Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not the poster you're responding to, but I have to wonder if this owner vs. renter thing is at the crux of the issue. More than half of people rent in DC but they don't and shouldn't really be considered part of the "small, cohesive" neighborhoods where they live until they own there.

Is this sarcasm?

I have to think it is, even if it's the exact attitude that kills me here. I am the OP. Again, I am IB for Deal. I could be like the rest of you, laugh, and say, "well, you get the school you afford, y'all! Don't come to mines!"

But I'm not an asshole. As I said, I'm not even sure Deal's the right fit for our kids. I would be more impressed with it if its parent body didn't seem to have so many death-match insane bitches in it.

DC has huge apartment buildings, and people who've lived there for a long time. I don't know the details of your version of rent control, but I know it exists. And, frankly, a bunch of Indiana transplants who came in and bought in Petworth and now think that families who have lived there for generations have less to do with the community than they do, are exactly the kind of people who shouldn't be in charge of a community. Or a school. These are the same people who whine about how "entitled" poor people are, while having conniption fits that someone might have moved to NE or SW and might still want to keep their kids and their community in the area where their parents grew up. Like that is a bad thing? Seriously?

I'm the PP and, yes, it's sarcasm.

BUT, I sincerely believe that people who are cheering most for this IB-only policy are people who see only homeowners as true members of their community. If you're renting, you're suspect.

We live in Petworth, spent one year at Powell and like it just fine, and then got zoned out in the re-drawn boundaries. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the only way we can stay at the school is to maintain our current address. I do think it would be great if some families tried out other schools in the area like Bruce Monroe and Truesdale, and also felt it was worth a longer term investment. But if your family has become a part of school family, thrown your support behind its rising status, given time and money, known its students, faculty and parents on a first-name basis, you should be allowed to enroll for as long as you're paying DC taxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We live in Petworth, spent one year at Powell and like it just fine, and then got zoned out in the re-drawn boundaries. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the only way we can stay at the school is to maintain our current address. I do think it would be great if some families tried out other schools in the area like Bruce Monroe and Truesdale, and also felt it was worth a longer term investment. But if your family has become a part of school family, thrown your support behind its rising status, given time and money, known its students, faculty and parents on a first-name basis, you should be allowed to enroll for as long as you're paying DC taxes.

Exactly.

Whenever boundaries have been redrawn there has been a phase-in period for family caught in the crease. Did that not happen this time?

Anonymous wrote:What school, OP? Certain schools, like Oyster, are already really strict about this.

Anonymous wrote:

We live in Petworth, spent one year at Powell and like it just fine, and then got zoned out in the re-drawn boundaries. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the only way we can stay at the school is to maintain our current address. I do think it would be great if some families tried out other schools in the area like Bruce Monroe and Truesdale, and also felt it was worth a longer term investment. But if your family has become a part of school family, thrown your support behind its rising status, given time and money, known its students, faculty and parents on a first-name basis, you should be allowed to enroll for as long as you're paying DC taxes.

Exactly.

We live in Petworth, spent one year at Powell and like it just fine, and then got zoned out in the re-drawn boundaries. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the only way we can stay at the school is to maintain our current address. I do think it would be great if some families tried out other schools in the area like Bruce Monroe and Truesdale, and also felt it was worth a longer term investment. But if your family has become a part of school family, thrown your support behind its rising status, given time and money, known its students, faculty and parents on a first-name basis, you should be allowed to enroll for as long as you're paying DC taxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Not the poster you're responding to, but I have to wonder if this owner vs. renter thing is at the crux of the issue. More than half of people rent in DC but they don't and shouldn't really be considered part of the "small, cohesive" neighborhoods where they live until they own there.

Is this sarcasm?

I have to think it is, even if it's the exact attitude that kills me here. I am the OP. Again, I am IB for Deal. I could be like the rest of you, laugh, and say, "well, you get the school you afford, y'all! Don't come to mines!"

But I'm not an asshole. As I said, I'm not even sure Deal's the right fit for our kids. I would be more impressed with it if its parent body didn't seem to have so many death-match insane bitches in it.

DC has huge apartment buildings, and people who've lived there for a long time. I don't know the details of your version of rent control, but I know it exists. And, frankly, a bunch of Indiana transplants who came in and bought in Petworth and now think that families who have lived there for generations have less to do with the community than they do, are exactly the kind of people who shouldn't be in charge of a community. Or a school. These are the same people who whine about how "entitled" poor people are, while having conniption fits that someone might have moved to NE or SW and might still want to keep their kids and their community in the area where their parents grew up. Like that is a bad thing? Seriously?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is Not NYC people. There is not way you can compare. In every other part of the country, you move, you go to new school. Period!

