“ We try not to engage in that kind of promise making, because we have no idea,” he said. “It’s not clear what the benefits are for a model that hasn’t yet been developed, apart from the fundamental motivation, which is, kids are going to do better both academically and socially” in more diverse schools.”

Maury is MUCH more diverse than any of the schools that the elites of the mayor’s team and the ed policy journos likely send their kids.

“ There wasn’t an incentive offered and asking people to live their values will often backfire,” said Jessica Sutter, who represented Capitol Hill on the District of Columbia State Board of Education from 2019 to 2022”

What part of my values include that the mere presence of my kid’s white skin solves all of the educational failures of DCPS? Those actually are not my values. My values are that DCPS does its job and educates all kids.

“Having our schools meet the needs of all of our kids and reflect our values is very important,” Jennifer Comey, the director of planning and analysis in the deputy mayor’s office, said in a virtual meeting with parents. “I know, as you all live in Capitol Hill, that this is also very important to you.”

So the mayor is admitting here they failed to meet the needs of Miner and the only way to solve that failure is to add more white kids? They have no other way to meet the needs of black kids?

“ The new building is “phenomenal,” Kowalski said. But “it was overcrowded from the day they opened the door, and they had no way to fix it,” she said.”

This isn’t true. It’s just factually incorrect or a lie.

“ But the proposal exposed ugly racial and socioeconomic biases many hadn’t realized existed. It’s tempting to chalk up that resistance to nothing more than liberal hypocrisy—and plenty did.”

So she means the ugly bias of the people who thought only way to make a school better is to have more white kids enroll? Right?

Has anyone run the demographic numbers on Miner and Maury this year?

Anonymous wrote:It's as if they said "Let's try to persuade people to have a worse commute to a school with chronic leadership failure" and were surprised when it didn't go over well.

Not to mention - significantly more crime. People tried to pretend that wasn’t a legitimate worry but it always was.

Anonymous wrote:"It was as if Kihn’s office said, “let’s pit advantaged white families and disadvantaged Black families against each other on the internet and see what happens.”

Accurate!

What really happened was “let’s pit advantaged white families against other white families but have the battle be waged using supposed equity and social justice as weapons.”

Plus both schools are already quite large in size. No one likes behemoth-sized elementary schools. Left out of every article: They already also both feed together into the same middle school which has decent neighborhood buy-in.

Rural Louisiana def not really comparable in terms of the population...though wow, pretty awesome that they cut suspensions in half and are the most improved district in the state.

I like that the story lays out the contrasts in the approaches leadership took. I think that was the problem in DC.

The Louisiana team worked hard to get teachers and the community on board and answer their questions. And the DME...didn't even try. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/pairing-schools-one-strategy-two-very-different-outcomes

It's as if they said "Let's try to persuade people to have a worse commute to a school with chronic leadership failure" and were surprised when it didn't go over well.

"It was as if Kihn’s office said, “let’s pit advantaged white families and disadvantaged Black families against each other on the internet and see what happens.”

Accurate!

It's nice that the article recognizes what a hot mess the rollout was.

I wonder how things are going at Miner and if they've made any progress turning it into a more appealing school for anyone to attend. Because that's the underlying issue here.

Interesting. I will be looking deeper into the success this idea had in a similar place. I have a feeling rural Louisiana is not a comparable.

Also why don’t they start this with a charter school study? If you look at their demographics they are plenty segregated. In fact this happens with charters across the country.

A School Pairing Plan Promised Equity, and Stirred Backlash

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/a-school-pairing-plan-promised-equity-and-stirred-backlash/2025/07

"...the story of how a proposed Maury-Miner stumbled holds lessons about what it takes to make merged schools—or any earthshaking change in the name of equity—a reality."