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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

But those benefits come with a system-wide cost.   Non-neighborhood charter schools makes it all-but impossible for terrible neighborhood schools to improve, and makes it harder for middling schools to improve because they strip many good, dedicated parents away.  from the perspective of the kids left behind in terrible schools because their parents are incapable of getting them out, that enacts a very heavy price.

Over and out.[/quote]

Sounds like you're advocating for DC to figure out a way to improve all public schools.  I don't think any of us disagree with that. I personally would pay more taxes for this to happen.

However, I think it's unrealistic to think that "good, dedicated parents" are the magic bullet, if only we can persuade them to stay in the "terrible" and "middling" schools. There is a lot more involved than "good, dedicated parents," including money for textbooks, great teachers, great principals, better facilities, motivated peer groups and, last but not least, teaching methods that really work for struggling as well as motivated kids.  Nobody has figured out the answer yet although, as I say, I'd gladly pay more taxes to put better teachers/books/pedagogy methods in other schools.

In fact, I worry that "good, dedicated parents" is really just another way of saying "gentrification" of the schools. That is, you are talking about tipping the balance [i]away from[/i] non-English-speaking or illiterate families (your points not mine), and [i]towards [/i]ambitious middle-class families who want their kids to go to college. Because this what leads to the results you seem to want, in the way of more pressure on kids, teachers and the school administration to solve those other problems like teaching and textbooks.[/quote]

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