Anonymous wrote:Most of those schools with eye-popping PTA budgets are running the aftercare at their schools. They're acting as a pass-through for the aftercare funds. They do some fundraising but the lion's share is in the pass-through.

This is no longer true at Janney ES. Aftercare is a separate 501c3. Not sure what other ES has in-house aftercare.

Most of those schools with eye-popping PTA budgets are running the aftercare at their schools. They're acting as a pass-through for the aftercare funds. They do some fundraising but the lion's share is in the pass-through.

WOTP kids don’t have a huge advantage because their parents are wealthy. WOTP kids have a huge advantage because their parents are, by in large, highly educated and place a tremendous emphasis on their kids education. It has very little to do with a few extra IPads or a free ukulele enrichment class from the PTA.

Haven't we done this conversation 5000 times?

Shouldn't the fact that parents are funding some aspects of their schools free up budget resources to devote to the other schools? It's not like the PTA resources are taking away from the lower performing schools or diverting funds from the school budget.

That being said MCPS severely limits parent funding. It does not allow any funding for additional staff for example. There are foundations that can raise money for limited things, most of which are things the county will fund but not as quickly as the school might like (e.g., security cameras, additional chromebooks)

OP you’re understanding of inequality is lacking. The inequality is not because of PTA funding. Sure PTA funding helps with some more resources but you take PTA fundraising out of the picture and you still would get inequality.

Suppose you ban PTAs from fundraising. The parents can just take the money they donate to the PTA and spend it on their own kids.

People are so oddly hung up on PTAs!
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Do you not realize that the per-pupil funding that DCPS budgets varies from school? (And I mean before Title 1 funds are added

Get over the WOTP PTO cash. It doesn’t change outcomes. It’s a little grease for the skids. EOTP schools have resources they are asked to offer. It’s important that we demand the classes and extracurriculars and supports for students we want and need. It was parents at Amidon who went after the technology needs of the whole system and they didn’t do it with a gala. They got it in the budget.

You are in a bubble OP. My kid attends an EoTP title 1 school that offers 5 specials a week starting in PK 3. Including technology and social studies. Class size is 16 with full time aids. Tons of PE, fully staffed library. Lots of extra activities. PTA raises less 10k a year. None of the PTA money pays for these extras.

Wait, WOTP schools raise hundreds or thousands per student?


I also don’t think that investing more in every school will magically fix every problem, but it sure would help some problems.
I definitely don’t think PTA fundraising should be banned - find a way to get other schools with less-well-off families more resources. This seems like a fundamental inequity that would drive motivated kids out of schools that DON’T raise big money from their families.

No PTA raises “thousands per student.” The schools in Ward 3 are not in demand because of the well-funded PTAs. The PTAs’ contributions are nice but incremental.

What makes Ward 3 schools desirable is more the educational level of the parents than their monetary resources.

DCPS can’t really fix the schools alone — it’s really up to DC government. Intensive social and economic supports for stuggling families are what would matter most.

It would be easy to think that the entire inequity of DCPS could be solved by banning PTAs from fundraising.

Do you honestly think that the extra aides shared across 1st and 2nd grades (not dedicated) make the difference??

The inequities in DCPS stem from fundamental inequity in housing, jobs, neighborhoods, home life. It’s a lot to expect DCPS to fix it all.

I promise that if you literally took 700 kids EOTR and dropped them into Janney or Lafayette, there would not be a miraculous rise in test scores or whatever metric you want to use for success.

“Best students”? Really?

An oft-discussed topic here is the WOTP / Ward 3 schools and their quality. We hear about Ward 3 overcrowding. Ward 3 schools with OOB students that drive a long way. Ward 3 feeder pattern changes to reduce overcrowding. Ward 3 feeder changes to build up new strong city-wide middle and high schools. And it goes on and on. Ward 3 schools are in high demand, and some other areas of the city don’t have high/demand schools.

As I understand it, there are few enrichment or gifted programs for any school city-wide. And I further understand that many WOTP schools have PTAs/PTOs that raise thousands of dollars per student — that get put into things like enrichment and teacher aides.

So then, here is my question:
How can DCPS possibly achieve equity, and build good schools outside the Wilson feeder pattern, if a big key to the Wilson feeder success is *family wealth*????

This sounds crazy to me. DCPS is not serving the best kids, though some schools with wealthy families fix this with their own money. So how are the best kids citywide supposed to get a top educational experience? And without that, how are schools outside Wilson and outside wealthy areas supposed to get better??

Is this really the situation?
If so, why isn’t DCPS talking about how it doesn’t care about making sure all students get a top education? Because without serving the best students, no school will ever really excel.