Reply to DC's School Report Cards are up. Any surprises?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Ballou stays open because DCPS provides a by right high school within a certain distance of every address in the city. Merging with Anacostia would not achieve that. [/quote]

I would love to know what you think this “certain distance” is because… have you seen the Dunbar catchment?[/quote]

The distance thing is a planning goal. It's not an entitlement to individuals. They aren't going to open a new school to meet the goal, especially when there are other high schools in the area that are not overcrowded. HD Woodson, Eastern, and McKinley Tech conveniently serve a portion of students zoned for Dunbar, as do charters such as Latin and WLA, and Dunbar is not overcrowded, so DCPS doesn't view this as a problem even those things Dunbar's zone is bigger than technically desirable. But that doesn't mean other schools should also have a massive zone.

DCPS closed a lot of schools in past decades and came to regret it. And DCPS needs to maintain some extra capacity just in case it's needed, and to absorb kids from charters that fail. If, say, Thurgood Marshall Academy were to close, putting nearly 400 kids out, Ballou and Anacostia would have to absorb many of them. Even on zero notice. [/quote]

This person DCPSes. Spot on.[/quote]

Actually now that I think about it, there's a ton of high schools in or near the Dunbar zone. KIPP and Friendship have them, there's Truth, Banneker isn't far, Luke C Moore, Phelps... Then you have Gonzaga, St Jerome, St Anselm's, and Seton, and Archbishop Carroll isn't that far either. So the area is arguably oversupplied with high school seats, when the full landscape is considered.

When I'm back at my desk I'll look up what happened with the kids who went to Washington Math Science and Technology charter. It closed suddenly in 2018 due to insolvency. I wonder if those kids ended up at their IB schools. I don't think any charter high schools are likely to close soon, but as experience shows, you really never know and the PCSB is willing to give schools plenty of rope.[/quote]

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