Reply to Ward 2/3 High School proposal in the NW Current

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Reply to "Ward 2/3 High School proposal in the NW Current"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Bancroft parent]I really wonder where a lot of these posters live, who are talking about "over-crowding" and offering purportedly well-meaning proposals of new MSs and HSs for those of us living in wards other than 3. I suspect many live in Ward 3, and thus would never be required to attend these brave new schools that they are proposing. But I can't know, because they don't disclose it. [/quote]
I'm 16:47, who asked you why you would not consider any EotP schools for your children.  Since you are concerned about bias, I'll disclose that I am [u]not[/u] Ward 3, and I'm not even in bounds for Deal, Hardy, or Wilson.  I am well EotP, and the only way my children could attend one of those schools is via some sort of OOB lottery opportunity.

I find it frustrating and unfair that you paint all Ward 3 parents as if they were trying to achieve a "lily white" school, and yet you paint your motives as pure and only merits-based.  I'd bet 99% of those Ward 3 parents want just the same things you do -- quality schools -- and they don't care about the race issues you raise.  You accuse them of "red lining" based solely on the disparate racial impact you claim will arise if your own neighborhood is denied access.  But when you explain why you're rejecting [b]your own neighborhood schools, [/b]it seems you could be accused of red-lining yourself.  I'm not laying that accusation on you, because I give you the benefit of the doubt.  But I think you owe that same benefit of the doubt to people who live in other neighborhoods.

If you want any of these discussions to move us all forward, you need to stop the unfair attacks on people who disagree with you.[/quote]

Bancroft parent here - I was not the poster who used terms like "lilly white" and I never attacked anyone. I did explain red-lining, because it is apparently a blind spot for many on DCUM. My point was, drop that proposal because it will never fly. I was not imputing racist motives, just pointing out how the courts would see it. I realize it could have been misinterpreted though, so my apologies for that.

Regarding the phrase in bold, Deal and Wilson are the neighborhood schools for Mount Pleasant, and Bancroft has fed to Deal for decades. Somewhere along the way, this insidious habit crept in to refer to Deal and Wilson as "WOTP schools", as if all of us EOTP are some how OOB for those schools. I am not rejecting any neighborhood schools, rather, I am saying that we should be able to keep our neighborhood schools.

Only governments and companies that provide goods and services can redline, but I am interpreting this as you saying that I don't want to attend schools that are mostly composed of racial minorities. Is that what you are getting at?

I gave you a long list of explicit criteria, some of which have no relation to race, and others which are race-neutral in substance, but yes, highly correlated with race in Washington DC. But, if I were so opposed to attending racially diverse schools, why would I send my kids to Bancroft, with its 80% latino and black combined, and 70% FARMs? Why would I want to go to Wilson with its 45% African-American population? Obviously, I am comfortable with schools where whites are the minority. But I am not comfortable with poor-quality schools and will oppose any attempt to worsen education quality for our neighborhood and its families. 
 
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