Reply to Challenge: Can someone explain the Arlington school zoning issues to us w/o being mean?

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Reply to "Challenge: Can someone explain the Arlington school zoning issues to us w/o being mean? "

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[quote=Anonymous]Others have covered most of it, but there is also a racial and economic aspect to it. Southern Arlington tends to be much more LatinX/Hispanic,  lower income, and ESL. Some people will blame historic zoning decisions that bundle affordable housing along Columbia Pike. Others will blame the death spiral that is lower rated schools -> lower housing prices -> lower performing students -> even lower rated schools - and on and on forever.

Families who live in areas where the test scores are lower, due to ESL, an achievement gap, or other factors often want to go to an option school because, like charters in DC, they are seen as better. When Reed ES opens and other factors drive moving ES boundaries, some of the option school programs might need to move buildings. Several issues erupt: 
1. People who had a “normal” ES curriculum don’t like their neighborhood school suddenly becoming Spanish immersion or Science Focus.
2. Kids who go to option schools from out of bounds (OOB) need to be busses there or driven there. 
2a. Locating choice schools in the northern corners of Arlington may create an undue burden on families from South Arlington who may rely on public transportation. 
2b. People who bought houses in the “almost McLean” parts of Arlington get really upset about additional cars and busses in their quiet neighborhoods. And no one will say it outright, but when those cars and busses contain brown or poor kids, it’s somehow worse. 
3. Arlington is racially and economically segregated. That is a fact. People like walkable neighborhood schools. People who live walking distance from a school they like do not want their kids bussed to a different school. See note above about how people feel about more busses to their current school / increased traffic.

When McKinely was renovated / expanded and Discovery was opened, some kids in the NW corner of Arlington were moved around. Someone on the school board made a mathematical mistake in the projected student numbers and McKinely was over capacity the first year it opened after renovation. That made people mad.

Parents at the overcrowded elementaries are annoyed that there are a few schools in NW that are under capacity when their kid is in a trailer. This animosity really comes out when you ask where to move option schools. There are 3 elementary schools in NW - Tuckahoe, Nottingham and Discovery I believe, who overlap a lot in “walk zone”. Despite lots of options being considered, somehow Nottingham is never discussed as a option school. [/quote]

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