School residency cheaters investigated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs who want sibling preference scrapped surely don't have siblings attending the same school. Dropping off the kids at the same place and dealing with one administration is a huge help to young families. It's also helpful to the school, because parents who are charging between schools for drop-off and pick-up are stressed out, and less likely to help out than those who aren't charging between schools. The window for picking kids up at the end of the school day is usually just 15 minutes. If an individual parents can't make it from one school to another 15 minutes, things get complicated for the parent, child and school. I can't see sibling preference being scrapped. The political momentum for it isn't going to build. Single parents (and many low-income parents are single parents) would suffer the most.

Why should I care that sibling preference is a "huge help" to you? It is patently unfair to my child with no older sibling. Sibling preference has got to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha, the GOP's new platform opposes publicly funded PK on the grounds that it is a "government intrusion" into the family. http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F49%2F%3Fuuid%3D59205.

It's so obvious what the Daily Caller's agenda is ...

The Daily Caller has done said nothing against publicly-funded preK. To the contrary, they have demonstrated demand and a costly reticence on the part of DC administrators to be intrusive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Another thing I'd like to point out: maybe it's the statehood thing that gives people in this area such a chip on their shoulder about the borders? But coming from New York City? You know, we'd JOKE about Staten Island, (an actual part of New York City), or New Jersey, or Long Island, Connecticut; but we would never go on such personal crusades against them. I'm sure there are residency cheaters there too--I knew a ton of people in Brooklyn (Note: I DID NOT DO THIS) who rented apartments to get their kids into 321 or 29; or who sublet apartments and used the addresses, used their parent's addresses, etc. I suppose they all are dirty cheating rule-breakers, but I never really gave a damn. I assumed that life was hard enough, short enough, and some things were not my business.

People here seem to spend so much time and energy whining about what they don't have, what other people have, and how unfair it all is. It makes this a really oppressive place to be. I'm considering moving us into Silver Spring, even if it would disrupt my children and their school where they are happy, simply because I am wondering if maybe people there are not quite so miserable and horrible? Thoughts? Is there anywhere in the DMV that isn't full of people shrieking about the people who live five blocks away over a border who are in some way, bad? You guys make Philadelphians look friendly.

Mr. Rogers is from Pittsburgh. I recommend moving there.

I would love to. Trust me, our entire family is poised to decamp from this hellhole if at all possible as soon as we can. Even the things that are relatively positive here are tainted with this aura of classism and entitlement and... all the whining. I am so tired of all the whining. We get it. You want stuff that you don't have. Why don't you have the stuff? Wah. Someone else has the stuff. Maybe they didn't work hard. Wah. Wah. Don't they know you went to Princeton?

Love it!!

So, what do you guys think? People SEEM nicer in Silver Spring. Is it the best I can do and still be commutable to downtown? It also, having its own industry, seems like it isn't as caught up in all this government political whiny bullshit. Gaithersburg was my other thought... maybe the tech corridor. I'd love to do Frederick, but it's just too far. I am not a suburban person. Our family wants nothing more on the weekend than to walk to a bookstore and have lunch at a decent pub. Anywhere else in the DMV away from these lobbyists with entiitlement issues where we can do that? Would also like old houses. And sidewalks.

Are you fucking crazy? I would sooner die than live in Silver Spring. And as a Latin person, I know better than to try to move to Fredneck. Please. I'm not even sure what you are complaining about. By the way, I also moved here from Brooklyn and I'm grateful to be here around other Princeton grads. I'm sorry that you feel like such a loser wherever you live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another thing I'd like to point out: maybe it's the statehood thing that gives people in this area such a chip on their shoulder about the borders? But coming from New York City? You know, we'd JOKE about Staten Island, (an actual part of New York City), or New Jersey, or Long Island, Connecticut; but we would never go on such personal crusades against them. I'm sure there are residency cheaters there too--I knew a ton of people in Brooklyn (Note: I DID NOT DO THIS) who rented apartments to get their kids into 321 or 29; or who sublet apartments and used the addresses, used their parent's addresses, etc. I suppose they all are dirty cheating rule-breakers, but I never really gave a damn. I assumed that life was hard enough, short enough, and some things were not my business.

