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[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]

Maybe I am missing something, but OP is saying the family is going to move and just attend the local school...thereby bypassing the school lottery issues.

It's not much different no matter where you live if you don't feed into a strong school district...[b]you can't just decide to go to the awesome schools a mile away because your schools suck.[/b]  I think if you move to say San Francisco or NYC, then every school is a lottery system (there are no by-right schools...though maybe that's only in HS).

[/quote]

Yes you missed something as this is exactly what's being discussed here, broadly speaking. If a move is happening anyway, why not move near that awesome school.[/quote]

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