Reply to Why Now? Because we have actual problems in DCPS NOW

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[quote=Anonymous]Sure.  But will the proposals the DME has suggested actually make things significantly better for kids at Drew (to use your example)?

They might be in a choice set with Houston (another Priority school) and Burrville (a Developing school) so arguably they'd have some shot at attending a better school...but 2/3 of the kids in the choice set are still going to end up in Priority schools.  Also, only 54% of Burrville kids are inbound and the school is only 89% utilized, so a lot of the Drew cohort could probably already be attending it anyway if they wanted to.

They might get priority at better-performing schools.  That is a benefit to the kids who get in, but it also comes with costs--the literal cost of having to travel across town (kids get free bus rides, but their parents don't) and the cost of losing the families most able to figure out the lottery and get their kids to a better school.

So yes, I want there to be better schools for all kids.  But I'm not convinced this is how we do it.  What about having this process make some minor boundary changes and eliminating the rule that once you're in a school you have rights to its destination school (which removes involved families from schools in less-desired feeder patterns).  Solve the problem of neighborhoods having rights to multiple schools and schools having boundaries that leave them too empty or too full.

THEN let's have a conversation as big as the one on boundaries and feeder patterns on how to make schools better for low-income kids.  Do we need more nurses and social workers? Extended school days? Year-round schools? More science/art/music/phys ed/cooking/etc. throughout the school day? Higher TANF rates? More housing vouchers? Shuttle vans to take poor kids from their home to school each day?  More per-pupil funding at lower-performing schools?  Let's do it!! But let's not do it through the boundary and feeder pattern process.
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