People here seem to spend so much time and energy whining about what they don't have, what other people have, and how unfair it all is. It makes this a really oppressive place to be. I'm considering moving us into Silver Spring, even if it would disrupt my children and their school where they are happy, simply because I am wondering if maybe people there are not quite so miserable and horrible? Thoughts? Is there anywhere in the DMV that isn't full of people shrieking about the people who live five blocks away over a border who are in some way, bad? You guys make Philadelphians look friendly.

Mr. Rogers is from Pittsburgh. I recommend moving there.

I would love to. Trust me, our entire family is poised to decamp from this hellhole if at all possible as soon as we can. Even the things that are relatively positive here are tainted with this aura of classism and entitlement and... all the whining. I am so tired of all the whining. We get it. You want stuff that you don't have. Why don't you have the stuff? Wah. Someone else has the stuff. Maybe they didn't work hard. Wah. Wah. Don't they know you went to Princeton?

Love it!!

So, what do you guys think? People SEEM nicer in Silver Spring. Is it the best I can do and still be commutable to downtown? It also, having its own industry, seems like it isn't as caught up in all this government political whiny bullshit. Gaithersburg was my other thought... maybe the tech corridor. I'd love to do Frederick, but it's just too far. I am not a suburban person. Our family wants nothing more on the weekend than to walk to a bookstore and have lunch at a decent pub. Anywhere else in the DMV away from these lobbyists with entiitlement issues where we can do that? Would also like old houses. And sidewalks.

Brooklyn. Williamsburg is calling your name. Your hipster bretheren will love you.

I spent the 90s there and almost sent my kids to 84, except we moved. But thanks. It is utterly insuffrable there too, of course; but at least people have actual jobs, and healthier senses of humor. And yes, I never thought I'd see the day when I called being a stylist an actual job, but the career choices of career politicians make you realize exactly how little is done by so, so many people.

Ugh God you again? Being a stylist is an actual job. Not sure what you have against creative types.

DCUM - please don't confuse this person with a hipster. HE/She is just an asshole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, the GOP's new platform opposes publicly funded PK on the grounds that it is a "government intrusion" into the family. http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F49%2F%3Fuuid%3D59205.

It's so obvious what the Daily Caller's agenda is ...

The Daily Caller has done said nothing against publicly-funded preK. To the contrary, they have demonstrated demand and a costly reticence on the part of DC administrators to be intrusive!

uh huh. ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, the GOP's new platform opposes publicly funded PK on the grounds that it is a "government intrusion" into the family. http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F49%2F%3Fuuid%3D59205.

It's so obvious what the Daily Caller's agenda is ...

The Daily Caller has done said nothing against publicly-funded preK. To the contrary, they have demonstrated demand and a costly reticence on the part of DC administrators to be intrusive!

uh huh. ok.

I am no fan of the Daily Caller, but I hardly think this series fits into a GOP platform conspiracy to shrink government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, the GOP's new platform opposes publicly funded PK on the grounds that it is a "government intrusion" into the family. http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F49%2F%3Fuuid%3D59205.

It's so obvious what the Daily Caller's agenda is ...

The Daily Caller has done said nothing against publicly-funded preK. To the contrary, they have demonstrated demand and a costly reticence on the part of DC administrators to be intrusive!

uh huh. ok.

I am no fan of the Daily Caller, but I hardly think this series fits into a GOP platform conspiracy to shrink government.

I'd like to see some parts of government expand -- resources to investigate residency fraud. And then I'd like to see other parts of the local government payroll shrink, by summarily firing any fraudsters who work for the DC government!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs who want sibling preference scrapped surely don't have siblings attending the same school. Dropping off the kids at the same place and dealing with one administration is a huge help to young families. It's also helpful to the school, because parents who are charging between schools for drop-off and pick-up are stressed out, and less likely to help out than those who aren't charging between schools. The window for picking kids up at the end of the school day is usually just 15 minutes. If an individual parents can't make it from one school to another 15 minutes, things get complicated for the parent, child and school. I can't see sibling preference being scrapped. The political momentum for it isn't going to build. Single parents (and many low-income parents are single parents) would suffer the most.

