Reply to DME Kicks Off DCPS Boundary Review; Changes Expected for 2015-16 School Year

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Reply to "DME Kicks Off DCPS Boundary Review; Changes Expected for 2015-16 School Year"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]I'll pull back the veil a little: my child attends one of the DCPS schools you probably lotteries to get your child out of. And it's a pity.  The school is great but could use more committed middle class familoes .[/quote]

We entered a lottery for a charter school over 10 years ago. I suspect that even you would not have sent your child to your school then. I suspect I know which school to which you refer and if we were just starting out today we would be eager to attend the pre-k 3 program with an eye to staying at the school afterwards.

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I totally get you and might have done the same in your place.  People who are entering the lottery this year, who did it 10 years ago, who will in 10 years are all part of this.  I want to fan the flames on something that is just getting going.  You want to not lose a good thing.  Neither of these are irrational perspectives.

The truth is that there is going to be some pain and I think much of the pain will come along the fault lines of class.  In an underattended system, it didn't matter much whether people with more clout got to have their kids shifted over to be with kids "with whom they would be more comfortable." In a growing system, people want both to see improvement across the system as well as individual opportunities for their families increase.

I think the school system, and the City in general, will work much better without more class integration.  I think we can tolerate it more now than we have in the past.  There is an entire swath in the middle of the City in Wards 1, 4, 5 and 6 that can integrate to a much higher degree.

And we can't have a system that says well (mad libs for elementary school) and then we'll get into Deal then Walls or Wilson and go on to college.  That is not a system, and it's clearly become unsupportable and sadly ridiculous, with Wilson entirely full but Coolidge nearly empty when both are drawing from much of the same area.  If Coolidge got everyone in DCPS north of Military Road and people couldn't jump to Wilson, wouldn't that make a world of difference almost immediately?

I want people to have the guts to make this City work and to get beyond perceptions and little self-conscious boundaries they have drawn around their lives.  And yes, to join me at neighborhood schools they feel are beneath them that turn out to be doing very good things, if people would just check them out with open minds.

Also, let me just say I'm sorry about the negative tone on some of this, anonymity can lead to some harshness unnecessarily because I feel no need to smooth off what I say or say it more clearly/less offensively.[/quote]

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