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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a new resident of the City and I am not as pessimistic as folks above.  Yes, there are resource constraints - jurisdictions all across the region face them.  But the number of new tax paying properties coming on line IS going to help in the not too distant future.    And yes, the primary concern of ACPS is going to be, and should be, teaching the large number of kids for whom poverty is their principle challenge.    But it seems clear to me that the TAG advisory comm at least supports access to TJHSST, and I do think that addressing the cost issues, whether by creative solutions to the transportation issue (note well rte 236 is a priority corridor in WMATA's plans for metrobus) or by improved finances for the City, will gradually shift the conversation.

I am also not convinced there will be a major increase over time in the FARMs percentages.  Sure, in the next year or two we will get more immigrant kids in the older grades.  But over time we will be losing market rate affordable units as they are either torn down and replaced by new units, as in the Beauregard area, or as buildings are renovated and rents increase.  Its possible that in a few older hirises in Landmark real rents will decrease, but I think that will at most offset trends elsewhere in the City.   And that is true DESPITE policies to replace public housing units and to reserve some of the new Beauregard units as income capped (less than 10% IIUC.)   I think some elementary schols are already considered desirable despite the current FARMs percentages, and I expect that to continue, and possibly increase.

Does that mean Alexandria is about to turn into another Arlington? No.  But it does not have to, for the gloom and doom forecasts to prove false. [/quote]

The problem is everything you say was being said in 1995 and also in 2005. The demographics are going to change, the tax base is going to strengthen, etc.

What you don't seem to grasp is the TAG committee has no real influence in policy making in ACPS. Nobody has any interest in catering to gifted and high-achieving students so long as there are struggling masses.

Some ACPS elementary schools are more desirable than others, but none are really desirable in the context of sought-after school districts elsewhere in the region. No one moves to Alexandria for MacArthur, for example. People do move to Arlington for Jamestown, Nottingham, and McKinley (among others).

So, as much as I admire your optimism, I'm just warning you that you haven't exactly discovered some new insight. This is the same story it's been for 20 years.[/quote]

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