Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's incredibly smart and informed on the issues. In my opinion, he is much stronger than the other candidates on education and every other issue.

I agree, as does my annoying better half, who is nonetheless planning on voting for Muriel because she has the right "temperament" for the job. Since when did whether you'd like to have a beer with a candidate mean that they're the better man (or woman) for the job? Ugh.

Update: I'm the PP here with the ridiculous spouse who supported Bowser based on her temperament. Well, after we used this WAMU tool to compare the candidates on their positions, http://wamu.org/topic/dc_elections, my husband still insisted that he was voting for Bowser, even though he agreed Catania had more substantive responses. However, after voting at our polling place this morning (incidentally, Bowser was there greeting everyone), he admitted that he'd actually voted for Catania. Score!

LOL

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me why Catania wants to postpone the new boundaries? As a rich, white person in dupont, I should want him to postpone them, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that what he's doing will benefit the upper middle class and hurt the poor students. How will cardozo ever become a good school if people in that neighborhood don't actually have to go there?

If you have ever been involved in basic project management, you know that each step of the project has certain dependencies. A key dependency is a budget. The DME recommendations listed goals, but didn't consider or even provide for dependencies. As a result, my neighborhood has been re-zoned from Deal to a non-existant middle school. That school has no budget to operate, no money for renovation, no plan to open, no proposed academic program (though it will apparently have a dual language track), etc. Some parents see that there is a lot of potential in this school, but other families can't bank on potential. Those families either need or want to plan based on concrete rather than aspirational entities. Catania wants to used the year of delay to flesh out the dependencies. The year would allow a serious consideration of the budget realities and develop realistic timetables. It would allow the creation of school improvement plans for other schools so that they become more attractive options for the families re-zoned to them.

Basically, the DME proposals are only half of what is needed for implementation. Catania wants a year to complete the other half.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me why Catania wants to postpone the new boundaries? As a rich, white person in dupont, I should want him to postpone them, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that what he's doing will benefit the upper middle class and hurt the poor students. How will cardozo ever become a good school if people in that neighborhood don't actually have to go there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's incredibly smart and informed on the issues. In my opinion, he is much stronger than the other candidates on education and every other issue.

I agree, as does my annoying better half, who is nonetheless planning on voting for Muriel because she has the right "temperament" for the job. Since when did whether you'd like to have a beer with a candidate mean that they're the better man (or woman) for the job? Ugh.

Update: I'm the PP here with the ridiculous spouse who supported Bowser based on her temperament. Well, after we used this WAMU tool to compare the candidates on their positions, http://wamu.org/topic/dc_elections, my husband still insisted that he was voting for Bowser, even though he agreed Catania had more substantive responses. However, after voting at our polling place this morning (incidentally, Bowser was there greeting everyone), he admitted that he'd actually voted for Catania. Score!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's incredibly smart and informed on the issues. In my opinion, he is much stronger than the other candidates on education and every other issue.

I agree, as does my annoying better half, who is nonetheless planning on voting for Muriel because she has the right "temperament" for the job. Since when did whether you'd like to have a beer with a candidate mean that they're the better man (or woman) for the job? Ugh.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me why Catania wants to postpone the new boundaries? As a rich, white person in dupont, I should want him to postpone them, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that what he's doing will benefit the upper middle class and hurt the poor students. How will cardozo ever become a good school if people in that neighborhood don't actually have to go there?

If you have ever been involved in basic project management, you know that each step of the project has certain dependencies. A key dependency is a budget. The DME recommendations listed goals, but didn't consider or even provide for dependencies. As a result, my neighborhood has been re-zoned from Deal to a non-existant middle school. That school has no budget to operate, no money for renovation, no plan to open, no proposed academic program (though it will apparently have a dual language track), etc. Some parents see that there is a lot of potential in this school, but other families can't bank on potential. Those families either need or want to plan based on concrete rather than aspirational entities. Catania wants to used the year of delay to flesh out the dependencies. The year would allow a serious consideration of the budget realities and develop realistic timetables. It would allow the creation of school improvement plans for other schools so that they become more attractive options for the families re-zoned to them.

Basically, the DME proposals are only half of what is needed for implementation. Catania wants a year to complete the other half.

Anonymous wrote:Catania is much smarter than Bush or Bowser. No comparison. The beer thing is irrelevant.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me why Catania wants to postpone the new boundaries? As a rich, white person in dupont, I should want him to postpone them, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that what he's doing will benefit the upper middle class and hurt the poor students. How will cardozo ever become a good school if people in that neighborhood don't actually have to go there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's incredibly smart and informed on the issues. In my opinion, he is much stronger than the other candidates on education and every other issue.

I agree, as does my annoying better half, who is nonetheless planning on voting for Muriel because she has the right "temperament" for the job. Since when did whether you'd like to have a beer with a candidate mean that they're the better man (or woman) for the job? Ugh.

I'd much rather have a beer with Catania! Bowser is just so boring. I'm sure she is an easier boss than Catania, but for hanging out? gotta be Catania. He is so funny and odd and quirky. Im boring enough-- I don't need to hang out with other boring people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's incredibly smart and informed on the issues. In my opinion, he is much stronger than the other candidates on education and every other issue.

I agree, as does my annoying better half, who is nonetheless planning on voting for Muriel because she has the right "temperament" for the job. Since when did whether you'd like to have a beer with a candidate mean that they're the better man (or woman) for the job? Ugh.