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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I just wouldn't. And I say that as someone with a kid in DCPS who is doing fine.

But if I had to do it again, I'd have pushed my spouse MUCH harder to move out of DC before our our kid was old enough that it would be hard to do. It's not even that I think schools are so much better elsewhere, it's more that I think DC's public school system is highly dysfunctional and stressful to navigate, and I think I personally would prefer to parent in a district where you just live in the best pyramid you can and then make do. That has it's drawbacks too, but I think I'm better suited to them.[/quote]

Do you mean another district in the DMV or leave the area entirely?

What dysfunctions stand out? [/quote]

The demographics of DC combined with the government culture and the lottery create very dysfunctional public school systems. Everyone works at cross purposes. Schools, parents, administrators, teachers, and the district. Plus charters. The lottery is great on a micro level (can help families get access to better schools) but toxic on a macro level (creates a sense of instability in the system and schools, creates a lot of churn, disincentivizes people to have a "make it work" attitude even with more minor challenges).

I think some people have no issues with this and navigate it well. I find it stressful and unsettling. My kid is in middle elementary and we are now figuring out middle school. I thought nothing could ever be as stressful and annoying as PK lotteries. I was incorrect. Stakes are much higher for MS and there are simply not enough spots at decent schools to go around. There's this weird intensity among parents, especially where I am (Capital Hill) but this is countered by an almost apathetic or aggressively neutral attitude among schools, likely just as a self-protective measure because some of the parents are so intense. I simply cannot have another conversation about math tracking. I'm tired of all of it.

I think I'd find a lot of this in the burbs as well which is why I'd rather leave the area altogether, but I think I personally am better suited to deal with the way suburban districts handle these issues better than I deal with DC public schools.[/quote]

I think the fundamental issue is that voters in DC are liberal Democrats and they reflexively vote for very liberal candidates, without realizing that very liberal Democratic politicians are extremely opposed to raising academic standards and tracking and gifted and talented programs. They think all of that is racist and they will never, ever support it. They think the purpose of schools is to fight inequality. If you voted for different people, you'd get a different result and schools would look different than they do today. [/quote]

The above poster comes on and says this all the time, on many posts where parents are complaining about DCPS. [/quote]

It happens to be true. You don't have to take anyone's word for it. You can see for yourself. Ask JLG or someone like that if she supports any of the things people on DCUM routinely say they want in schools. They will not say yes. [/quote]

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