I like this thread

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

Let's look at it a different way. Who, instead of you, should be paying for the after care? Is it a government obligation to pay for care for children from 3:30-6 on weekdays? It's a valid question, I would assume that many European countries do that, or something like it. And DCPS subsidizes aftercare, from tax dollars. So maybe the real issue is why aren't the charters receiving the same payments DCPS gets for it's aftercare programs? Does anyone know the pot of funds that pay for DCPS' programs?

These are not MV rates ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

When I was registering at MV I think I overheard the person next to me being told her monthly aftercare charge would be 50 bucks a month. There very significant discounts for those who really need it.

Hiring contracted staff lowers costs, especially from companies that offer aftercare services. One of the reasons why MV is more expensive is that they hire their own staff and most are full time (the start later in the day compared to the teachers). They are employees of MV, which means added costs such as insurance, both health and liability. As explained to me, MV chose this model the ensure that all aspects of the curriculum, social model and language are continued in aftercare. Now I do agree that it is expensive and think the school should consider increasing the limits of the sliding scale, or consider families on a case by case basis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. this thread comes up every year and it's so boring
2. if you don't like it, don't go.
3. do your own aftercare research for programs if you don't want the school's aftercare. they are YOUR kids.

How about you follow your own advice?
1. If you're bored, don't read it every year.
2. If you don't like the discussion, don't read it every year.
3. It's YOUR attention and time - use it for things you feel are useful and don't bother us with your unhelpful and obnoxious snark.

+1 love it!

+20!!!

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line is that MV and YY are looking to gain extra money for the school. At my DD DCPS, the aides and some other staff run the aftercare program and it's working just fine. They get off at 6, but that's probably only and extra hour and a half of their time from their regular work day. So how much extra money is that more them individually and what amount goes to the schools budget. Don't say it's to keep the lights on etc. when the cleaning staff is already there and need to use them as well.

I guess I'm not willing to concede this is the bottom line. Why couldn't an equally plausible bottom line be that MV and YY have decided to employ more staff? In addition to the staff in the classrooms, are there other teachers around, does anyone know? Like reading specialists or other specials? Is the student to teacher ration the same does anyone know? Or what it MV and YY pay their aftercare staff a higher wage? I personally don't think that's a bad thing. Or what if the programming that the school chooses costs more? I know for instance at MV *all* aftercare kids were offered six to seven swim lessons (for no additional cost to parents) at WSC and they do cooking, photography, art, gardening.... And what if the school is shooting for more than what you're calling a 'just fine' aftercare program and has to charge more to provide that? I know of at least three elementary schools (EOTP of course) that have aftercare programs that my friends were not willing to have their kids attend - and the cost was I'm sure lower than MV's and YY's, surely closer to the 'average' figure everyone's throwing around here of $300/mo.

My bottom line: I think it's terribly cynical to conclude summarily that a school is simply looking to gain extra money by jacking up aftercare prices. I'm sure such a simpleton approach has its appeal on this anonymous forum where people get whipped up about whether someone writes 'no gifts' on an invitation, but in real life, it betrays a grossly uninformed opinion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. this thread comes up every year and it's so boring
2. if you don't like it, don't go.
3. do your own aftercare research for programs if you don't want the school's aftercare. they are YOUR kids.

How about you follow your own advice?
1. If you're bored, don't read it every year.
2. If you don't like the discussion, don't read it every year.
3. It's YOUR attention and time - use it for things you feel are useful and don't bother us with your unhelpful and obnoxious snark.

+1 love it!

Anonymous wrote:1. this thread comes up every year and it's so boring
2. if you don't like it, don't go.
3. do your own aftercare research for programs if you don't want the school's aftercare. they are YOUR kids.

How about you follow your own advice?
1. If you're bored, don't read it every year.
2. If you don't like the discussion, don't read it every year.
3. It's YOUR attention and time - use it for things you feel are useful and don't bother us with your unhelpful and obnoxious snark.

1. this thread comes up every year and it's so boring
2. if you don't like it, don't go.
3. do your own aftercare research for programs if you don't want the school's aftercare. they are YOUR kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did folks who can't afford $450/month aftercare do before their kids were school-aged?

They probably only budgeted for 3 years of daycare, maybe they stayed home for 1st 3 years, maybe they had their thumb in their butt! It doen't matter. What does matter is the cost for MV and YY are high and not accessible to many families. You can argue against it until you're blue in the face, but the fact remains. Some schools use aftercare as way to earn a few more $s at the cost of working class families.

It comes down to the same thing every time, charters cannot be all things to all people. They aren't meant to be. I personally don't like the upstairs-downstairs solutions offered at some schools, where the poor kids do one program and the wealthier kids have another range of options.

I've never heard of this. Which schools have different programs depending on how much you can pay?

NP- quite a few DCPS schools. Friends with a family at Oyster that complains about this. Not sure about charters, but I remember someone mentioning on DCUM that IT has separate programs (to be fair, not sure if there is cost differences).

To be clear, IT does not have two different aftercare programs. Some parents voluntarily opted out of IT's onsite aftercare and voluntarily go behind the school to a YMCA led aftercare program. There are also kids that go use the Martial Arts program across the street and there are also kids that use JCC as well as Martha's Table. IT only has one school-sanctioned aftercare with their current vendor, Springboard.