Reply to School Boundary Issue - How will NW elementary schools be affected?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A DC council staffer gave me her assessment of how things may turn out.  I don't know whether she has inside info or if it's just her perspective.  She says that politically the exsting system can't survive.  The lottery is no longer providing enough spots in "acceptable" schools for parents who want options other than the less-desirable local schools where they live.  The critics are not just "old DC" families in poorer neighborhoods who long have resented the  status of schools west of the Park, it now includes the "new DC" gentriifyers, too.  They moved in to transitional neighborhoods in search of good real estate values or "happening" areas, without much thought to the schools.  Now they have kids, and they either don't want to, or can't, move to higher priced areas with better schools, and they're frustrated.  Together, parents in these groups are being heard downtown.  What she thinks will happen is that DCPS will cite the threat of civil rights lawsuits (I'm skeptical of this in a majority minority city, but this is what she says).  Pretext or not, DCPS will say they have no choice but to move to a complete lottery/random assignment system at least for middle and high school.  They know that this may put pressure on the private school route for some families, and may drive some families out of DC  altogether.  At the same time, they feel that the DC real estate market is quite strong and that more singles, childless couples and empty nesters will pick up the slack as families may leave (and they don't use school services anyway).  [/quote]

I could, sadly, totally see this happening.  Rather than do the hard work and fix the bad schools they will raise the white flag and redistribute well prepared kids among the less prepared and just call it a day.  [/quote]

The people orchestrating all this are hard core social justice types who would rather the city simply empty out of middle and upper class citizens than see he widening achievement and income gaps that are easily apparent and sickening when one has a whole-city perspective. Unfortunately these same people don't have the expertise or vision or political wherewithal to deal with the issue systemically rather than by some big redistribution of seats scheme.  Most of all, before you declare that something will "never happen" remember that they care not at all for you or your children ( beyond leveraging you and them )because you and your children will be fine no matter what. You can stand to be hurt or inconvenienced. [b]Their true concern are the tens of thousands of children who they can help find a decent education[/b]. [/quote]

But the question remains how decent will that education be after alienating higher SES types? The bottom line is that virtually all of the increase in DCPS test scores can be attributed to higher SES students (of all races) moving into the system. [/quote]

It doesn't matter. It is the inequality that animates this line of thinking, not the level of quality.[/quote]

So make education suck for ALL students? Is that the idea?[/quote]

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