Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC decided it was better to offer an alternative to failing schools in the form of charter schools rather than fix and integrate public schools. I'm not saying this was a bad decision, just that now that they have gone all in on charters, its going to be hard to unring that bell and make public schools attractive to families. My wish would be for more integrated neighborhoods, but until that happens, for an excellent, walkable public school in every neighborhood.

DC didn't choose charters. They were imposed by a Republican congress. Thanks, Newt Gingrich.

Giving families options for a better academic experience. Those hateful bigots!

Instead, we should, well, umm, it’s the Republicans fault that all of these cities’ school systems, police, etc are run terribly!, right? It is NOT the fault of the Party that has run those cities for 60 yrs, right? Let’s keep electing the same folks, and keep blaming the Republicans, hurray!

1/3 of DCPS employees couldn’t tell Michelle Rhee what their job was! How dare she ask such a question. Not to worry, the teachers union, made sure she was run out of town.

Too funny that all of you DC libs talk diversity, but were ok with DCPS firing a Wilson Principal for being gay, and they tried to fire a lesbian elementary school teacher, for being a lesbian, till some Parents/lawyers threatened a lawsuit. The latter was the best teacher any of my kids have ever had.

Schools do not need to be intergrated with UMC white kids to be "better" but it certainly helps a school to get an adequate share of resources and effective teachers when there is a critical mass of UMC white kids at a school. Brown v. Board of Education was not just about the social impact of de jure segregation it was a recognition that that integration was the only way black children would have access to the same resources as white children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Integration is not the answer. We should stop thinking of ways to force people to live and go to school together. Those with economic and political control have made it abundantly clear that blacks are inferior to them and they do not want to live near them or go a school with a significant black population. They spent much in time and resources crafting standardized tests and establishing charter schools, G&T programs and other programs to find race neutral ways to isolate our kids. The mere existence, albeit paltry, of upper class black families in these schools/programs does not negate this fact.

The message is received and many in the black community would rather homeschool than send our kids to a school in a community we are not wanted, or in the case of public schools, that is largely neglects the actual needs of the students they serve.

There has been much research on closing the wealth gap. In terms of public schools, Instead of forced integration, lets invest heavily in getting more black teachers in local schools, improving our history and social studies curriculum, invest in enrichment and afternoon programs and reform the education tracks to include trade skills, conflict resolution and economics. Take police out of schools. Otherwise, for those in economically depressed communities, provide those who choose to home school with the funds necessary to do so, including a stipend of sorts for the home schooling parent(s) to help pay the bills.

We have a tendency to run away from race and difficult discussions. There is clear evidence that focusing on race to address racial disparities could be effective way to address such disparities. This is true not just in education, but also in matters such as healthcare. Black kids (actually all kids regardless of race) have better academic success with black teachers. Black people see better healthcare results with black doctors. Of course, blacks should have the choice to go to school and see whichever doctors they want. But we should be more open to policies that try to encourage this and policies to address the scarcity that creates a mismatch where blacks could find black doctors or teachers for their kids if they tried.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC decided it was better to offer an alternative to failing schools in the form of charter schools rather than fix and integrate public schools. I'm not saying this was a bad decision, just that now that they have gone all in on charters, its going to be hard to unring that bell and make public schools attractive to families. My wish would be for more integrated neighborhoods, but until that happens, for an excellent, walkable public school in every neighborhood.

DC didn't choose charters. They were imposed by a Republican congress. Thanks, Newt Gingrich.

Giving families options for a better academic experience. Those hateful bigots!

Instead, we should, well, umm, it’s the Republicans fault that all of these cities’ school systems, police, etc are run terribly!, right? It is NOT the fault of the Party that has run those cities for 60 yrs, right? Let’s keep electing the same folks, and keep blaming the Republicans, hurray!

1/3 of DCPS employees couldn’t tell Michelle Rhee what their job was! How dare she ask such a question. Not to worry, the teachers union, made sure she was run out of town.

