disagree - but the up thread pp was saying that these schools have Cadillac experiences and are flush with cash. That is simply not the case. And being large has some economies of scale -- and some situations where it works against you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mega-elementary school is a ridiculous idea.

The other alternatives are build 1100+ new seats WOTP (at around $100K/seat) or send 1100+ kids EOTP for elementary school. Or maybe lose those kids to privates and Bethesda.

If you send my kid on an hour commute to MS or HS, you will lose us to private or MD. If we wanted long commutes, we would live in the subury.

More importantly, you would not find an educator in the country who would say that a mega elementary school would be good for the kids.

So, fine, build more schools. Why not? It’s beside the point that there is capacity on the other side of town if they haven’t managed development accordingly.

It's not an hour commute from Mt. Pleasant to MacFarland or Shepherd Park to Wells.
Also, if you go to private, we'll still have your taxes and not have to educate your kids. If you go to MD, we'll get the transfer tax when you sell your house and someone else (who will earn plenty of money and pay plenty of taxes) will replace you. DC, and DCPS, don't really care if you stay or not.

From my home — and from much of upper NW to Mt. Pleasant is 15-20 minutes by car, probably 40 minutes minimum by public transportation. What high school woth so much free space are you envisioning sending the Wilson kids to? The space is mostly in East of the River, I believe.

Meanwhile, we don’t own my home, we rent, mainly to have flexibility for schools when faced with the uncertainty of DC schools. We moved once to be near our preschool and once to get the ES right. We can move again, and you will get no transfer tax.

Finally, There are lots of people like me. And when we all move, who is going to buy our homes and rent our apartments when their kids will then go to a poorly-conceived elementary school and MS and HS far outside the neighborhood? Real estate values — and property taxes — will plummet.

Young professionals without kids. The largest, wealthiest and fastest growing demographic in the city.

Truth is families with children use the most city services (schools, summer camps, rec centers and fields, free transit, tax deductions). We are just not the most desired residents from a city planner's perspective -- my family's $150K in income is taxed at a lower rate than the single person across the street. They also eat out more and don't use schools etc.

As for holding property values, my Ward 4 home has appreciated 100% in the 10 years since we bought it. And our IB DCPS schools are 1- and 2- STARs. But we are near a Metro, which is more important.

Young professionals without kids are not buying the zillions of 4 bedroom Colonial SFHs with a yard in Upper NW.

This is the core of the problem: much of the family friendly housing in the city is in Ward 3. That does a lot to make Deal huge.

Upper NW needs to upzone.

But DC shouldn’t want to be a city of transient millennials. If they want people to put down roots and be proud of the city and their communities, they should want families to stay and raise kids here. That means both supporting family sized housing and supporting good schools.

Most of DC is suburban-type neighborhoods. I was just thinking yesterday while walking around how different DC is from most east-coast cities, in that the urban part of it is really very small.

It's not, really. It's just smaller than all the cities people compare it to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mega-elementary school is a ridiculous idea.

The other alternatives are build 1100+ new seats WOTP (at around $100K/seat) or send 1100+ kids EOTP for elementary school. Or maybe lose those kids to privates and Bethesda.

If you send my kid on an hour commute to MS or HS, you will lose us to private or MD. If we wanted long commutes, we would live in the subury.

More importantly, you would not find an educator in the country who would say that a mega elementary school would be good for the kids.

So, fine, build more schools. Why not? It’s beside the point that there is capacity on the other side of town if they haven’t managed development accordingly.

It's not an hour commute from Mt. Pleasant to MacFarland or Shepherd Park to Wells.
Also, if you go to private, we'll still have your taxes and not have to educate your kids. If you go to MD, we'll get the transfer tax when you sell your house and someone else (who will earn plenty of money and pay plenty of taxes) will replace you. DC, and DCPS, don't really care if you stay or not.

From my home — and from much of upper NW to Mt. Pleasant is 15-20 minutes by car, probably 40 minutes minimum by public transportation. What high school woth so much free space are you envisioning sending the Wilson kids to? The space is mostly in East of the River, I believe.

Meanwhile, we don’t own my home, we rent, mainly to have flexibility for schools when faced with the uncertainty of DC schools. We moved once to be near our preschool and once to get the ES right. We can move again, and you will get no transfer tax.

Finally, There are lots of people like me. And when we all move, who is going to buy our homes and rent our apartments when their kids will then go to a poorly-conceived elementary school and MS and HS far outside the neighborhood? Real estate values — and property taxes — will plummet.

Young professionals without kids. The largest, wealthiest and fastest growing demographic in the city.

Truth is families with children use the most city services (schools, summer camps, rec centers and fields, free transit, tax deductions). We are just not the most desired residents from a city planner's perspective -- my family's $150K in income is taxed at a lower rate than the single person across the street. They also eat out more and don't use schools etc.

As for holding property values, my Ward 4 home has appreciated 100% in the 10 years since we bought it. And our IB DCPS schools are 1- and 2- STARs. But we are near a Metro, which is more important.

Young professionals without kids are not buying the zillions of 4 bedroom Colonial SFHs with a yard in Upper NW.

This is the core of the problem: much of the family friendly housing in the city is in Ward 3. That does a lot to make Deal huge.

Upper NW needs to upzone.

But DC shouldn’t want to be a city of transient millennials. If they want people to put down roots and be proud of the city and their communities, they should want families to stay and raise kids here. That means both supporting family sized housing and supporting good schools.

So SFHs or upzone?

Upzone to denser housing - 3-5 BD townhouses and apartment blocks. SFHs are basically the reason why housing costs inside the beltway are ludicrous.

This is already happening, despite the near-daily gaslighting by GGW and its sycophants. Between City Ridge (former Fannie Mae site) and the parcel next door, 1,400 apartments are going to come online in the next five years on Wisconsin Avenue just south of Tenleytown, adding to the massive apartment buildings that line both Wisconsin and Connecticut avenues (some of them quite new, like 5333 Connecticut and Park Van Ness, and more are to come).

But remind the GGW crowd of all this development and you get crickets. And then ask the GGW crowd where all these new residents are going to send their kids to school -- no, they all aren't going to be DINKs -- and they actively plug their ears.