Reply to WaPo Editorial today on DCPS/charter collaboration

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oooooohhh, now I understand who you are!  You're another bitter person who didn't get into the highly regarded charter that is in your neighborhood and you're pissed that there's no neighborhood preference!  You resent that people from other far away wards got in but you don't have a right!

You're not concerned about DC's kids overall at all, so stop trying to fool us, it ain't working.  Being angry that charters don't allow neighborhood preference shows you support the old system that, when unchallenged by competition produced a very very bottom line "Haves" and "Have nots" IB structure that either you could afford to buy into, or you couldn't.  You didn't send your kids to school in Wards 5, 7 or 8 twelve years ago to "invest in community", so why are you calling on people to do something you didn't even do yourself?

Anyone who harps on the fact that charters do NOT give neighborhood preference is bitter that they actually offer an OPTION to families who live near crappy neighborhood schools TODAY.  When you are willing to sacrifice your kids' educations TODAY in the hopes of making the worst of the worst schools better TOMORROW for someone else's kids, then we'll listen to you.  But now you're just bitter that charters don't give you what you want.  District-wide lotteries give families with awful options today better options for their kids TODAY.  It's up to DCPS to do the work to improve the schools in basic ways (which, actually, I think they're doing a better job of now than they've ever done) so people WANT to go to those schools and not trek across DC.  Until then though, who are you to try to deny families a choice today for their kids who need educating TODAY?[/quote]

Actually, you're completely wrong. I send my child to my in-boundary DCPS which was ranked #1 on our submission to the lottery. I am invested in my community.

You are the one who is only concerned for yourself. Again, please move. PLEASE. Just go away. [/quote]

Maybe you're a product of DC public schools from way back after all, because your reading comprehension is lacking in a huge way.  It's not about whether you send your kids to any neighborhood public school today.  It's about your over-generalizations that charters are the problem when in fact the very families you want to invest today in your IB school would mostly not have even been considering your school (unless you're in NW) 12 years ago when the charters you love to blame didn't exist.  They would have been planning moves to MoCo or Fairfax and the mythical investment in local schools due to lack of other options you keep shouting about would still not happen.  Because it didn't happen when there were no charters.

And, in fact, the fact that you are sending your child to your IB school today calls into serious question what you would have done when charters were first starting out and you had to choose between a miserably performing school (again, unless you're in NW) and a promising new possibility, even though it was untested.

You simply CANNOT sit here on your high horse deriding the choices families are making when you very well yourself may not have made the same choice if you were choosing when charters were first starting.

But much more importantly, stop blaming charters.  DCPS **is** actually on the rise, and the threat of charters has overall been the main factor that allowed for decades-long failed policies, relationships, politics and leadership to get turned on it's side and allow for some new ideas.  The fight is far from over - test scores are still overall unacceptable and some schools are still in miserable physical condition, and there's a lot about teacher training and retention that still has to be vastly improved.  But overall DCPS schools are tangibly in better shape today than they were 15 yrs ago by a long shot.

Now it's up to DCPS to make itself a school system parents WANT to choose, and in the meantime thank goodness families who still live IB for unacceptable schools can at least apply (and pray) through the lottery to better schools.

Focus your vitriol on making DCPS better, not on taking choices away from people when the absence of those choices won't solve the problems of IB schools anyway.[/quote]

Now who can't read? DCPS is a system that i WANTED to choose. #1 choice.

We are not talking about when charters were first starting or 15 years ago. We are talking about today. There was a time when charters were good for the city. That time has passed. Justifying your decisions based on factors that do not affect you is very telling. How many lies do you need to tell yourself to sleep at night?

I don't have vitriol, I think you must be looking in the mirror. I am simply focused on improving my community for all within it instead of looking out only for myself and as such I don't have to justify my choices as you are compelled to so fervently justify yours.

[/quote]

NP and I agree with others: there's no evidence that the DCPS schools families are not choosing now will be chosen in 5 he absence of desired charters. Plenty of families post on DCUM each lottery season about not getting into their desired schools and planning to move rather than attend their IB.   When DCPS has addressed the still poor quality of instruction in many schools then they can start looking for outside entities to blame for less than full enrollment.  The investment you seek is still a long way away for many schools and charters are not the problem.[/quote]

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