Reply to Common Lottery Algorithm

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Reply to "Common Lottery Algorithm"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I said in my post that there clearly is not enough info for the public.  What is ridiculous is the idea that the public needs the same level of information as the schools who have to participate in it, give info to the lottery and then process the results after, who need to know what this new process requires of their staff... There is a lot of info and detail on how this process should run that is inappropriate to give to the public.

People need enough info to make informed decisions, which for this process amounts to lots of details about each school and understanding the basics (how many choices, when lottery opens, when it closes, when is the draw, how will the choices be made (I absolutely agree there needs to be more info about that), how do you rank, how do siblings apply, etc.  But there is plenty of info that those in the schools need to run their end of this that has nothing to do with how you choose.  You may want that info, but you certainly don't need it.[/quote]

I couldn't disagree more.

The schools are not actors in the lottery. They just say how many spots they have and they're done. They don't need to know at all how it works.  The parents are the actors, they create their rankings. As has been repeatedly demonstrated in this thread, nuances in the implementation of the algorithm make a difference in how your ranking affects the outcome. No family should lose a slot at their preferred school because they misunderstood the process and ranked improperly.

At a more conceptual level, even if parents don't "need" to know, they [i]deserve[/i] to know.  It's a taxpayer-funded program, under DC law the presumption is that the public has the right to any publicly-created information unless there is a compelling reason to keep it secret. There is obviously a lot of concern about the lottery, unnecessary secrecy undermines public trust and delegitimizes the process. [/quote]

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