Reply to Is Charter Neighborhood Preference a good idea?

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Reply to "Is Charter Neighborhood Preference a good idea?"

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[quote=Anonymous]There is one key concept: It doesn't have to be done exactly the way DCPS in-boundary is done.

Let me repeat: It doesn't have to be done exactly the way DCPS in-boundary is done.

Neighborhood preference is obviously a good idea. One of the many inanities of our current public school system is that something like 50,000 kids go to public schools outside of their neighborhoods. This means that our transportation system has to somehow absorb 100,000 extra trips per day. It weakens neighborhoods and weakens school communities.

Now, when I say it doesn't have to be done exactly the way DCPS in-boundary is done, here's what I have in mind: make a preference, not a right. What I mean by that is if there are more in-boundary applicants than slots, you have a lottery, you don't crowd as DCPS does. And make it a relative preference, not an absolute preference. Set a certain number of slots for in-boundary and out-of-boundary, and have separate lotteries. Even if a school is popular there would be some chance for OOB families to get in.

The most important thing would be to allow each school to set its own policy, have that policy be set by the PCSB as part of the chartering process, and make the school stick to that policy unless it wants to go back before the board for a charter revision. So specialized schools could be chartered with city-wide enrollment, while schools that want to serve a particular neighborhood could be chartered with 50% or 75% of their seats reserved for neighborhood residents.

Hopefully the PCSB would be smart enough to see that specialized schools (language immersion, special-ed, arts) have to be city-wide, and neighborhood schools have to be generalized.[/quote]

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