Why should I care that sibling preference is a "huge help" to you? It is patently unfair to my child with no older sibling. Sibling preference has got to go.

You do realize that there are one of us who don't have children 2-3 years apart, so we had no sibling when my oldest was entering PS3. Having yo get yo and be involved in two different elementary schools that start and end at the same time is impossible. Much less volunteer or be involved with the pta at 2.

[Anonymous]

^^ sorry your phone fingers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I've been in the neighborhood long enough (15 years) to know that there are boatloads of lovely people on the Hill, a great many generous and easy-going parents of toddlers and school-age kids with a big vision for humanity. The entitled crowd, including the type of parent hell bent on busting boundary cheaters and PC County address cheaters seeking a good ECE education for their kids, is comprised mainly by relatively recent arrivals, families who came and bought property within the last five years or so. The old timers learned to roll with the punches somewhere along the way. If they'd hadn't, they'd have left.

I've been here 15 years too (ok fine 14). Maybe it is different when they are taking your kid's spot. It is easy to be easy going when it doesn't directly effect you.

How in the hell can you know who "took" your kid's spot? You were #1 on a WL and you know an address cheater personally who got off the WL ahead of you? The spots they give away aren't numbered; in case where DCPS is auctioning off 28 PreK3 spots you can't find out who got took #28, that's not how it works. I know plenty of people on Cap Hill (self included) who were shut out of their ECE program in-boundary for a year or two, parents who know neighborhood address cheaters, and MD address cheaters for that matter, who have never bitched. They cheerfully got on with things elsewhere for PreK3 and sometimes PreK4, too. You play the hand you're dealt.

If you are number 1 through about 10 at our old HRCS, a MDer took your spot. These families have been there since the first kids in the family got in and the school's administration basically looked the other way. These kids have siblings and sometimes young nieces and nephews who, right now, are getting a great education while you are paying for daycare or at another school.

This is real, ten or so DC families are losing out.

So maybe if you don't have a little kid right now or you're happily in another school you can "roll with the punches" or whatever, but make no mistake, someone else is being harmed.

So call up the Daily Caller and report this to them. I guarantee they will follow up, expose this family and get them kicked out. The time to do something about this is NOW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been in the neighborhood long enough (15 years) to know that there are boatloads of lovely people on the Hill, a great many generous and easy-going parents of toddlers and school-age kids with a big vision for humanity. The entitled crowd, including the type of parent hell bent on busting boundary cheaters and PC County address cheaters seeking a good ECE education for their kids, is comprised mainly by relatively recent arrivals, families who came and bought property within the last five years or so. The old timers learned to roll with the punches somewhere along the way. If they'd hadn't, they'd have left.

I've been here 15 years too (ok fine 14). Maybe it is different when they are taking your kid's spot. It is easy to be easy going when it doesn't directly effect you.

How in the hell can you know who "took" your kid's spot? You were #1 on a WL and you know an address cheater personally who got off the WL ahead of you? The spots they give away aren't numbered; in case where DCPS is auctioning off 28 PreK3 spots you can't find out who got took #28, that's not how it works. I know plenty of people on Cap Hill (self included) who were shut out of their ECE program in-boundary for a year or two, parents who know neighborhood address cheaters, and MD address cheaters for that matter, who have never bitched. They cheerfully got on with things elsewhere for PreK3 and sometimes PreK4, too. You play the hand you're dealt.

Sibling preference is the main reason why we decided to have more children. Improve our odds and let the others slide right in!

Easy there...

You are right, the spots aren't numbered 1-28. Therefore if any of those 28 kids was from a cheating family, they would be taking a spot from a kid on the WL.

Yes we had a low number and didn't get in. Yes we "played our hand," and everyone is fine. Still does not make it right for cheaters to cheat.