Too funny that all of you DC libs talk diversity, but were ok with DCPS firing a Wilson Principal for being gay, and they tried to fire a lesbian elementary school teacher, for being a lesbian, till some Parents/lawyers threatened a lawsuit. The latter was the best teacher any of my kids have ever had.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC decided it was better to offer an alternative to failing schools in the form of charter schools rather than fix and integrate public schools. I'm not saying this was a bad decision, just that now that they have gone all in on charters, its going to be hard to unring that bell and make public schools attractive to families. My wish would be for more integrated neighborhoods, but until that happens, for an excellent, walkable public school in every neighborhood.

DC didn't choose charters. They were imposed by a Republican congress. Thanks, Newt Gingrich.

Anonymous wrote:Also, Deal is not particularly socioeconomically diverse.

Anonymous wrote:It’s not possible because needs of different groups are very different. A lot of these needs are along the racial lines, but not all.
Instead of diversity for diversity’s sake, there should be a school for every need. Remedial, advanced, etc. and each school should have a strong enrichment component and quality nutrition.

Anonymous wrote:It has come a long way. Fewer schools are >80% minority than 10 years ago. It is a slow process, but I think DC is doing a lot of things right to make it happen.

Anonymous wrote:DC decided it was better to offer an alternative to failing schools in the form of charter schools rather than fix and integrate public schools. I'm not saying this was a bad decision, just that now that they have gone all in on charters, its going to be hard to unring that bell and make public schools attractive to families. My wish would be for more integrated neighborhoods, but until that happens, for an excellent, walkable public school in every neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you consider integrated? What about latinos? Is there some percentage that would mean “integrated”—my kid attends her IB title 1 school. We are white and the school is only 7% white. However there are a lot of I white families who can’t get into PK because there is a preference for spa ish dominant lids. Should the school be forced to drop the preference to allow even more non Spanish speaking kids into the school? It’s 70% Latino and bilingual. OP I know you have good intentions but first people need to agree to what this means.

All kids will be able to attend their neighborhood school from K and beyond, no matter their race.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you consider integrated? What about latinos? Is there some percentage that would mean “integrated”—my kid attends her IB title 1 school. We are white and the school is only 7% white. However there are a lot of I white families who can’t get into PK because there is a preference for spa ish dominant lids. Should the school be forced to drop the preference to allow even more non Spanish speaking kids into the school? It’s 70% Latino and bilingual. OP I know you have good intentions but first people need to agree to what this means.

All kids will be able to attend their neighborhood school from K and beyond, no matter their race.

Anonymous wrote:What do you consider integrated? What about latinos? Is there some percentage that would mean “integrated”—my kid attends her IB title 1 school. We are white and the school is only 7% white. However there are a lot of I white families who can’t get into PK because there is a preference for spa ish dominant lids. Should the school be forced to drop the preference to allow even more non Spanish speaking kids into the school? It’s 70% Latino and bilingual. OP I know you have good intentions but first people need to agree to what this means.

Anonymous wrote:Integration is not the answer. We should stop thinking of ways to force people to live and go to school together. Those with economic and political control have made it abundantly clear that blacks are inferior to them and they do not want to live near them or go a school with a significant black population. They spent much in time and resources crafting standardized tests and establishing charter schools, G&T programs and other programs to find race neutral ways to isolate our kids. The mere existence, albeit paltry, of upper class black families in these schools/programs does not negate this fact.

The message is received and many in the black community would rather homeschool than send our kids to a school in a community we are not wanted, or in the case of public schools, that is largely neglects the actual needs of the students they serve.

There has been much research on closing the wealth gap. In terms of public schools, Instead of forced integration, lets invest heavily in getting more black teachers in local schools, improving our history and social studies curriculum, invest in enrichment and afternoon programs and reform the education tracks to include trade skills, conflict resolution and economics. Take police out of schools. Otherwise, for those in economically depressed communities, provide those who choose to home school with the funds necessary to do so, including a stipend of sorts for the home schooling parent(s) to help pay the bills.