Anonymous
05/04/2026 13:14
Subject: Re:Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The city will spend astronomical amounts renovating schools, but only if they're DCPS. DC spent $180 million redoing Duke Ellington, which only has 600 or so students. Works out to about $300,000 per student.
Banneker got a $130 million renovation (700 students)
Not a renovation, but a new building on a new site. It will soon accommodate 800 students, which was half the point -- to expand from the 500 students that fit in the old building.
I don't know what the old building will get use for. Anyone?
It's been a swing space for other schools, currently Tubman. It will become the new Shaw Middle School starting in SY28-29.
https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-new-middle-school-euclid-street
Anonymous
05/04/2026 13:13
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.
Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!
We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)
In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.
I don’t care about dcps at all. I care about students. All students in DC. DCPS does not do right by their students. They don’t provide the same opportunities that are offered in charters. No other school district in the area has lower standards than dcps. None. They are just not meeting the needs of students.
I expect most of us here believe DCPS needs better leadership and more skilled management.
But you can't "care about students" and dismiss the students who will never find their way to charter schools. You can't just write off DCPS if you "care about students." You need to make sure that DCPS Central gets the 'renovation' it needs.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 13:10
Subject: Re:Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The city will spend astronomical amounts renovating schools, but only if they're DCPS. DC spent $180 million redoing Duke Ellington, which only has 600 or so students. Works out to about $300,000 per student.
Banneker got a $130 million renovation (700 students)
Not a renovation, but a new building on a new site. It will soon accommodate 800 students, which was half the point -- to expand from the 500 students that fit in the old building.
I don't know what the old building will get use for. Anyone?
Anonymous
05/04/2026 12:41
Subject: Re:Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:The city will spend astronomical amounts renovating schools, but only if they're DCPS. DC spent $180 million redoing Duke Ellington, which only has 600 or so students. Works out to about $300,000 per student.
Banneker got a $130 million renovation (700 students)
Anonymous
05/04/2026 12:37
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.
+1 on this.
Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.
DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.
https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/
This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?
Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.
What an insane use of money.
94% truancy
Anonymous
05/04/2026 12:32
Subject: Re:Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
The city will spend astronomical amounts renovating schools, but only if they're DCPS. DC spent $180 million redoing Duke Ellington, which only has 600 or so students. Works out to about $300,000 per student.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 12:17
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:An unpopular opinion for DCUM- if the charters were properly funded the better ones would blow DCPS out of the water. So many struggle under the costs of facilities and teacher turn over from low salaries. If Charters had money to solve those problems the middling to good ones could be amazing.
+1 on this.
Also, Coolidge has a lot larger and better facilities than DCI which holds around the same number of high schoolers. Sports facilities in particular. DCI could have used the space next to it for a much-needed sports field, but townhouses are going up instead. Now the school is battling neighbors to try to use a nearby park for athletics. The charter schools can't just easily move and buy new buildings left and right, and they aren't provided with enough funds to truly utilize public and DC-owned space like Walter Reed. Meanwhile, there is no way that DCPS could serve all the kids currently in charters - if all of DCI changed to Coolidge overnight, for example.
DCI is approximately the same square footage as Anacostia High School, except DCI has 1,700 students and Anacostia has 250, and Anacostia High School is much, much nicer.
https://washingtonian.com/2014/02/03/anacostia-high-school-renovation-snags-design-award/
This is kinda bonkers. Anacostia High School is 247,000 square feet. That's much, much, MUCH bigger than a Walmart. How do 250 kids occupy 247,000 square feet?
Same story with Ballou. It's 350,000 square feet and has fewer than 600 students. The renovation is gorgeous.
What an insane use of money.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 12:15
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
+1000
Anonymous
05/04/2026 11:23
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
What is the true dollar cost of DCPS' responsibility to take all kids in all grades all year long? What is the true cost of the long-term planning to do that in perpetuity? Does anyone have an actual answer to that question?
Anonymous
05/04/2026 11:20
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.
Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!
We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)
In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.
I don’t care about dcps at all. I care about students. All students in DC. DCPS does not do right by their students. They don’t provide the same opportunities that are offered in charters. No other school district in the area has lower standards than dcps. None. They are just not meeting the needs of students.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 11:18
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.
The point is, despite what you think is inequitable funding, you're still at a charter. Which shows that you think you're getting a better deal. So is it really inequitable? I'm not so sure.
This is some faulty logic. Dcps has significantly more money that they’re just flushing down the drain. Charters would take that money and actually do right by their students.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 10:57
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.
Going on about the over-the-top renovations to a few high schools is not going to get you anywhere. The vast majority of DCPS schools are nothing like that. The vast majority of DCPS students also dream of being in an uncrowded, up-to-date schools with
Those fancy renovations were a bad decision by people desperately trying to help solve education in some schools where nothing seemed to be working. Excess facilities are clearly not the answer, but, again, they were desperate.
But that era has ended. A few Ballou-style renovations happened, got a lot of criticism for cost, didn't make a difference in outcomes, and didn't continue happening. Move on.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 10:57
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.
The point is, despite what you think is inequitable funding, you're still at a charter. Which shows that you think you're getting a better deal. So is it really inequitable? I'm not so sure.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 10:48
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.
Don't lose sight of the fact that charter schools are not good for DCPS -- it adds extra burden and more limited resources with which DCPS must teach kids whose parents don't have the capacity to be involved attendance and homework parents. There are costs to this setup for DCPS!
We have this system because Congress foisted it on DC. But it was a way to solve education for some kids without actually doing anything to solve the challenges that DCPS faces (including, in addition to a population in need, lame management and bad choices by certain mayors...)
In this thread, there seems to be a lot of "I want mine!" going on while not worrying about who is getting hurt in the process.
Anonymous
05/04/2026 10:25
Subject: Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If DCPS supposedly has it so much better, why not just go to DCPS? You have the right.
How about just not discriminating against some children? Is that really so much to ask?
If you think DCPS is a better deal, come on over.
But that's the point: none of these schools are private. All of them are public. It's not about "a better deal" it's about a public service providing an appropriate education in equally appointed facilities. At this point "separate but equal" would be a dream solution. What we have is far inferior to that. Doesn't even pretend to be equal.