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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think that it is absolutely wonderful that enough progress has been made in elementary education in DC that people are even having this discussion.  To those of us who have been here watching and helping this movement, congratulations.  To those who are just joining in and seeing new things that they would like to improve, welcome and I hope you can create the options that you want, but please try to give a little bit of credit to what has been done so far recently before you bad mouth what is here.[/quote]

Oh come on!

I'll give you a ton of credit for creating options that work for your family, but that's it. Do not have the nerve to think that the situation you've helped to create works for every family. And do not think that the "improvements" you've made to the system don't have unintended consequences to other families. There are some good in-bounds schools now (not near me) and there are more and more charters competing with them for other kids, presenting other options (none attractive to me). Just because YOU think it is better because you've created an option that works for YOU does not mean it is inherently better.

To my mind, there is little in this world more dysfunctional than this city's school and charter and OOB system. It would be easier to improve the local in-bounds when the current families don't have a free alternative there is more incentive to stick with and fix the local schools.[b] I love that the charter system has done exactly what all of us public school boosters said it would do, leaving fewer engaged families willing to give the local school their elbow grease. [/b]So - thanks for that?  
 [/quote]

I don't get it PP - you and the parents of DC had YEARS to "give the public schools your elbow grease" - what did you achieve?  Why would it have been better to allow the students of DC public schools to have almost NO good options for even longer, over at least setting up a system that gives hundreds (thousands?) of kids much better options?

You speak as if you just needed one more week of elbow grease to make the local schools perform.  You had years.  How long for you would have been acceptable to do nothing and create no alternatives to give that "elbow grease" a try?[/quote]

Maybe you don't get it because you're incapable of looking outside your own frame of reference. Plus, you didn't pay attention to what I said at all. By the time I had kids, there were so many charters that the critical mass it might take to effect some change at the local was eviscerated. The horse was already out of the gate long before I came to the race. But, congrats on being part of a system that makes it better for a very specific group of people. I'm not trying to take that away from you. But don't congratulate yourself too hard on making things better for my family because if anything, you made things worse for me. To answer your question quite simply: the advantage of "allowing" the students of DC public schools to keep the choice of attending the in-bounds or pay for private means that parents have a vested interest in putting their efforts behind the local schools. If there is an alternative, parents take it. The problem is that the easy out isn't equally easy for some families as it is for others. Anyway, your message is really silly here. I had years to fix the schools? Do you fancy you're talking to the mayor of DC here, or a parent who recently came on the scene and is dealing with a situation that's different from yours?

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