Reply to APS/SA boundary redrawing

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

what really helps low income kids perform to their ability is simply being around high performing middle and upper middle class kids, not when rich people throw money at them and say "please go away."

We learn and model after our peers. Rich or poor, you're selling your kid short if you think he or she isn't of value to classmates simply by being in the same class. Yes, there is the issue of teacher resources but that is just another argument for loweringm the farms rates. NO ONE should attend a school with a farms rate so high that issues related to poverty dominates a teachers time. And frankly, we don't get to choose who we go to public school with, That's why it's called public school. Part of the issue is almost certainly that dc is a magnet for the upper crust of communities nationwide, and probably many went to segregated, cloistered schools themselves and have no experience with diversity. It's ok to be uneasy about that. But try to separate fear and assumptions and uncertainty with reality. Henry is by all accounts a great school with a farms rate nearly equal to the average. That fact is probably a total no go for some parents north of lee highway. If you're a Henry parent you probably laugh at that, right? That's because you actually know what it's like to have some diversity in your school, whereas they don't. It's all relative.[/quote]

My problem with your statement is that it reeks of the white savior complex.  [b]When the hispanic community along the Pike was asked about school preferences and boundary adjustments, the response to APS was clear they'd prefer their kids to be educated alongside demographically similar kids.  [/b]Again, this is the stated preference of the parents and presumably the kids.  Yet there are plenty of well meaning Arlington UMC/high SES that think this is not good enough, and these families are not capable of making their own decisions.  It is a local version of "What's the Matter with Kansas", an unstated assumption these the poors don't know what's good for them so us white UMCs should just decide on their behalf.

The demographics of S. Arlington, especially along the Pike, are set.  That doesnt give APS or the County a lot of flexibility to do anything but tinker at the margins for the FARMS rate.  Is this a problem?  Sure, but primarily in the minds of high SES / UMC families that are now districted into these schools.  As best as we can tell, the majority of parents there are quite happy with the way things are.

And again, not to beat a dead horse, but the quoted statement is another example of treating other people's kids as a spendable resource.  End of day, that is deeply offensive to parents, and you are going to instinctively turn off a lot of parents regardless of whatever social good you think you are promoting.[/quote]

If you were asked "do you want to go to a neighborhood school with your friends/neighbors or go to a school significantly farther away with no or only a handful of English-speaking kids," what would [u]you[/u] respond?  HOW they are asked the question BY WHOM they are asked it makes a HUGE difference.  And APS and other "advocates" on the hispanic community's behalf who don't actually live in the community they are asking, tend to pose the question in this fear-inducing way.  You state they responded they wanted their kids educated "alongside demographically similar kids."  Does that mean they exclude learning alongside other kids [u]as well[/u]?  NO!  They want a sufficient cohort so that they do not feel isolated and unwelcomed - like the MC English-first language children can feel in the 70-80% FRL/50-70% ELL schools.   And you don't district individual children from Carlin Springs, for example, to 2% FRL (and not necessarily Hispanic) Jamesetown.  You district multiple planning units and sufficiently sized groups of "demographically similar kids" to a school and the neighbors still live and learn alongside "demographically similar kids."  But they also learn alongside everyone else and vice versa; and you create greater equity and opportunity.  It isn't a matter of what's best for a particular set of kids - it's about what's best for our whole community and all of our kids overall.  Segregation isn't it.  If the Latinos only want their kids to learn alongside other Latinos of the same economic background, they could stay in a country where all the kids are the same.  They didn't.  They moved here for various reasons.  And in Arlington, it's the white UMC who move (away from south arlington to north arlington) in order for their kids to "learn alongside demographically similar kids."  Hispanics don't have to do the moving.[/quote]

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