Reply to Continue at current school after moving out of boundary?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Continue at current school after moving out of boundary?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That's only happening in a few areas, and in most of them NYC has also built new schools to accommodate the overflow, or has the planning to do so built into future development (DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights). Case in point, PS 312 in Park Slope--rezoned, and the overflow sent to a new school with 312's AP as their principal. New York schools are also dealing with volumes and class sizes you can't even imagine. And charters co-located within them. And, I'm pretty sure, less spending per pupil. And a LOT less real estate to expand into. Especially in Manhattan. But if you want to cry about a few Manhattanites who are now forced to walk their kids seven blocks to school instead of two, go right ahead. There are also some very crowded schools in Queens. Additionally, when the neighborhood school can't fit kids (only a real issue in K, in most places), they'd be bussed to the next school--not left to the whims of their parents in a car like here. As you said, the geography and transit options are different. That doesn't mean better.

The point is, even with New York's overcrowding, they have a very functional system compared to DC.

What you are proposing to do is to take one of the few things about DC's system that almost makes sense and replace it with more bureaucracy. You may only know people at Powell who lotteried in from OOB, but that might be because you do not actually know the people who live near Powell now and are being priced out of their communities. I get the impression it wouldn't bother you if they all left, but personally, one great thing about our NY school was how my kids were in the same class with kids for four years. Kids whose parents came from all walks of life. If you make all the renters have to lottery in, you're losing something important.

[/quote]

No one is proposing anything. This is the system, IN EXISTENCE, here in DC. And, as in NYC, this is actually only happening to a few schools. No renters must lottery in unless they move OOB.

There are also myriad reasons why the NYC argument doesn't work in DC.

For one thing, the moving issues you are talking about don't affect as many students. DC has a much higher home ownership rate than NYC. 65% of NYCers rent while only 54% of DCers do. In addition, many more of the renters will be in the higher income brackets (we can see that by looking at the average rents in both places. NYC's average is more than $3400 while DCs is $2000. While there is a COL difference, is isn't 150% different.) So you have more higher income people, who are more likely to vie for the coveted schools, renting. I can see how the moving issue is a real problem for NYC-- but in DC is simply is not.

You need to understand that the priorities of the residents in the cities are based on the needs of each city. In DC there is a real value put on neighborhood schools because our neighborhoods are 1) far apart (see density issue below and 2) are small cohesive areas that are often more akin to suburbs than to Park Slope. (And yes, I lived there for 10 years.) Travelling to another school isn't going to be easy because our density is so much less that the next Moving students to the closest school that does have space probably means sending them clear across the city, not 3 blocks away. NYC has a density of 27,016 per square mile. DC has a density of 9,800 people per square mile. I can understand why NYC wants to keep kids who move in their original schools- because so many more people move and because the solution (attend the school 3 blocks away) doesn't have major implications for the neighborhood or cause undue hardship on students. It does in DC.

But there's a bigger issue lurking here. The feeder system. In DC you have a right to attend both your IB school and the schools that school feeds to. We have exactly 2 desirable DCPS high schools, and only one that is guaranteed. That school is BUSTING at the seams with reportedly 750 freshmen entering the school this year. In NYC you don't have a right, but instead a "priority" to attend your local middle and high school. (Are their even OOB rules about this?) Again, this is because NYC has many desirable high schools and a great transit system. It's easy to get around. Flexibility is valued over proximity. Different cities value different things because of their different characteristics.

Two last points.
1 - DCPS funding figures are often wrong due to the fact that DC has to pay for many of costs which are picked up by other city's states.
2- Almost every other school district in the country operates its boundary system like DC does. NYC is the outlier, because NYC is very different. [/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