Is the School Lottery System Transparent??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP is looking for a place walkable to metro.

Fair enough. Just get a little frustrated when people express reservations about living in the city but don't consider the very real safety issues with living elsewhere. Similar to issues related to "stranger danger" when the odds of your child falling victim to some sort of assault is much, much higher from a friend or relative (or trusted teacher, see the story from Oyster yesterday) than from a random guy who lives down the street or happens to be driving through your neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

OP, you could get something near Takoma or Fort Totten metro stations within walking distance or a short bus ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you could get something near Takoma or Fort Totten metro stations within walking distance or a short bus ride.

but you may not be happy with the schools or crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you could get something near Takoma or Fort Totten metro stations within walking distance or a short bus ride.

but you may not be happy with the schools or crime.

Schools or crime aren't bad as Petworth or Truxton Circle, but people are buying homes in those neighborhoods for $800+.

[Anonymous]

*$800k+

[Anonymous]

I just want to throw up whenever I think about DC real estate. Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just want to throw up whenever I think about DC real estate. Is this normal?

The house I grew up in sold for $95,000. It was a well maintained 4 bedroom house with a garage, a front yard and a back yard in a great school district. When we moved here, DH's and my 2b/1b townhouse in the suburbs was $250,000. I thought it was outrageously expensive.

A couple years later, we started looking for a bigger place downtown and I spent a year wanting to throw up all the time thinking "Well, it's *only* $750,000..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

Which neighborhoods are recommended with good in-bound schools for our budget ($450-550K)? See now why I would think we would be gambling with our child's education?

You started gambling with your kid's education the very second you became pregnant.

It's often a good idea to get a good education, secure good jobs, THEN have a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

Which neighborhoods are recommended with good in-bound schools for our budget ($450-550K)? See now why I would think we would be gambling with our child's education?

You started gambling with your kid's education the very second you became pregnant.

It's often a good idea to get a good education, secure good jobs, THEN have a kid.

You must be the dcum village idiot. what took you so long?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I think the OP should consider much safer schools in suburban areas. You can never go wrong with quiet places away from the hustle and bustle of the city. You know, quiet places like suburban Denver, maybe in the Columbine Valley. Or maybe the countryside outside of New York, somewhere like Newtown, Connecticut. When your child is ready for college you can send them to a bucolic school like Virginia Tech.

Too on the nose? How about this one:

http://science.time.com/2013/07/23/in-town-versus-...are-the-safest-places-to-live/

Let me scream it from the mountaintop:

IF YOU ARE TRULY CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR CHILD'S SAFETY, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO IS NEVER LET THEM GET INTO A CAR. THAT WILL BE BY FAR THE MOST LIKELY WAY THEY WILL DIE OR BE SERIOUSLY HURT BEFORE THE AGE OF 18.

I love you. Marry me and teach me how to drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

Which neighborhoods are recommended with good in-bound schools for our budget ($450-550K)? See now why I would think we would be gambling with our child's education?

You started gambling with your kid's education the very second you became pregnant.

It's often a good idea to get a good education, secure good jobs, THEN have a kid.

You must be the dcum village idiot. what took you so long?

Being your twin, you know very well what I was doing.

[Anonymous]

OP, it sounds like you will be happier in the suburbs. PP's suggestions of Burke, Springfield, and Centreville were on-point with your price range. You aren't going to get walkable to the metro, safe, and good schools in your price range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it sounds like you will be happier in the suburbs. PP's suggestions of Burke, Springfield, and Centreville were on-point with your price range. You aren't going to get walkable to the metro, safe, and good schools in your price range.

+1

[Anonymous]

Disagree. Just rent for a year and suss out where you want to be. It's not hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still think folks are too cramped in their thinking about OP's options, as if everything is riding on the first house they buy or on placing all their chips on the lottery. This seems to me to ignore things like the future potential for appreciating of DC real estate and continued improvement in the DC public and charter school landscape. There's already a good amount of flexibility out there for early elementary, and while middle and high schools have a ways to go, they offer a much better world than even a few years ago. As others are suggesting, why not buy in Trinidad or Eckington or Park View or some other "gritty" neighborhood with better housing prices and some quiet buzz, plus elementary options that will last you three or four years? Then see how those schools improve and play the lottery for a few years to try and get something through fourth or fifth grade? By then, you might not be in bounds for a good middle school, but you might have lotteried into something, or your house might have appreciated enough to sell for a premium to someone who cares less about schools so that you could trade up to a better neighborhood. This is exactly what happened to us. Not saying it's a guarantee -- but frankly, there are no guarantees in life. Just risks that some people are comfortable with and some are not. Why not go after something new and different? It's not like OP can't decide in a few years it's not for them and then head for the suburbs. But for now, it sounds like OP is game for trying something else.

Families with small kids and housing budgets of $450k are of limited means and should not be gambling on real estate speculation -- and trying to buy in neighborhoods with buzz can end very badly and they will not have resources to recover, move, or pay for private school. It's fine if you are childless or can call up mom and dad to cover grandkids tuition but it sounds like OP needs that budge to work out of the box not spread her risk on school potter or real estate gentrification lottery.