Reply to Revised Boundary Recommendations to be released on or about June 13

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Reply to "Revised Boundary Recommendations to be released on or about June 13"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]
Ha. Here's a quote from the first page of the thread about Cheh's bill:

[quote]The Chancellor told a group of parents once: No one wants to take the heat for redrawing boundaries. Good schools get smaller boundaries, and less desirable schools get bigger boundaries. Anyone who experiences a change is necessarily unhappy.[/quote] [/quote]

Exactly.[b] I think that is the strongest argument for something coming out of the current DME process. Gray doesn't care if he takes the heat because he is gone anyway. A lot of folks in this town are going to be interested in making the most of this unique opportunity to avoid political costs.[/b]
[/quote]

Take that to mean that if Bowser is elected, we might expect some of this to be implement?  She can get the benefit of change without paying a personal price, politically?

I believe Catania's been pretty clear he does not support this.  Anyone donated to his campaign recently?[/quote]

I think two things can happen:

1) The DME will come up with a plan that has enough popularity that both Bowser and Catania will support it;
2) The DME will identify components that are politically unpopular, but can be implemented without Council support and components that are politically popular, but require Council action.

Of these two possibilities, I see the second as most likely. Of possible changes that are both politically unpopular and doable without Council support, boundary changes seem the most obvious. Parts of Janney and Murch can be moved to Hearst, Eaton can be changed to feed Hardy, etc. Cheh, Bowser, Catania can scream and holler, but I doubt they could stop it. Similarly, elementary choice sets could probably be done if they are limited to select parts of the city. The Mayor could just implement these changes and ignore the Council (which, in fact, may be happy to be ignored in this instance).

In addition, the DME can recommend things such as a new Ward 7 application-only middle school and a new Ward 4 middle school. Those would probably require funding from the Council, but since such ideas are popular, the Council would probably support them.

In the end, Gray and Smith would get blamed for the unpopular changes, while Bowser and Catania could take credit for the popular ones. The problem is if there are unpopular, but necessary, changes that require Council support. That's where it gets tricky.

[/quote]

If the "bad" changes only are implemented wotp, DME might be counting on schadenfruede in other parts of the city to quell other dissent -- especially if they get goodies like new/better middle schools.

Divide and conquer![/quote]

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