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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just wanted to note that we are a MC white family in DC. HHI of 130-140k, both parents work.

We don't go to SWS but would if we got a spot because we really value a more holistic approach to education with less emphasis on testing/achievement and more focus on developing a love of learning. I recognize that to some extent, white privilege allows me to want that for my kid because I don't have to worry about them being discriminated against for their race, and I don't worry so much about my kid being viewed as "exceptional" academically because I think a reasonable middle class life will be available to them.

I will also note that I am aware that people in DC of all colors do not think we exist in DC. It's a genuine challenge navigating schools in this city because we don't have the resources of many other white families (or even the resources others presume us to have by virtue of being white people living in DC) but also we are not poor and our kid is not at risk in any way (stable housing, food, etc.). This was particularly challenging during the pandemic when it was assumed we would have resources for full time childcare so that we could work and when we said we didn't, we were accused of being "cheap."[/quote]

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???[/quote]

I didn't say I was lower middle class. Please stop yelling at me. I said we were middle class, which we absolutely are. We are not rich. We do not own a $1m+ house on the Hill or elsewhere (our condo might be worth 500k now, but probably less). We do not have secret family money that we use to afford a higher standard of living. We are middle class.

Our IB schools have low test scores, but they also have very high truancy rates, high suspension rates (an anomaly in DC where suspensions are incredibly rare and often only authorized for serious violations like bringing a weapon or drugs onto campus), and are perennially under-enrolled. Even the schools on the Hill that many UMC and UC people would deem unacceptable for their children are light years better than our IB. I know because we actually go to one of those schools OOB and we know people on the Hill turn up their noses at it.

And yes, I'd go to SWS even though [b]we are not wealthy.[/b] I'm just providing a data point here.[/quote]

You literally just said you're not wealthy.  You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC.  You need to get some perspective. [/quote]

Lol this thread is hilarious. We have some people arguing that even though they own homes worth over a million dollars, they are't UMC, and conversely we have people like this saying that if you make over 100k a year, you are "wealthy".

130k is middle class in DC. It's right in the middle. The point you are trying to make is that black DC residents are more likely to be poor or lower middle class, and white residents more likely to be UMC or upper class. That's all true! It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally. That's a middle class income by almost any metric, and unless the family in question has family money, significant real estate holdings, or other sources of wealth, they are middle class.

Perspective is useful but also words have meanings.[/quote]

130K is close to the median household income for DC, but not nationally.  It's actually more than 50% higher than the median income in many states.  Whether or not it's middle class is a different conversation, but it's certainly upper middle class in many, many places.  DC just doesn't happen to be one of those places.

Here's a chart of median household income for each state:
https://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20220401/bci_data/median_income_table.htm

As you said, words have meanings and your words:

"It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally."

may or may not be true depending on what we define as middle class, but they are not in the middle of the income graph nationally.[/quote]

It's middle income in DC and also for the US as a whole. No, it may not be middle income in certain states or areas that are very economically depressed.

No one claimed that 130k was middle class in rural Mississippi. You can live like a king in a place like that on 53k, but the schools are pretty bad and the test scores are abysmal. So it's pretty irrelevant to this conversation about SWS in Washington DC, and it's test scores and academic quality, and whether it meets the needs of families of different incomes and races. Schools in the places you are talking about barely meet anyone's needs at all.[/quote]

I mean next someone's going to pipe up that 130k is 200x the median income in Malawi (I just made this up to make a point, please don't fact check, it's not a fact) and therefore [b]SWS should be shut down and moved to Malawi.[/b] Like what are we even talking about?[/quote]

Any particular reason you decided to pick on Malawi? Why not a poor white country in the Caucasus?[/quote]

I went to a list of the 10 countries with the lowest income per capita (based on US dollars) and chose the one with the prettiest-sounding name. Literally.[/quote]

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