Reply to Why is the overcrowding issue so complex?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]so there are multiple issues:
* family growth west of RCP
* preexisting WOTP crowding
* growth in use of DCPS schools, esp. Deal, if you have a longer memory, and a lower reliance on private schools in upper Northwest.
* growth in student population across DC
* middle class return to the city - these kids, white or upper middle class and diverse, mostly settled in Wards 1, 4, and 5 to have families after Wards 6 and 3 turned out to be expensive, while they had no objection to moving to these Wards nearer downtown as crime had diminished so steadily for 20 years.
* charter sector growth has run into a space problem - there are only so many more big boxes to stick schools in near these middle class families
* Ward 7 and 8, often only gestured to in these conversations, has a very large youth/student population and the families there have rejected DCPS in pretty serious numbers - the charter sector is really big. And if reaching upper northwest is possible, these families will do it.
* Hispanic families have grown too - some of the hottest growth areas of the city are where Hispanic families have clustered more recently - don't think Mt. Pleasant, think Brightwood.

Basically, we have population growth, uneven, and probably the newest political aspect of it for school politics is the emergence of the middle class "gentrifier" families in Wards 1, 4, and 5 who want DCPS or PCS but are not willing to settle for schools that - because of the center of gravity in the classroom  usually have to focus on students who are not at grade level. The rest - Ward 3, 6, 7, 8 family growth - is significant, but it isn't a new factor, really.

The real key question is whether we allow those middle class (and UMC) Ward 1 and 4 families to mostly keep expanding into charters or Ward 3 schools, which have little capacity to keep up, or we force them into traditional DCPS schools they haven't really taken to just because the lottery won't get them anywhere any more.[/quote]

Well, we are a Ward 5 family happy at our IB.  When I first moved here I never thought our baby would go to DCPS but we are planning to stay through 3rd at least.  I wouldn't count DCPS out.[/quote]

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