Reply to RHEE-SULTS: A LITTLE RED MEAT FOR THOSE senti-MENTAL Rhee/Kaya supporters... ENJOY!! Fight Back!

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Reply to "RHEE-SULTS: A LITTLE RED MEAT FOR THOSE senti-MENTAL Rhee/Kaya supporters... ENJOY!! Fight Back!"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]And, BTW, the most helpful contribution the city could make in order to attract and retain the middle class is to improve schools outside of Ward 3. Which takes us right back to the beginning of this discussion. [/quote]

I agree, but "improve the schools" was the issue. There are things you can do to improve the schools for very, very poor. And there are things you can do to improve the schools for the middle-class. Those two things are different. And there's a finite pool of resources.

The things that attract and keep middle-class residents in DC are the same things that attract and keep middle-class residents in NoVa: curriculum, facilities improvements, "specials" teachers, things like G&T programs, etc...

These things will also improve the school for the very poor. But the kinds of (very expensive) programs that target only the poor don't attract middle-class parents. And since they're expensive, they tend to crowd out things like language teachers, art teachers, facilities improvements, etc...  And since driving out the middle-class drives down revenues (as the Brookings Instititue paper observes) it's a downward spiral.

That dynamic was at the base of my (much derided) argument that schools must primarily be a place for educating kids, and secondarily a delivery mechanism for social services.

Whatever helps middle-class students enroll in, and stay at, DCPS schools is what helps poor kids.  Maximize the number of middle-class residents settling in DC and the money to fund social programs (that should not be a "core" function of schools, but should interface with them) will come.[/quote]

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