Reply to What would happen if families in dc all had their kids attend their In Boundary school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
The core flaw in this whole way of thinking is that it's based on the assumption that DCPS will deliver an adequate school if enough high-income people demand it. [b]That's just not how it works. DCPS doesn't really care what people want[/b], and often isn't capable of delivering it even if it wanted to. It's not a vending machine where you put in 200 high income kids and a good principal and talented teachers and a superintendent who isn't a sadistic lunatic pops out the bottom. It takes years and years of effort and for many people, the payoff isn't going to happen in time for their kid or even younger siblings to benefit from it. And attending a badly functioning school for many many years is a high price to pay for principle or social altruism.

+yup. Anyone can care about schools but it matters most when you have skin in the game and your children are school age. Childhood is fleeting. With kids who are close to graduation I can say from experience that I spent tons of energy and time on school issues when it mattered for me. Now that my kids are almost done, my attention is shifting. Parents will never, ever chance their child's education on a crappy or even iffy solution if they have other options. Talk to more parents who have tried to make a go of it at their struggling title 1 school. [b]Often your efforts and middle class mindset aren't even welcome.[/b][/quote]

That's it in a nutshell.  The DCPS bureaucracy LIKES having a school system that is predominantly lower-income, as that means less accountability.  High income, highly educated parents are demanding; they want accountability; they want non-responsive bureaucrats (like the guy who couldn't get the Giant donation form correct as described by a PP above) fired.  That's why DCPS gave "autonomous" status to most WOTP elementaries years ago---sort of a "we'll leave you alone if you leave us alone" bargain.  The whole theory behind charters 20 years ago was that charters enabled more school choice for niche programs:  expeditionary learning, montessori, dual language, classics---and that charters would also cause regular DCPS to up its game.  DCPS' only response was to throw millions and millions at renovating high schools EOTP without doing anything else.[/quote]

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