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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's some on incomes in DC. https://www.dcfpi.org/all/inequality-remained-extreme-in-2024-as-dc-backslid-on-poverty/

The median income of $60,591 for Black households (statistically unchanged from 2023) was just over one-third of the $168,800 median household income for white, non-Hispanic households (also statistically unchanged from 2023).

The discussion about middle class families is interesting, because it seems to depend on what income levels make you 'middle class.'  The poverty line here is supposedly in the $30K range. So $60K median puts black families in that range. The white household median income puts them in the top quarter of household income in the U.S. (above $165K).[/quote]

I would consider 60k on the lower end of middle class especially if it was a one-parent household. I'd consider 168k on the upper end of middle class. Also those are just medians, so there are plenty of people on either side. Which means plenty of black families with an HHI above 60 and plenty of white families with an HHI under 168k, and I would consider most of the families in between as middle class. That's also all households, not limited to households with kids, which is a wildcard and it's hard to know how that would change these numbers.

I am very confused by the arguments on here that there are very few middle class families in DCPS. It seems transparently false, based on both the statistics and my personal experience. Like I'm still reeling from the person who posted the they believe the "median" income for families at their Ward 6 elementary is 300k, which I actually do not think is possible even at a school like Maury or Brent where yes there does tend to be a higher percentage of wealthy parents. If there are people who really believe that, it is absolutely impacting the culture of the school and the way an integrated (racially and socioeconomically) school will operate. [/quote]

I hear you on the “middle class families exist in DCPS” point. I agree that some of the rhetoric on here (“there are very few middle class families in DCPS,” or claims like a $300k median at a neighborhood elementary) can get exaggerated and ends up warping how people talk about integrated schools and what’s realistic.

As a Black parent, I’ll also be transparent about where my own family sits. We tend to think of ourselves as upper-middle class, but by DC income/wealth standards we’re probably “upper class” on paper. I mention that only because it shapes what options are actually available to us—and it also shapes what tradeoffs we’re willing to make for our kids.

In principle, I genuinely want more schools that are truly integrated racially and socioeconomically and are well run—schools where the floor is solid, the ceiling is high, and kids from different backgrounds can thrive together. I want that to be normal. But speaking purely as a practical matter, we found it’s hard to get that model right at scale in DC in a way that worked for what our kids needed day-to-day.

We did the diverse public/charter route in Ward 6 for years. There were many good people and good intentions. But the wider the spread of needs in a school, the more “triage” can become the dominant operating mode—behavior management, remediation, uneven standards, and a lot of energy spent just keeping the system functioning. That’s not a moral critique; if anything, those schools have the hardest job. It’s just a recognition that a school with an “easier job”—a tighter band of behavioral needs, more stable expectations, and fewer competing crises—is often more able to deliver coherent instruction and consistent accountability.

In our case, that kind of school simply happened to be a private/parochial school. I don’t take that as a universal statement about public vs. private; it’s just what worked for our family. And in hindsight, I’m honestly a little surprised we stayed as long as we did—many Black families we know who are similarly situated socioeconomically made the move to private/parochial much earlier.

I still want DC to have more integrated public schools that can pull it off at scale. We just couldn’t keep gambling on that timeline for our own kids.[/quote]

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