Reply to charter parents -- envious DCPS at least has a plan?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a DCPS parent who has been long committed to staying out of charters because I think we need to invest in the public school system.

I am, for the first time, incredibly jealous of everyone in a charter. They seem to be handling DL much better than DCPS, and are able to problem solve more quickly because they don't have to run everything through Central Office. That's become so important during Covid. Also, the charters seem to have so much more control of how they allocate their budget, whereas in DCPS there are huge inequities between schools with large PTO funds and those without.

I think we may aim for a charter in the lottery in the spring. I never thought I'd say that, but we have been talking about moving within the city next year anyway and potentially moving schools as a result. I'm watching how charters and other DCPS schools are handling the crisis and taking notes. I'm extremely unhappy with how our IB has handled it.[/quote]

I think you are right, but I really think this is more about the size of things. Its very hard to turn the titanic, regardless of who is running things. Size, and a lack of trust between teachers and admin are really the root problem.[/quote]

PP here, and I agree. There are lots of issues in DCPS that are made more difficult by the size of the system. But I've never encountered an issue in which DCPS's inability to adapt was so catastrophic. And I think my family is actually probably better positioned than most to handle it (though I worry terribly about my youngest, who has always been such an easy going, school loving, child and is really struggling with DL). But I worry so much about many of the kids I know at our school who don't have the same resources.

For the last several months, whenever my husband and I discuss the challenges of DL or we talk to other families about how they are doing, I've had this idea in the back of my head that this is a temporary challenge that we are rising to in order to help our community. But that's shifted in the last two weeks. I now have no faith that this challenge is temporary, and instead of feeling like a part of a community working together, I feel abandoned. I understand why teachers are frustrated. I understand why it's hard. But I increasingly feel like I am on my own in all of this, and that is leading me to think much more selfishly about education than I ever have before. There is a good chance we unenroll and shift to homeschool for at least one of our children before the year is out, if we can make it work with our jobs.

I no longer believe the cavalry is coming.[/quote]

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