Reply to Overcrowding and lack of space in Ward 3 Schools

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Overcrowding and lack of space in Ward 3 Schools"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP.  I think the answer is obvious for those schools that are overcrowded: there needs to be some combination of boundary shrinking and/or OOB reduction.

That's hard medicine because it will piss off people who want access to the Ward 3 schools but won't get it.  You certainly should lessen the pain by grandfathering in those students already at the school.  But there will inevitably be neighborhoods that lose access, even if they don't have school-age kids yet, which will be pissed off.  Also, many of the boundary-edge neighborhoods that are likely to get squeezed out by shrinking boundaries have significant AA populations, which makes it really easy to level an accusation of racism against those who might propose shrinking boundaries.

The other option is cutting OOB students.  But cutting lots of OOB students leads to the other problem, which is that people will see the Ward 3 schools "getting whiter."  That's an inevitable result of reducing OOB spots, because the OOB community is less-white than Ward 3 residents.  So it leads to people complaining that reducing OOB spots is essentially racism.  I think that's an unfair and inaccurate accusation, but it's a damning one that is hard for anyone advocating for fewer OOB students (and certainly any DC politician) to refute.

I personally think though that shrinking boundaries and cutting OOB students are the only two viable approaches to lessening overcrowding.  The key is that politicians and community members need to be willing to impose the short-term pain, and accept the potential voter backlash.  But long-term, that's the only solution.  Continuing to let more students into the overcrowded schools doesn't solve any problems; it just kicks the can down the road.  Pushing the excess students out will be painful, but it will strengthen other schools that those families return to, which is a good thing for DC long-term.  DC should pair the boundary/OOB reduction with a plan for increased resources to the schools where those removed students will be attending instead of the overcrowded Ward 3 schools.  In other words, give people a good alternative.  Also, the strong network of charters in place in DC will help lessen the pain for families because they'll have lots of other options to replace the Ward 3 schools they're losing access to.

The only other options I can see are (1) something radical like shifting to a citywide lottery, or (2) building even more school capacity in Ward 3.  The citywide lottery is just dumb IMHO.  It makes everyone feel less resentful because it "shares the pain," but it's terribly inefficient.  Building more schools (or expanding the existing schools) in Ward 3 is the coward's solution IMHO because it's just wasting money so people can stuff even more children into the desirable Ward 3 schools, and continuing to allow all the other schools outside Ward 3 to sink deeper into trouble.  It might make some people feel good because they can say things like "Alice Deal for everyone!," but it doesn't improve schools in the long run, and it just means we are transporting more kids to Ward 3 to make ourselves feel better without effecting real improvement.

Personally, I also think the current situation creates its own set of racially complex arrangements.  I suspect the current complex lottery system favors high-SES (ie, white) families, because they're the ones with extra time, resources, and know-how to sort out how they can game the system to get their OOB children into Ward 3 feeders.  Also, the refusal of DCPS to shrink the borders around overcrowded schools likely leads to lots of additional gentrification from high-SES and white families into those border communities.  So although the obvious solution of shrinking boundaries and reducing OOB students has some elements that undeniably will adversely impact lower-SES and AA families, the current overcrowded situation has similar racial problems just presented differently.[/quote]

Shrinking boundaries (i.e., cutting out the 50 kids a year at bancroft and shepherd that attend Deal) is not enough. It will not address over crowding at Eaton, Janney, Mann, Lafayette, and now Hearst. It will barely throw a stitch at Deal and Wilson. There obviously needs to be a new elementary, new middle and new high school WOTP at the very least. New elementary should primarily pull from Janney and Lafayette.[/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