Reply to If DC public charters are created to help the underprivileged is it bad to

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "If DC public charters are created to help the underprivileged is it bad to "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I mean you can play this game forever in DC.

We are at a Title 1 DCPS (middle class white family) and we often have to have a discussion about whether we will participate in a program because we know it is designed for the many at risk kids at our school and we don't want to take opportunities away from other kids. On the other hand, it's our school and we want to be part of the community. And we don't want our kid to feel separate and apart.

Example: the school has heavily subsidized after care. It's ridiculously inexpensive. Is it wrong for us to use it even though we can afford to pay more? In the end we do use it because what is the alternative? For our kid to to go to some more expensive aftercare program somewhere else so that we don't feel guilty using a subsidized service? How would that look to the kids? It makes no sense. So we get a benefit we didn't earn and don't technically need, but it's really the most sensible outcome.

And then during the lottery each year we always feel a bit confused. Does it make more sense to stay and invest in our IB school (which we like!), or to acknowledge that this school is designed to serve the needs of a community we don't really belong to and lottery into a charter or OOB DCPS where the family community is more similar to us (whiter, more middle or upper middle class). I honestly don't know the answer. So far we've stayed out of loyalty to the school and because our kid is happy. Maybe we'll last until middle. It's really hard to know what the right thing to do it, especially when of course it's a crapshoot whether we even get into another school anyway.

Public school in DC is not for the faint of heart. Unless you live in a small number of school boundaries, you will at some point have to struggle with the question of whether to make a choice that serves your community or that serves your child, and then also to question what it even means to do right by your kid. There is no "set it and forget it" mode for most DC public school parents. You will have to wrestle with these questions. [/quote]

Really appreciate this persepective- and I think you have boiled it down to the issue most parents have. The inability to "set it and forget it" means there is a constant bit of pressure weighing on you.  Inevitability something will force you to grapple with questions - sometimes on a more frequent basis than others. A this stress adds up.  And the lack of a "right" answer is disheartening. And everyone is making these same choices, with the same stress, but different factors- people you like, respect, etc- and you all come to different conclusions- but again recognize that there is no right answer.  Its exhausting. And that I think is more why people leave DC. They are tired of having to think about it and question it and constantly confirm where they stand when so many places give you one and only one option and you never have to think about it again.[/quote]

True, but it also means we have a ton of choices. In MCPS, where there are no choices, I have friends of color who's kids is the only black girls in her classes. A crappy math curriculum was horrific, but there was no way to avoid it. And if you live in the western part of the district, there aren't test in options anymore for MS.

In DC we may have chaos, but it also means we get to pick from a variety of options. In other places, not so much.[/quote]

There's a lot wrong in this analysis. First of all, you have work HARD to choose a school that segregated even in MCPS. Yes, [b]if you actively seek out a $3m home in Chevy Chase "for the schools," then you are actively choosing to put your Black child in a potentially hostile environment. But for the cost of choosing to live in-bounds for Burning Tree or Carderock Springs, you could also choose NOT to live there. 
[/b]
There are also still test-in magnets. There's also now universal testing and a lottery for kids over a certain threshold, which you can argue is not a perfect system but is equally accessible to all.

Basically, neither system is perfect but demonizing another school district with false narratives shouldn't be necessary in order to make your case about DCPS. [/quote]

No you don't. Westland MS currently has only 63 black students in the entire school of 764 students.... Let's pretend the split is 50/50 male/female... so that's 31.5 black girls across three grades. That's about 10 black girls in each grade of 255 students. Very easy to be the only black girl in a school whose boundaries include all of downtown Bethesda. Not just $3m homes.

Also, if the idea is that you can are "actively choosing to put your Black child in a hostile environment" but its impossible for the same control expectations to be thrust up DC residents? You can move to Deal or Hardy catchment area and get your ideal racial balance as well.

And the test in magnets no longer apply to middle school for the southwestern half of the county. So no different than DC if you live there.

The narrative isn't false. It's just that you need to stop assuming the grass is always greener.[/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