Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

Do those kids have the option of not taking religion classes or saying prayers or going to mass or giving their own opinion about things like abortion and women priests or the divinity of Jesus at those parochial schools? Nope, I didn't think so. (I am a graduate of Catholic schools and I know how these things work.)

And that is what is wrong with that. Where is the option for parents who don't want to inflict religion or (or a different religion from their own) on their kids?

um, public school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

Do those kids have the option of not taking religion classes or saying prayers or going to mass or giving their own opinion about things like abortion and women priests or the divinity of Jesus at those parochial schools? Nope, I didn't think so. (I am a graduate of Catholic schools and I know how these things work.)

And that is what is wrong with that. Where is the option for parents who don't want to inflict religion or (or a different religion from their own) on their kids?

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have it directly from families who have switched from Catholic to DCPS and vice versa ( and one who went from DCPS to Catholic to DCPS) that the good DCPS ES are better than the Catholic in their neighborhood.

Agree I worked many years in the inner city Catholic schools in DC. We were smaller and safer than the neighborhood school in southeast but the education provided was a failure. It was the norm to have kids performing several grade levels below regardless if they transfered into the private school or started at pk. The principal have to call in favors for admittance to Carroll every year because they are not prepared. Imagine a significant portion each year of eight graders graduating performing on a 4th grade level. I still have many friends teaching in these schools who have the heart but not the needed education or training. These same teacher would never meet the criteria for certification and employment in a public school. Just about anyone on this tread could become a teacher at those schools with the degree and experience you currently have. The Catholic schools in southeast are not comparable to Blessed Sacrament or Georgetown Prep. The kids were no better educated and have less resources than being in DCPS. I would never put my kids in any of these .

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, not prejudiced, just realistic. You said yourself some DCPS are better than some Catholics. That is exactly what I said up thread. So we agree.

I would add that I would support increased vouchers for parochial/religious schools if those schools used some of the funding to increase their supports for kids with special needs. Very few of these schools have any such supports at the moment.

Yes, there's not super support for special needs because of no funding from DCPS. DCPS used to allow you to bring your kid to a neighborhood public school for services, and then they just abruptly pulled the program and have been very slow to start any kind of "equitable" program, just to screw those kids in parochials. Special needs is an area where the government has to step in and provide adequate funding, which now it's not. DCPS never did like special needs kids; there's a history of lawsuits to prove it.

^^^ WaPo's editorial board is conservative? What planet are you from?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have it directly from families who have switched from Catholic to DCPS and vice versa ( and one who went from DCPS to Catholic to DCPS) that the good DCPS ES are better than the Catholic in their neighborhood.

PP, you are a troll and obviously not a Catholic school "alum.". Additionally, where I live, kids get attacked in DCPS. That just doesn't happen in Catholic schools and many charter schools that covet safety, and that's why people want choice. Why don't you move EotP out of your limo-liberal neighborhood and tell me just how great DCPS is?

The Washington Post doesn't handedly endorse vouchers and charters for nothing. Only DCPS refuses to get the message.

Yeah, the conservative-leaning Editorial Board of the WP are my first choice in leadership on educational policy.

Anonymous wrote:The wife of a billionaire who has never worked in a school and whose children went to private Christian schools. Plus, I don't think she has experience running a bureaucracy. She'll be a disaster. But since she and her husband are big political donors everyone will look the other way.

She was a disaster in MI

this might be helpful

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/quality-controls-lacking-for-dc-schools-accepting-federal-vouchers/2012/11/17/062bf97a-1e0d-11e2-b647-bb1668e64058_story.html?tid=a_inl-amp

Sorry, not prejudiced, just realistic. You said yourself some DCPS are better than some Catholics. That is exactly what I said up thread. So we agree.

I would add that I would support increased vouchers for parochial/religious schools if those schools used some of the funding to increase their supports for kids with special needs. Very few of these schools have any such supports at the moment.

Anonymous wrote:^^^ PP, you evidently are confused, and probably prejudiced. Saying DCPS is better than parochials simply displays your ignorance. Sorry, but you are simply incorrect on all counts.

