Reply to "The current system is unsustainable." Really?

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Reply to ""The current system is unsustainable." Really?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is not a matter of being less worthy, it is a matter of knowing what the facts on the ground are.  I think it is amazing/great/fabulous/understandable/whatever that the city is being gentrified and families are staying and revitalizing the city in many ways.  The facts are that most schools outside wards 2, 3 and 4 with a few exceptions have long been abysmal failures, similar to many urban areas outside DC.  This is not solely the result of failed dcps policies and this is information that is widely available.  Of course the city needs to improve the schools for all, but that is a long term task at this point.  The reason that some dcps schools have thrived is that they have had a different cohort of families over the long term, which results in a long history of involved parents and prepared students.

The only point I was supporting was the idea that parents knew what they were getting into or should have.  I have extreme sympathy for the dilemma but not for the position that parents did not decide to place themselves in that deli a to solve.  Again, I am not speaking here to parents that have been proposed to be zoned out of successful schools or famies that do not have real choices in where they live.  And by having no choices I don't mean parents that bought a condo in a gentrifying neighborhood and are underwater or educated parents that work for non profits and refuse to move to nova (where they could afford to live in a decent school district) because of the commute.[/quote]

It could also be that some families were lured to come or stay in DC because of the promise of school reform that Michelle Rhee brought.  remember she was widely supported here and across the country as a miracle worker who was going to "turn-around" DCPS so all kids would be high-performing.  As pie-in-the sky as that is, perhaps a lot of middle class parents believed it and expected the school system to be good by the time their kids were of age. Now they feel betrayed.

But what to do?  Certainly not expect another miracle - which would be expecting DCPS to fix the system so it's good enough for middle class children.  The plain truth is that the system can't be fixed unless there are  middle class families in it.  families and DCPS have to find a way to make that happen or the school system is doomed.[/quote]

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