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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]20:32 poster here again.  @ 22:09, You're stating that I said things that I did not in fact say.   I didn't say word about income, that was you bringing it into the equation.  Of course low-income parents as a group care about their kids education - just like high-income parents as a group care about their kids education.  It's not about income - it's about kids marooned in bad schools.

There are DC parents who may be illiterate, or not speak English, or simply not be the least bit engaged in their kids education.  These parents may barely be able to get their kids to their neighborhood school, let alone navigate the charter application process.   That means their kids don't apply to the charters - and that there is not as many people left advocating on behalf of the other schools.  When the glib answer to bad schools becomes "All parents should go charter", you are going to leave kids behind.[/quote]

First, I think "low-income" is implicit in your discussion of parents who are illiterate or disengaged or unable to navigate bureaucracies, even if you won't cop to making the connection explicitly.

Second, I think it's equally glib to say the answer is: "parents who care about schooling should stay in struggling schools, as long as the schools aren't absolutely terrible."  To make sure we're on the same wavelength, you seem to be basing your case against charters like Latin on what you call the "Middling schools" because flight to charters won't really make a difference to what you call the "Terrible" and "Great" schools.

To me it seems naive - and "glib" - to insist that parents of schools that are struggling somewhere between your categories of "Terrible" and "Great" should stay in those "Middling" schools.  First of all, some parents facing a "Middling" school are just going to go private, or they are going to up and leave for MD or VA, so why not keep them and their taxes in DC?  Second, what about the parents working 2 jobs, and all the single parents, who don't have time to devote to the PTA and painting the bathrooms and organizing after-school language classes? [/quote]

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