But this is not every other part of the country. This is a small city with HUGE income disparity - tiny pockets of concentrated wealth where people don't use the public schools and exponentially more pockets of concentrated poverty where the public schools couldn't possibly close the achievement gap without a middle class pulling them up.

A middle class is what's creating rising EOTP schools. That's a need that's particular to DC, and we're right on the edge of it changing it for the better. Churn doesn't help that.

I think schools have been rising since before a middle class following took hold. Take Truesdell for example, do you really think there's a strong middle class in the testing grades (third grade and above)? I'm sure that having some makes it easier, but the schools seem to be doing something right with or without.

Truesdell? Really? You are using it as an example? Sigh!

Anonymous wrote:

And, frankly, a bunch of Indiana transplants who came in and bought in Petworth and now think that families who have lived there for generations have less to do with the community than they do, are exactly the kind of people who shouldn't be in charge of a community.

It's not even like Petworth is that nice. I remain confused it is as expensive as it is, when there are neighborhoods with better school options that are cheaper and nicer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is Not NYC people. There is not way you can compare. In every other part of the country, you move, you go to new school. Period!

But this is not every other part of the country. This is a small city with HUGE income disparity - tiny pockets of concentrated wealth where people don't use the public schools and exponentially more pockets of concentrated poverty where the public schools couldn't possibly close the achievement gap without a middle class pulling them up.

A middle class is what's creating rising EOTP schools. That's a need that's particular to DC, and we're right on the edge of it changing it for the better. Churn doesn't help that.

Actually they DO use the public schools! The reason we have overcrowding issues at all is because rich parents are indeed using the public system, both filling it up with their kids and creating a stronger cohort and thus more desirable schools.

I actually think that the reason we have overcrowding issues in Ward 3 (and Brent) is the prevailing logic that says that when your kids are school age, you buy in Ward 3, or IB for Brent, or you move to the suburbs. To the extent that the attitude of "Ward 3, Brent or nothing" can be changed and people will stop frantically trying to move to AU Park when they have a child, the overcrowding issue will lessen. I don't think that realistically it will ever lessen to the point that there will be ample spaces available for OOB students in Ward 3 (and Brent), but I do think that if families stay where they are, the schools EOTP will improve dramatically and the overcrowded schools will right-size.

Just my $0.03.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is Not NYC people. There is not way you can compare. In every other part of the country, you move, you go to new school. Period!

But this is not every other part of the country. This is a small city with HUGE income disparity - tiny pockets of concentrated wealth where people don't use the public schools and exponentially more pockets of concentrated poverty where the public schools couldn't possibly close the achievement gap without a middle class pulling them up.

A middle class is what's creating rising EOTP schools. That's a need that's particular to DC, and we're right on the edge of it changing it for the better. Churn doesn't help that.

I think schools have been rising since before a middle class following took hold. Take Truesdell for example, do you really think there's a strong middle class in the testing grades (third grade and above)? I'm sure that having some makes it easier, but the schools seem to be doing something right with or without.

Anonymous wrote:

Not the poster you're responding to, but I have to wonder if this owner vs. renter thing is at the crux of the issue. More than half of people rent in DC but they don't and shouldn't really be considered part of the "small, cohesive" neighborhoods where they live until they own there.

Is this sarcasm?

I have to think it is, even if it's the exact attitude that kills me here. I am the OP. Again, I am IB for Deal. I could be like the rest of you, laugh, and say, "well, you get the school you afford, y'all! Don't come to mines!"

But I'm not an asshole. As I said, I'm not even sure Deal's the right fit for our kids. I would be more impressed with it if its parent body didn't seem to have so many death-match insane bitches in it.

DC has huge apartment buildings, and people who've lived there for a long time. I don't know the details of your version of rent control, but I know it exists. And, frankly, a bunch of Indiana transplants who came in and bought in Petworth and now think that families who have lived there for generations have less to do with the community than they do, are exactly the kind of people who shouldn't be in charge of a community. Or a school. These are the same people who whine about how "entitled" poor people are, while having conniption fits that someone might have moved to NE or SW and might still want to keep their kids and their community in the area where their parents grew up. Like that is a bad thing? Seriously?