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][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]

When the kids who are currently at Deal were born, Deal was still kind of iffy. Their families didn't plan, they just got lucky. The families who planned are in Montgomery County or private.[/quote]

I wrote the post you are responding to and you are partially correct.  Deal and Wilson have have been decent schools for many years, but the percentage of inbound families that used them was lower.  Neither was as desirable as they currently are.  I live in AU Park and have educated neighbors whose kids went all the way through Janney, Deal Wilson and are now college graduates.  As they would tell me when my children were toddlers, at Wilson you need to be more aware of who your children's teachers are and involved and they can thrive.

When we bought our house we were pregnant and thought we had 12 years before we would have to move under any circumstances, as I was not convinced that we would send our children to Deal and the elementary schools used to go to 6th grade.  So I was clearly cognizant of the middle school issue.  To say that we did not plan is incorrect, however, because that plan included the option of moving.  When my oldest was in K we used to talk amongst the parents of the need to reach a tipping point with the feeder elementary schools.  That tipping point happened.  We are still two years away from Deal and it has improved beyond my hopes.  That increase in desirability,however, happened because or strong administration and programming, engagement with the community by the school, more and more families like mine (and possibly yours) taking the plunge, and the "tipping point" effect/momentum.  But Deal was neve a non-starter in the way that many of the schools that are complained about long have been.  No one but families in Bethesda and Arlington would have asserted at the time we bought our house that I was gambling with my children's education.[/quote]

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