A great deal is not right in this picture, first and foremost that PG County not offering universal free PreK, or nearly enough Preschool spots to serve low-income families. In second place, I nominate DCPS for blithely allowing scores of elementary schools to continue to fail, with disastrous proficiency pass rates in the mix. Cheaters are just as likely to end up on the WL as to get in. You can note the immorality of cheaters cheating, or you can celebrate your singular access to non means-tested preschool and prek in every area of this great city but Upper NW. To my knowledge, no other American city offers this. You have Tommy Well's tireless advocacy to thank for the opportunity. I don't know a single family outside Upper NW who has been shut out at every preschool or prek within two miles of their house by the start of school in ten years of paying close attention to lottery results.

Come to the Hill where you can throw a rock and hit five families that have been shut out of ECE.

+1. This is my family. And with nothing low enough to give us any hope. I think a big part of the issue is that everywhere is filling up and so there are more people than ever in this boat.

if you want to complain about being "shut out," then complain about sibling preference. THAT is why there are so few spots in PK.

[Anonymous]

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Try going into DC DMV and telling them that because of "cultural differences" and "informal arrangements" there are no "docs." How do you think that's going to work out?

I didn't think so.

So don't make the argument when it comes to the DC public and charter schools.

I know we've moved on but want to circle back here because I think it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding. Driving is not a legally protected right. Education is. As a result, housing insecure families are able to use whatever documents they have access to, which includes informal letters, to access that education. For the school system to require a level of documentation equivalent to the DMV of a family that is housing insecure, or has custody issues, would almost certainly bring a lawsuit.

Agreed. I mentioned the issue with homeless children and undocumented immigrants before. So a heightened level of proof on the front-end will not work. However, a heightened level of cross-check would work. For example, when it comes to wealthier people who have houses out of state, I think if their names are typed into a system and it shows that they have a MD/VA driver's license and filed their income or home taxes in other states, that is where the enforcement should come in.

And cross-checked against the list of DC government employees. I would think that residency fraud on DCPS/charters should be grounds for immediate dismissal from DC government service, apart from liability for avoided tuition and possible criminal penalties.

Oooh! Grounds for dismissal from Govt. job! That is good way to enforce, send a message that city employees are expected not to commit fraud against the city. However, I do not think that would ever get passed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs who want sibling preference scrapped surely don't have siblings attending the same school. Dropping off the kids at the same place and dealing with one administration is a huge help to young families. It's also helpful to the school, because parents who are charging between schools for drop-off and pick-up are stressed out, and less likely to help out than those who aren't charging between schools. The window for picking kids up at the end of the school day is usually just 15 minutes. If an individual parents can't make it from one school to another 15 minutes, things get complicated for the parent, child and school. I can't see sibling preference being scrapped. The political momentum for it isn't going to build. Single parents (and many low-income parents are single parents) would suffer the most.

Yes to all of that and add that the after/before care costs give sibling discounts for additional siblings. Not much, but paying full price for aftercare at two different schools is crazy. I did it one year and had to wake up early, drive one kid at a daycare at 7am a mile in one direction and then park and take my kid on a bus to his school then catch the metro to work. It was rough. Not to mention how that effects our choice in what daycares to choose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPs who want sibling preference scrapped surely don't have siblings attending the same school. Dropping off the kids at the same place and dealing with one administration is a huge help to young families. It's also helpful to the school, because parents who are charging between schools for drop-off and pick-up are stressed out, and less likely to help out than those who aren't charging between schools. The window for picking kids up at the end of the school day is usually just 15 minutes. If an individual parents can't make it from one school to another 15 minutes, things get complicated for the parent, child and school. I can't see sibling preference being scrapped. The political momentum for it isn't going to build. Single parents (and many low-income parents are single parents) would suffer the most.

Yes to all of that and add that the after/before care costs give sibling discounts for additional siblings. Not much, but paying full price for aftercare at two different schools is crazy. I did it one year and had to wake up early, drive one kid at a daycare at 7am a mile in one direction and then park and take my kid on a bus to his school then catch the metro to work. It was rough. Not to mention how that effects our choice in what daycares to choose.

You could, of course, send all your kids to your neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Oh dear God. Please tell me the Latin Princeton grad who hates silver spring is some kind of parody I am just too dim to understand, as opposed to a sincere, socially insecure person, who does not like to be around the browns.