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[quote=Anonymous]Honestly, I think the issue is as much about having too many option as it is about having too few.

I think people in DC get the idea that school needs to be "perfect".  They reject schools because they are "not an option", or because the test scores aren't exactly what they want, or because they have too many students, or because you have to live in a certain neighborhood to get in, and that neighborhood has a "bad commute" or "isn't walkable" or requires that they live in an apartment.

The reality is that most people in this country simply send their kid to the school that serves their neighborhood.  Most of those schools have both good things and bad things about them.  They might be a small school but with huge class sizes, or they might be all about reading and math with very little outdoor time or specials, or whatever.

Similarly, people in these communities don't have the huge array of housing choices that we can imagine.  Many rural communities have no walkable neighborhoods.  Many people right now are stuck in underwater mortgages, and community a hundred miles to the only work they can find.  They also aren't making $250K because those jobs don't exist in rural areas.

Stop whining and choose one of the choices available to you.  You've got plenty.  As a middle income family living in DC EOTP, you've got plenty of options.

1) You can stay in your neighborhood, send your child to the local public school, and provide enrichment.

2) You can stay in your neighborhood, and home school (note: if your family has an income of $150K, then presumably one of you is making at least $75K, which is enough to live on in this city).

3) You can move to PG county, save a lot on housing, send your kid to public school and use the money for enrichment.

4) You can move to PG county, save a lot on housing, and use it to send your child to a parochial or other lower cost private option.

5) You can move to an apartment (not one with a pullout, but a nice 2 or 3 BR) WOTP, or in a close in suburb like Takoma Park, Bethesda, or North Arlington, and send your kid to the highly regarded public schools in those areas.

6) You can move farther out, put up with a slightly longer commute, and have a single family house and a public school that is as good as what you'd get in the mythical small town that you dream of.

How is that not enough options?[/quote]

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