The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9 Percent
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
>> So Mayor Fenty and Schools Chancellor Rhee have scheduled 23 simultaneous school closure hearings at each of the proposed 23 schools to be closed. Logistics nightmare questions aside, what is a parent who has a child at more than one of the schools supposed to do? Pick which child they think is more important? [WaPo]
>> The D.C. government has scheduled another gun amnesty buy-back on Saturday, only two weeks after the last one. Nothing says Christmas like gettin' rid of your gun. [City Desk]
>> Breakwell's coffee shop has reopened after a fire forced it closed in September. And the fire was perhaps not caused by kids playing with fireworks, as the buildings occupants originally told us? [Intangible Arts]
>> Thieves posing as cops are stealing women's purses in Silver Spring. [WTOP]
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OK, name one family that has kids going to different schools that are scheduled to be closed. I doubt that there is really a problem here, except for the anti Rhee forces.
While I think there is legitimate concern about having these hearings at the same time minimizing the ability of key officials to hear directly from parents, it seems like this is a big win for parents that actually want to get questions answered. You can see this in the actual statements being made from the opposition who see themselves being minimized. They will not be able to mobilize the same number of picketers to multiple locations. A loss for the PR but a win for parents that actually have concerns that could be addressed.
And as long as there are some other public hearings, which I believe Rhee has been doing (I heard her on the Kujo show a couple weeks back), I think this is fine.
It should also be be said that DC could close twice as many schools (in the wards that have the greatest excess capacity) and still have enough to serve the existing student population.
It should also be be said that DC could close twice as many schools (in the wards that have the greatest excess capacity) and still have enough to serve the existing student population.
I have been looking at the websites of schools in neighboring counties. Many of them have huge enrollments. In PG County Public Schools, it isn't unusual to have elementary schools with over 300 students, some as high as 600. Unfortunately, these high enrollment figures are no longer the case for DC elementary schools. Just today, the Post published a statistic that in the past 5 years, DC Public Schools has lost around 20,000 students. That's a really significant enrollment decline. Parents have been voting with their feet for years. Middle class parents have long made sacrifices to put their kids in private schools. Now, with the availability of charters, some excellent, some fly by night, free alternatives to the local public schools are opening up all over town. On Kansas Avenue alone, driving out to the Maryland line, you can pass about 5 charters. With that said, Rhee is going to have to move forward and close schools, especially ones with declining enrollment trends. It's unfortunate, but the declining figures just don't support all these under-enrolled buildings and their staffs. And it's going to get ugly.