Reply to Janney PTA raised $1.4 million in one year

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Reply to "Janney PTA raised $1.4 million in one year"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's just one example of unfair funding disparities in DCPS:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/unequal-shelves-in-dc-school-libraries-benefit-wealthier-students/2015/03/09/f548db96-bd1f-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html[/quote]

Never mind that they are comparing a 700 student school to a 250 student school, but that article is not highlighting a DCPS funding inequity, rather a total failure to fund libraries at all: "But the District dedicates no annual funding for school-library collections, instead relying on the largesse of parents or the kindness of strangers to stock its shelves through donations." It is tragic that Drew at that time allegedly had one book per child; but it was also unacceptable that, while significantly better, Lafayette allegedly had only 40 books per child for PK to 5th grade (5 books per year -- my kids read more than that in a week), likely all provided by parents. It should not be left to parents at any school. That is a total failure on the part of the District to properly focus on libraries. This is an ongoing saga of DCPS misallocation of resources and messed up priorities. Many parents have been fighting for years to change this in all schools in DC. https://educationdc.net/2017/01/31/dcps-school-libraries-the-continuing-saga-of-the-inequitable-and-underfunded/

Things have changed since 2015, and all purchases are through the public library, and all DCPS students have at-school access to the whole public library collection; but it still isn't working perfectly. Also, DCPS still goes after and gives its own book grants. When DCPS does get book grants, if they actually allocate them to books and not equipment for Central Office, the books do not go to the likes of JKLM:

https://dcps.dc.gov/release/dcps-awarded-multi-million-dollar-literacy-grant-target
PWP grants: https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/publication/attachments/FY16%20DCPS%20Budget%20Overview.pdf

So parents have to supplement for their kids as they always have. Instead of complaining that it is unfair that those parents can donate more books to their schools (by the way, they do book drives for other DCPS schools too, e.g. http://www.horacemanndc.org/apps/events2/event.jsp?eREC_ID=1895131&d=2017-02-03&id=0; http://www.politics-prose.com/wishlist/murch-reach-inc-bookdrive), join the advocacy to get more books in all DCPS libraries so it isn't dumped on the backs of parents. The system needs millions to make up for zero effort over the last decade.[/quote]

But DCPS can afford to fund a dedicated communication and media staff for our new chancellor, Oakland Antwan.[/quote]

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