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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Isn't it the case that most school systems don't have PK3 or PK4?   Seems you have to think of it as a luxury or should only be for at risk kids.  Tax dollars could be used to fund other parts of education process and those that can make other arrangements. [/quote]

DC has almost-universal PK3 and PK4 because the DCPS programs (except for in Ward 3) are funded by Head Start dollars. We wouldn't have it if we didn't have so many low-income families.[/quote]

Sometimes I think they should make pre-K income-based... I probably wouldn't qualify but that just seems more fair.[/quote]

It's moving that way already. At least a dozen schools serving some of the poorest parts of the city have auto acceptances for all IB PK3 and PK4 students. It's called the early access program http://dcps.dc.gov/page/pre-kindergarten-pk3-and-pk4[/quote]

And Ward 3 remains bereft of pk3 or any charter schools. Not for lack of demand, either.[/quote]

Ward 3 schools are already overloaded. If you want them to offer PK3, you have to make the boundaries smaller.  That could involve shifting Janney/Murch/Mann households to Hearst, Eaton, or Key to Hyde-Addison.  A lot more kids would be IB for SWW@F-S, and some kids would probably have to cross the park.  We saw how well suggestions like this went over during the boundary and assignment re-evaluation a few years ago.  Most parents in Ward 3, or at least the most outspoken ones, would rather pay for private PK or send their kids to an OOB/charter school for a couple years but then get 6 years at their current IB school.[/quote]

Even if this were true about DCPS, it doesn't justify the lack of accessible charter options in Ward 3.  You could totally install an Appletree (or similar pk-only) charter in the old St. Ann's school. If that's not enough space, let it open branches in the vacant office building on MacArthur by the reservoir, or the old Hardy building that DCPS keeps trying to stealth-lease for life to a private school, or even partner with/sublease space from AU (the old law school building perhaps?) to establish the kind of "university lab school"/education research center that has been discussed on DCUM before.  [/quote]

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