Anonymous wrote:I don’t care as much if you’re a bona fide DC paying for another DC residence and paying income taxes in DC. That’s still better than the cheater scumbags who in fact live in Pee-Gee but sneak their kids into DCPS and charters for the free child care, among other reasons. And what’s more, many of the cheating parent are scamming DC government employees.

Ah, I see. So it's okay if high SES families who own multiple properties cheat the system since they're more desirable, more likely to blend in at their school of choice--but not low SES families from "Pee-Gee."

Anonymous wrote:A number of relevant issues aren't addressed in the OSSE rules on school residency, or DCPS policy either.

- We're a multi-generational family moving between two houses we own in our neighborhood, half a mile apart. Our family members spend time at both houses almost every day.

-The city has never hassled us about using one house or the other for residency, tax filings etc., but there was a parent initiated attempt to "bust" us.

I'd be really glad to see the rules firmed up for the common good.

I don't agree that schools would be better if everyone "stayed home." Most high SES parents will move or go private before they'll send their children to schools they aren't comfortable with, which doesn't help poor kids in DC. I'm tired of seeing friends who loved a DCPS or charter school in the lower grades, and got involved in the PTA, bail for VA or MD by 3rd or 4th grade.

Or you put an end to the endless boundary cheating and maybe you are able to cluster enough higher SES populations in clusters east of the park to get another set or two of high performing schools.

And part of how you accomplish that is you lift up (or relocate if you want to be un PC) some of the kids from lower performing schools by giving the scarce WOTP slots to them instead of to upper middle class kids.

I went through my JKLM kids directory last night as most of the OOB kids are from Mt Pleasant, Georgetown, Columbia Heights and oddly other WOTP neighborhoods.

If those OOB kids were replaced by lower performing kids from EOTP while the higher performing kids were successfully clustered in actual EOTP schools you'd get some averaging of the schools and lots of privileged kids (and more importantly their parents) would actually be exposed to some actual economic and ethnic diversity at school which currently an awful lot of folks are finding ways to avoid.

The current practices benefit some individuals but don't net out to benefiting the system as a whole and leave a cohort of left behind kids in schools with incredible odds against success because of their low SES mix but in a city with more and more middle class families there is no excuse for not doing a better job getting more diverse and successful schools.

And yes I am a WOTP parent but I do think bringing in some disadvantaged kids would be an additional but reasonable burden to those privileged schools hence giving us some skin in the game but it is ridiculous to have schools bursting at the seems to accommodate middle class familes gaming the system rather than kids who actually need a boost.

I don’t care as much if you’re a bona fide DC paying for another DC residence and paying income taxes in DC. That’s still better than the cheater scumbags who in fact live in Pee-Gee but sneak their kids into DCPS and charters for the free child care, among other reasons. And what’s more, many of the cheating parent are scamming DC government employees.

Anonymous wrote:Haha I've got one better for you. I know someone who is sharing the address of the cheapest studio you can find in a very sought after cluster - one kid from one family is in middle school and the other kid from the other family is in high school. Each family is splitting the cost of the rental apartment which makes it dirt cheap!

And then they have a crash pad where they can do their wife swapping! Awesome! or where the kids can throw raging parties!

Haha I've got one better for you. I know someone who is sharing the address of the cheapest studio you can find in a very sought after cluster - one kid from one family is in middle school and the other kid from the other family is in high school. Each family is splitting the cost of the rental apartment which makes it dirt cheap!

Anonymous wrote:I think one of the issues is it is such a fine line between cheating and DCPS policy.

So I can rent an apartment/buy a condo and either:

- Live in it for 9 months and then stay in the feeder pattern for up to 15 (if you get an ECE spot) years per kid (Ok)

- Never live in it and rent it out for a year and then stay in the feeder pattern for up to 15 years (Not ok)

We have followed the rules but live in a district where several have not. I wish people didn't cheat and DCPS did care but when you are talking about 9 months over 15 years, I see how you could talk yourself into it.

I wish DCPS understood how they holds other schools back. Many times these people come from neighborhoods where the schools are fine and trending up. They would be even better if everyone stayed home.

I wish Chantwan would read your post.

A number of relevant issues aren't addressed in the OSSE rules on school residency, or DCPS policy either.

- We're a multi-generational family moving between two houses we own in our neighborhood, half a mile apart. Our family members spend time at both houses almost every day.

-The city has never hassled us about using one house or the other for residency, tax filings etc., but there was a parent initiated attempt to "bust" us.

I'd be really glad to see the rules firmed up for the common good.

I don't agree that schools would be better if everyone "stayed home." Most high SES parents will move or go private before they'll send their children to schools they aren't comfortable with, which doesn't help poor kids in DC. I'm tired of seeing friends who loved a DCPS or charter school in the lower grades, and got involved in the PTA, bail for VA or MD by 3rd or 4th grade.