+1.

Statistically, as a group, parochial schools are better, aND this is especially true when compared with bottom half DCPS schools.

Now, if you compare parochial with the best 10 public schools in Ward 3, yes they are worse, but that comparison in itself would be pretty stupid to make.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have it directly from families who have switched from Catholic to DCPS and vice versa ( and one who went from DCPS to Catholic to DCPS) that the good DCPS ES are better than the Catholic in their neighborhood.

PP, you are a troll and obviously not a Catholic school "alum.". Additionally, where I live, kids get attacked in DCPS. That just doesn't happen in Catholic schools and many charter schools that covet safety, and that's why people want choice. Why don't you move EotP out of your limo-liberal neighborhood and tell me just how great DCPS is?

The Washington Post doesn't handedly endorse vouchers and charters for nothing. Only DCPS refuses to get the message.

As a parent who had kids in one of the top 5 charters, then moved them out b/c I was not impressed and sent one to Catholic and the other to DCPS, I vote DCPS hands down. I regret wasting the money on Catholic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have it directly from families who have switched from Catholic to DCPS and vice versa ( and one who went from DCPS to Catholic to DCPS) that the good DCPS ES are better than the Catholic in their neighborhood.

PP, you are a troll and obviously not a Catholic school "alum.". Additionally, where I live, kids get attacked in DCPS. That just doesn't happen in Catholic schools and many charter schools that covet safety, and that's why people want choice. Why don't you move EotP out of your limo-liberal neighborhood and tell me just how great DCPS is?

The Washington Post doesn't handedly endorse vouchers and charters for nothing. Only DCPS refuses to get the message.

1. Just because we disagree and others' experience is different from yours and the people you know does not make me a troll.
2. I didn't actually say where I live, did I? I could be in Philly for all you know, so any EOTP/WOTP prejudices in this conversation are your own.
3. I did not say this applies across the board to all DCPS schools or to all Catholics, just injecting a sense of perspective. Not all Catholics are better than all DCPS.
4. Where do you propose to put all those kids who don't make it in your safe charter or have the extra money needed beyond the voucher for the local Catholic - if they have space? DCPS? And if DCPS is no longer there, where do those kids go?
5. Nineteen years of Catholic school, in DC and other places, Jesuit, Dominican, IHMs, and I have seen it all.

Your thoughts?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years and years of "education reform" by those who spent many years in the education field have yielded virtually no results. So really this woman can't do any worse.

Yes she can. Read the article about Detroit posted earlier.

If you think the lady is responsible for the education debacle in Detroit, you may want to visit a brain doctor.

Did you read the article? I'm guessing not. She was literally one of the architects of Detroit's charter system. So, yeah, she's directly responsible. Try to keep up.

You still don't get it. Yes, I read the article, yes she did make mistakes, but no she is not responsible for the mess there -- that honor belongs to the corrupt local government, including the teacher unions.

Again, if you think she's the primary responsible for the debacle there, you better visit a brain doctor.

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have it directly from families who have switched from Catholic to DCPS and vice versa ( and one who went from DCPS to Catholic to DCPS) that the good DCPS ES are better than the Catholic in their neighborhood.

PP, you are a troll and obviously not a Catholic school "alum.". Additionally, where I live, kids get attacked in DCPS. That just doesn't happen in Catholic schools and many charter schools that covet safety, and that's why people want choice. Why don't you move EotP out of your limo-liberal neighborhood and tell me just how great DCPS is?

The Washington Post doesn't handedly endorse vouchers and charters for nothing. Only DCPS refuses to get the message.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years and years of "education reform" by those who spent many years in the education field have yielded virtually no results. So really this woman can't do any worse.

Yes she can. Read the article about Detroit posted earlier.

If you think the lady is responsible for the education debacle in Detroit, you may want to visit a brain doctor.

Did you read the article? I'm guessing not. She was literally one of the architects of Detroit's charter system. So, yeah, she's directly responsible. Try to keep up.

And Detroit's charter system sucks. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/for-detroits-children-more-school-choice-but-not-better-schools.html