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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]the bolded statement reads as incredibly privileged.  it should be about providing everyone at all levels with great schools.  (while improving the middle schools could use more attention, my overall impression of bowser is that she does for the most part care about kids in dc.)[/quote]

Incredibly privileged people like us on Capitol Hill (read many Federal employees) deserve neighborhood middle and high schools most of us are OK with for our tax dollars.  Unfortunately, we're almost as far from having them as we were nearly 20 years ago, when my spouse and I bought our first property in the neighborhood.

Our overall impression is that Bowser could absolutely care less if UMC families with school-age kids, particularly whites, bail on city schools, and the District itself for that matter.  Fenty cared, Gray, too.  Not this short-sighted mayor.[/quote]

There are plenty of options for HS?? There are charters and test in schools.[/quote]

None are a sure thing. You can't bank on the test-in schools at all (I don't care how much of a genius you think your kid is). And access to charter HSs is very dependent on whether you are at a feeder charter. For instance, it's very hard to get into DCI unless you lottery into a feeder school, and since it's immersion, you kind of need to do that by K or 1st at the latest. And of course the feeders are hard to get into. Meanwhile, BASIS and Latin are far from sure bets, and you can't get into HS without lotterying into MS (in 5th grade!). A lot of people like ITS but it only goes through MS.

And so on. Most people in DC can find an elementary school they like and will serve their kids. But only some elementaries set you ups for a MS or HS that will be acceptable to most parents. On the Hill, the IB is Eastern which is just a no-go for most parents. Thus all the consternation about MS. The reason people won't "give Stuart Hobson a shot" (or Eliot Hine for that matter) is that even if they do and it's great, they are then stuck with regards to HS. This is why you see so much hand wringing over schools on the Hill. Some lucky few score spots in charters that feed to an acceptable HS, but most don't.[/quote]

We got into DCI from Cap Hill SE after striking out at BASIS, Latin 1, Latin 2. Hurrah, a path to 12th grade! But we couldn't drive our kid - our commutes are in the opposite direction.  We offered to pay other parents to let him join their carpool, but nobody would bite and there's no DCI bus parents pay for as with Latin. So he went up on public transportation, more than an hour each way for a school that's just so-so academically (hardly any HW). This fall, we bailed for a private and won't bother with DCI for our younger child. Be careful what you wish for. [/quote]

Yes, DCI is really inconvenient from the Hill, even the NE part of it. BASIS and Latin 2 are best commutes and neither or very good. Latin 1 at least there is the bus parents pay for.

It's' really kind of ridiculous that there are not better options for HS for the Hill. I'm not sure what it would take to make Eastern the go-to. For years people have said the issue was the the feeder MSs weren't good enough, but when you have so few other options... are people really going to continue to just move or go private at HS forever? Some small percentage get lucky lotterying into a handful of charters that are not even conveniently located, and everyone else either pays for private or moves.

It just seems absurd for a neighborhood with this many families and where people really seem to like it here.[/quote]

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