Anonymous wrote:Getting kids to show up on the first day is a BIG deal for a lot of schools in DC. You'd be shocked how many families don't come until after Labor Day, and how hard that is for teachers and classmates. If a prize (which is probably like a pencil or a t-shirt or something, and may have been donated) gets kids to school from the start, then it's worth it.

I know you're in a bubble in Ward 3, but realize that the vast majority of DC students and their families lead a really different life than you, and DCPS is focused on a) the majority/average of their students and b) the ones who need the most help. So rather than getting all worked up every time DCPS does something that doesn't make sense to you and assuming you know best, maybe stop to think about why it could make sense for them to do what they did for families facing quite different situations than your own.

Anonymous wrote:If people are such a mess that they need a postcard to motivate them to show up at school, how are they going to keep track of a postcard the whole summer?

Anonymous wrote:There are about 47,000 kids in DCPS. Assume 2000 graduated this year, so 45,000 could be returning.

It costs about 4 cents for a full-color postcard at http://www.www.cactusmailing.com/. So that's $1800.

According to https://savepostage.com/bulkmail101/rates.html it could be as low as 9.9 cents to mail each postcard since DCPS is a nonprofit. Figure 10 cents each and that's another $4500.

Figure 10,000 kids actually show up with the postcard on the first day of school (that seems kinda high to me but whatever) and they spend a dollar on each prize. So $10,000 more.

I'm now up to $16,300 and let's round it up to $19,000 for printing addresses and whatever else needs to happen.

For $19,000 you could do some things that could help a small number of kids, but you can't do much. You can't hire another staff member or put a kid in a private special ed placement or renovate a playground. You could reduce aftercare by $100 a month for 19 kids. You could probably buy and install a kiln for art classes, or get the supplies for a garden. You could get a classroom set of laptops and related technology. And none of those would be terrible choices. But sending out postcards is also not a terrible choice. Getting some more kids to come to school on time is valuable, not just for them but for their teachers and classmates. And I'm not sure that the other ways of spending $19k will affect as many kids. Because I'm not an educational expert and I don't spend my career immersed in DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are about 47,000 kids in DCPS. Assume 2000 graduated this year, so 45,000 could be returning.

It costs about 4 cents for a full-color postcard at http://www.www.cactusmailing.com/. So that's $1800.

According to https://savepostage.com/bulkmail101/rates.html it could be as low as 9.9 cents to mail each postcard since DCPS is a nonprofit. Figure 10 cents each and that's another $4500.

Figure 10,000 kids actually show up with the postcard on the first day of school (that seems kinda high to me but whatever) and they spend a dollar on each prize. So $10,000 more.

I'm now up to $16,300 and let's round it up to $19,000 for printing addresses and whatever else needs to happen.

For $19,000 you could do some things that could help a small number of kids, but you can't do much. You can't hire another staff member or put a kid in a private special ed placement or renovate a playground. You could reduce aftercare by $100 a month for 19 kids. You could probably buy and install a kiln for art classes, or get the supplies for a garden. You could get a classroom set of laptops and related technology. And none of those would be terrible choices. But sending out postcards is also not a terrible choice. Getting some more kids to come to school on time is valuable, not just for them but for their teachers and classmates. And I'm not sure that the other ways of spending $19k will affect as many kids. Because I'm not an educational expert and I don't spend my career immersed in DCPS.

But the marginal difference in attendance because of the postcard amd prize is tiny. You could pay for a part-time classroom aide with $19,000 and it would make a big difference to about the same number of kids.

Anonymous wrote:There are about 47,000 kids in DCPS. Assume 2000 graduated this year, so 45,000 could be returning.

It costs about 4 cents for a full-color postcard at http://www.www.cactusmailing.com/. So that's $1800.

According to https://savepostage.com/bulkmail101/rates.html it could be as low as 9.9 cents to mail each postcard since DCPS is a nonprofit. Figure 10 cents each and that's another $4500.

Figure 10,000 kids actually show up with the postcard on the first day of school (that seems kinda high to me but whatever) and they spend a dollar on each prize. So $10,000 more.

I'm now up to $16,300 and let's round it up to $19,000 for printing addresses and whatever else needs to happen.

For $19,000 you could do some things that could help a small number of kids, but you can't do much. You can't hire another staff member or put a kid in a private special ed placement or renovate a playground. You could reduce aftercare by $100 a month for 19 kids. You could probably buy and install a kiln for art classes, or get the supplies for a garden. You could get a classroom set of laptops and related technology. And none of those would be terrible choices. But sending out postcards is also not a terrible choice. Getting some more kids to come to school on time is valuable, not just for them but for their teachers and classmates. And I'm not sure that the other ways of spending $19k will affect as many kids. Because I'm not an educational expert and I don't spend my career immersed in DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Getting kids to show up on the first day is a BIG deal for a lot of schools in DC. You'd be shocked how many families don't come until after Labor Day, and how hard that is for teachers and classmates. If a prize (which is probably like a pencil or a t-shirt or something, and may have been donated) gets kids to school from the start, then it's worth it.

I know you're in a bubble in Ward 3, but realize that the vast majority of DC students and their families lead a really different life than you, and DCPS is focused on a) the majority/average of their students and b) the ones who need the most help. So rather than getting all worked up every time DCPS does something that doesn't make sense to you and assuming you know best, maybe stop to think about why it could make sense for them to do what they did for families facing quite different situations than your own.