Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 20:50     Subject: New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Thats why you should pick your neighborhood school, and invest invest invest to make it better. East of the Park title I parent.




I'm always confused by people who think we should "invest" in our neighborhood school. It doesn't offer Chinese Immersion and IB, there's really no comparison.


Ours offers dual language Spanish, and it's total immersion for prek. You'd be surprised what some schools you might dismiss have to offer.. Experienced teachers, for one!
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 14:29     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:I am not suggesting children who need transit shouldn't get it. I am not suggesting that everyone take uber. I am very curious what is being spent to actually educate those 3200 kids with severe needs vs the cost of what is being paid to transpprt them.

This is a forum that has actual riots about Maryland students and residence fraud, even when its metrics are unproven and nebulous. Actual, concrete examples of potential waste are off limits though? What does NYC spend.to transport special needs children? 6% of its budget?




DCPS has historically been incompetent in providing services to children with special needs. So much so in fact, that many of these students have to be driven to schools in Virginia and Maryland, because DC can't get its shit together enough to build schools and provide services inside the district. This is one reason (and I'm sure there are others) that transportation costs are so high: this city is run by people who shouldn't be in charge of putting out toaster fires.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 14:13     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Including its special needs population, a 2013 article on NYC busing cites a 6900 cost per student, which they say is twice was LA pays. They say the complexity of routes, corrupt contracts, and the special needs kids are what makes the coat so high. So they spend 38 dollars a day. Based on DC's headcount of special needs children that would be 22 million.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 14:04     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:I am not suggesting children who need transit shouldn't get it. I am not suggesting that everyone take uber. I am very curious what is being spent to actually educate those 3200 kids with severe needs vs the cost of what is being paid to transpprt them.

This is a forum that has actual riots about Maryland students and residence fraud, even when its metrics are unproven and nebulous. Actual, concrete examples of potential waste are off limits though? What does NYC spend.to transport special needs children? 6% of its budget?


Some of that budget is inflated because they are upgrading/modernizing the fleet. Someone can dig deeper with this.

http://osse.dc.gov/proposedfy17-budget
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 14:02     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
I am not suggesting children who need transit shouldn't get it. I am not suggesting that everyone take uber. I am very curious what is being spent to actually educate those 3200 kids with severe needs vs the cost of what is being paid to transpprt them.

This is a forum that has actual riots about Maryland students and residence fraud, even when its metrics are unproven and nebulous. Actual, concrete examples of potential waste are off limits though? What does NYC spend.to transport special needs children? 6% of its budget?
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:57     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Based on the pricing of uber pool, you could pretty much take 30,000 (my estimate for elementary)students, spend 10 dollars a day on each one, for 180 days in the year and only spend about half of that 100 million
Double it, and each child could be riding to school and back in their own uber for the cost of special Ed transport.

I'm not saying this to suggest uber is a viable transit option for children. I am trying to show you what actual things cost in the real world


And add in salaries for aides, and the additional insurance required to transport children with fragile health conditions or severe disabilities.

You must have very severe special needs or attended a school outside your boundary (meaning you qualify for a specialized program) to get transportation. Children with fewer special needs - speech, attention, language or behavioral challenges - do not require or receive transportation.



Okay, now you've lost your mind. IDEA is Civil Rights law. You don't get to just target children and decide their disabilities don't merit services after all, because you want to create a new transportation system.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:53     Subject: New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
This is the most simplistic suggestion I've ever seen. Have you ever encountered Uber's "surge pricing"? Multiply that by 30,000. Do you have any idea what this would look like in terms of pricing and cars and cars on the road?
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:51     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Oh, in 2013, dc spent 91 million, or 6% of its total education budget to transport the 3200 students eligible. I haven't done the math, but I have to wonder if it would have been less expensive to buy them their own cars

Not trying to make light of special education needs. We have a child with an IEP, who could qualify for this service. But those numbers are utterly insane.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:47     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:Based on the pricing of uber pool, you could pretty much take 30,000 (my estimate for elementary)students, spend 10 dollars a day on each one, for 180 days in the year and only spend about half of that 100 million
Double it, and each child could be riding to school and back in their own uber for the cost of special Ed transport.

I'm not saying this to suggest uber is a viable transit option for children. I am trying to show you what actual things cost in the real world


And add in salaries for aides, and the additional insurance required to transport children with fragile health conditions or severe disabilities.

You must have very severe special needs or attended a school outside your boundary (meaning you qualify for a specialized program) to get transportation. Children with fewer special needs - speech, attention, language or behavioral challenges - do not require or receive transportation.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:43     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Based on the pricing of uber pool, you could pretty much take 30,000 (my estimate for elementary)students, spend 10 dollars a day on each one, for 180 days in the year and only spend about half of that 100 million
Double it, and each child could be riding to school and back in their own uber for the cost of special Ed transport.

I'm not saying this to suggest uber is a viable transit option for children. I am trying to show you what actual things cost in the real world
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:35     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Effective public transportation? The capital city/sela/ideal/hope matrix. Two buses, one goes to fort totten, the other to takoma metro. No provisions if the metro is out, no direct route to downtown, or any useful transfer points, both buses run (roughly and not really) every "twenty" minutes, which is more like every hour in practice, Both are packed with schoolkids busting their asses to get to and from their schools in the least efficient way possible.


Charters are optional. DC should not recreate trans to get kids to optional schools.

-charter crosstown parent


Equal access is not equal if kids can't get to school. Show me how to take public transportation to cmi, again. Show me the number of kids who manage to do it. Show me how many of them dont make it when the weather turns. We don't have crossing guards at major intersection, we don't pay for bussing (although what is paid for special Ed kids would cover all children easily), and we don't have equal access, since a child's ability to attend the school of their choice, dcps or charter, is entirely determined by their parents' ability to get them there.



What data do you have to support this outrageous claim? DC pays almost $100 million just for special education transportation.

How, specifically, do you plan to create personalized transportation for all public school students that doesn't change that number?

I'll wait.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:31     Subject: New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Anonymous wrote:Thats why you should pick your neighborhood school, and invest invest invest to make it better. East of the Park title I parent.




I'm always confused by people who think we should "invest" in our neighborhood school. It doesn't offer Chinese Immersion and IB, there's really no comparison.
Anonymous
Post 08/02/2016 13:28     Subject: Re:New to DCPS/charters, but a simple question
Then again, NYC also builds a high school serving 1200 students in Manhattan,from scratch for 70 million. Dc, given the same funds, has to scrap the underground parking garage and the playground... And doesn't even get to the cafeteria.