Reply to Proposal Implications: Loss of Proximity, Forced to go to Lowest Performing School, Concerns OOB

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Reply to "Proposal Implications: Loss of Proximity, Forced to go to Lowest Performing School, Concerns OOB"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Everyone can agreed that everyone deserves good/great schools.
But some people feel more entitled to them than others, like the OP. It it because she pays more in taxes? (but what about people who don't have kids and who pay taxes?). I can understand feeling dismayed if one bought in a neighborhood for a particular school, but the hysterical outcry about "OOB concerns" and a sudden influx of "the most challenging students" in DCPS seems a bit paranoid.

Whatever one's motivation for calling for diversity or not, the reality is that there are truly terrible, awful schools and there are tons of kids who have NO other alternatives--we're not talking murch vs hearst. DCPS may be finding the worst way to fix it, there may not be a way either through redistrcting, social engineering or what, but the ways things are right now the system is terribly unequal. [b]Rich kids get a much better PUBLIC education than poor kids, in DC as in most places.[/b] Seems like lots of posters in DCUM hope the terribly unequal situation can be fixed, in some abstract way, but are hysterical that attemps at fixing might incur losing their access to the few high performing schools or  allowing more "OOB" to enter the high performing district. So why doesn't everyone be 'honest' about things--the poster who is losing access feels entitled to the best school because she bought there--but is she more entitled than someone who lives far east of the park and would never have a shot at a decent school at all? (Please dont trot out the "I lived off cat food for 3 years in a 45 sq ft closet to send my kids to Janney' argument either. Let's be real). [/quote]

I agree with this in bold. HOWEVER, for different reasons in DC than in most places.

In most places the rich areas have better schools primarily because they collect more tax revenues.

In DC, it is different. There is truly no shortage of money at any of the disadvantaged schools.

Rather, the main reason for your statement in bold has to do with the rich/poor divide in DC being the largest of any American city. In other words, [b]students and parents, not government, are the root cause of education inequality in DC. [/b]

I do believe that government can be part of the solution.

[/quote]

You're really quite wrong about this.  DC government has always played to its tax base with every public service and especially with schools.

Twenty years ago, I was a third grade teacher at Walker Jones ES, which at that time looked and felt very much like a prison.  Half the teachers there were like me - no teaching credentials, just a college degree and a willingness to take a long-term job as a substitute.  They were that desperate for staff and on the first professional development day, I recall teachers from other schools asking what I'd done to get sent there and when would I be getting out.  I thought that all DC schools were in the same sorry state but when they sent me to Hearst one day to observe a "model" classroom for the new curriculum that had been adopted, I left feeling physically ill because the difference between the schools was so stark and outrageous.  The kids in my own classroom hadn't seen much outside of their neighborhood, but they were fully cognizant of the fact that their government didn't give a shit about them.  Many of them at 8 years old couldn't read or write much beyond their own names, but all of them could recite their Miranda rights.

That was a long time ago and much has changed, but many of the kids from that classroom are parents now.  And every time I read someone on DCUM saying that poor parents don't value education, I remember that most of the parents I knew back then DID value education, but their kids grew up learning that it wouldn't make one whit of difference for them.

And yes, the DC government had [i]everything[/i] to do with creating that value judgement.[/quote]

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