Reply to What would happen if families in dc all had their kids attend their In Boundary school?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "What would happen if families in dc all had their kids attend their In Boundary school? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I want to address the suggestion that near NE is somehow a utopia of gentrification where people attend racially and SES diverse IB schools and it's great.

That's a narrow perception likely based on being IB for a school you like that is currently in a good place with regards to both school performance (read: test scores) and diversity. If you lucked into attending Ludlow-Taylor or Maury IB at this precise moment, you might pat yourself on the back because your kid is going to a functional school with good teachers and administrators, but also real racial and SES diversity. Congrats -- that's kind of the holy grail if you support public schools and believe in education all kids, and it must feel great to send your kid to a school like that.

Now wait 10 years.

Homes IB for L-T and Maury have become out of reach for middle class families. Affordable housing is incredibly limited and as property costs rise, it's not going to get better. If you need a million dollars to by a 3-bedroom, 1800 sq ft row home IB for one of these schools, how long before the current diversity starts to trend in another direction? I give you: Brent Elementary. 60% white, fantastic test scores, a tiny at-risk population. This isn't a knock on Brent, which is a great school. But it is no longer a truly diverse and is no longer really accessible to middle class or poor families. L-T and Maury will be Brent soon enough.

You can't look at neighborhoods still in the midst of gentrification and say "See, they solved it!" Many, many families are being priced out of these neighborhoods already, and it is only a matter of time before the wealthy (and mostly white) kids outnumber everyone else at those schools. You might pat yourself on the back now because your kids diverse, high-performing school makes you feel like you one the guilty white person lottery. And in a way, you did. But you didn't solve systemic racism and inequity in DCPS or public school generally. It is the luck of timing. That's it.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics