Reply to “We need to preserve diversity and mitigate the projected whitening of the feeder pattern”

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "“We need to preserve diversity and mitigate the projected whitening of the feeder pattern”"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the issue that everyone is dancing around is class. It’s considered fine to be “diverse” so long as they aren’t poor. And we all know that DCUM is afraid of the poor students  - who in DC are predominantly Black and Hispanic -  coming from homes with anything less than white-collar jobs with highly educated parents. It’s terrifying.  Washingtonians aren’t necessarily racists as much as elitist and classist. And in DC class is divided by class. We don’t have a large population of working poor whites. If we did, those students wouldn’t be wanted at the high performing schools either.[/quote]

I really don't think it's this. The problem is massive and overcrowded elementary schools, feeding 1 (soon to be 2) massive and overcrowded MS, feeding 1 massive and overcrowded HS.

DC government wants set aside seats for (1) At-Risk kids AND (2) extra capacity for well-to-do OOB kids whose parents don't want to utilize their local schools because these are both influential political constituencies. DC politicos don't want to make the hard choice of taking away Hardy-Deal/Wilson from the wealthy OOB kids, which this is EXACTLY what needs to happen to make Cardozo, Coolidge, and other under-enrolled facilities become "the next Wilson."

And this is why DC has frantically started construction on two new schools WOTP, hopefully in time for the next Mayoral election. The Mayor is buttering her bread.[/quote]

But the reaction of many the in-bound parents in the WOTP schools to all of this has been to say the solution is just to keep the schools in-bound only and kick OOB students out, regardless of race or class, which is... unhelpful in yet a third way.[/quote]

No one is getting "kicked out." The problem - in the eyes of DCPS - is that the natural demographic growth rate of folks opting in to their local public school is too white. Per DCPS parlance - "whitening." 
All of this crashing up against the fact that the Mayors and OSSE has sat on their hands for nearly two decades and didn't proactively invest in WOTP schools. They'd add a trailer or undertake a renovation 10 years too late.

And now? The number of seats for OOB will be a big fat ZERO right before the next Mayoral election. That's why DCPS is in a hurry to build two new schools.

The reaction of folks I know is that they would actually applaud an At-Risk preference in the lottery and even set-asides. Why? Because (1) they value giving a helping hand to those who need it most and (2) it would force DCPS to hire more resources and expand classroom space to accomodate At-Risk kids.

What really chafes folks is DCPS forcing OOB seats to be added haphazardly to schools and classes with zero transparency, no budgeting for space or resources, swelling class sizes, and those OOB kids actually coming from privileged backgrounds and stable homes. [/quote]
Well said pp. I would also just like to chime in to say that while the language is clumsy, "whitening" is one form of segregation, just like concentrated populations of black students in other schools across the city is another. DC should be working to fix segregation (this is a much bigger problem than DCPS) and OOB population in Ward 3 seems to be the only trick they've got. [/quote]

That's a good point, but of course, residential segregation is a problem that's beyond the purview of the school system alone to fix. The city should work to make it easier for less wealthy, less white people to move to the in-bounds areas for these W3 schools.[/quote]

First of all, “less white” people face no barriers moving into Ward 3.  Even financially, there is inexpensive housing available, but it involves trade-offs.

The answer is not to try to cram more people into Ward 3, but to help other neighborhoods improve both their environments and their schools to be equally desirable.  There is nothing magical about the air in Ward 3.[/quote]

Pp again — but I agree wholeheartedly that residential segregation and broad access to desirable living environments is the city’s purview.  Focusing so much on larger social issues is definitely a drag for ill-equipped DCPS.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics