Reply to The question I wanted to ask DME Smith this evening

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it is a completely fair question, if only to set the record straight.  No one likes to be manipulated and the public was manipulated here.  Outside of the merits of changing school assignment policies in DC that is not what the general  public was led to believe was happening with this process or this committee.  For evidence, just to back to original announcements and communications and you can see that even the name of the committee and process morphed over the last year.  Read the archived news stories.

It was a classic fly under the radar maneuver by government to push through difficult changes on an unsuspecting public.  It leaves many of us with a bad taste in our mouths.  It would help to have clarify on the part of our leaders that this mission creep actual happened. Otherwise I, for one, continue to feel manipulated by the process and distrustful.[/quote]

I guess it depends on your perspective. DCPS school assignment and boundaries are royally screwed up. The idea of changing boundaries without addressing the larger question doesn't make much sense. Moving a line from one side of Connecticut Ave to the other and leaving the mess in place would be worse than the three plans they put out there, and I don't support any if those.

Grow the pie.[/quote]

But the proposals aren't about growing the pie, they're about slicing it differently.[/quote]

I'm aware of that. But the plans contain elements that would be necessary to grow the pie (i.e. new stand alone middle schools). Admittedly there's slim chance they get all right, but slim is better than none.[/quote]

Outgoing Mayor Gray's DME has blown it. Whatever sensible ideas may be buried in this jumble of a process are squandered because this mayor and deputy mayor have lost the trust of many if not most DCPS parents. The mayoral campaign should be the place to debate education policy along with other issues. Then the voters will speak and a new mayor and a new DME can implement what was voted for. This is a sham to ram through their vision in the next months. And if Henderson wants to keep her job in DC she should make clear what her long-term vision is regarding school assignments.[/quote]

Pretty much every school boundary review across the nation has some parents up in arms from beginning to end.  Look at Fairfax County or even Loudoun County where parents are fighting to keep absurdly small, early 20th century schools when that district has to open multiple schools per year just to keep up with enrollment. It's a messy process, no matter how you slice it.[/quote]

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