January 10, 2008
Morning Roundup: So Many Questions Edition
Good Morning, D.C. A lot of unanswered questions this morning after the gruesome discovery of the bodies of four children, sisters between the ages of five and 18, yesterday morning in the 4200 block of Sixth Street SE. The Examiner has identified the mother, 33-year-old Banita Jacks, as the woman who was taken into custody after the bodies were found by U.S. Marshalls at around 9:30 a.m. Both WJLA and WTOP say that Jacks has since been charged with two counts of felony murder, and that all four deaths have been ruled homicides. The nature of these murders will no doubt result in multiple investigations, potentially including the role of Child Protective Services, which had received at least one complaint about the family.
This is Why People with Kids Move to the Suburbs: Ever wonder why hardly anyone you know with a kid continues to live in the District? A new report ranking schools systems puts both Virginia and Maryland's public schools in the top five in the nation (Maryland at third and Virginia at fifth), while unsurprisingly, D.C. schools are ranked 51st -- behind every single state in the country. The researcher behind the study made sure to note that D.C. is more comparable to other major cities instead of entire states, which have a mix of successful and struggling schools. Still, the report is highly critical of the state of District schools, and with such great programs right across either border, it's easier to understand why parents who can't afford private school flee to the suburbs if they can.
Abusive Driver Fees Could Disappear: The Post reports on Va. Gov. Tim Kaine's annual State of the Commonwealth speech last night before the General Assembly, during which he called for an end to the state's controversial abusive driver fees. "We must continue to look for strategies to promote safety on the road," said Kaine, who has been under pressure from fellow Democrats to end the fees. "The abuser-fee idea has flunked with voters, and we should acknowledge it and move on." Va. Republicans responded favorably to the suggestion, which means the fees could likely be removed by the legislature this session.
Briefly Noted: Two women killed in collision with police cruiser ... St. Elizabeths pharmacist pleads guilty to stealing $95K in medications ... Two teens injured in drive-by remain hospitalized ... Work on Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial set to begin in spring ... Capitol Police officer convicted on child porn.
This Day in DCist: In 2007 we reported that a lot of Columbia Heights residents weren't getting their mail, and in 2006 we looked at population trends in the District.
Photo by christaki
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First paragraph aboput article with four dead children in DC house.
Second paragraph is a link to an article about why people should move their kids to the suburb.
Fun placement.
I think a big problem with the DC school system is that anytime there might be a change the entrenched interests of the past come up to stop it.
There are many political elements in this city that hate change. I use to think the old style politics had lessened but I was wrong.
Granted there has been some good things happening in the city (like taxi cab meters) but that is off set by the ridiculous rates that will be charged.
Or we could take the double-parking issue from years past. Logan Circle citizens, churches, and public officials came to an agreement that was quickly stopped by the mayor. This was done because the churches said they thought about the deal and didn't like it. I remember them using a bunch of speakers on Logan Circle during a nice weekend to annoy residents nearby. Not like church members would be disturbed because very few live in the district anymore.
Grasmick, who has served as Maryland superintendent for 16 years, noted "It certainly helps that teachers and staff members do not have to deal with the shifting priorities" of changing superintendents, Grasmick said.
And DC is now on its sixth 'superintendent' during Maryland's one. I think the problem with DC schools is too much change at the top, not enough in the classrooms.
I think a big problem with the DC school system is that anytime there might be a change the entrenched interests of the past come up to stop it.
Isn't that the case with pretty much any organization of more than two people? Try getting your employer to let you telecommute a couple days a week and see how far you get. Or try and get your church to let teh gheys marry. Or dad to turn on the fan when he goes in the crapper because you don't want the room to smell like a thousand drunken Irishmen's pickled egg farts. Government bureacracies don't exist to solve problems; they exist to perpetuate and protect the status quo. If they ever did solve the problem with education or developing publicly-owned lands or basic civic maintenance, they'd be out of a job. It's like that Demotivator slogan: if you're not part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
The rule in Ward 3 is that you can send your kids to DCPS for elementary school, and then you get them out to private schools for junior high and high school. And given the massive overcrowding at all Ward 3 public elementary schools, clearly lots of people follow this advice.
I'm always amazed by reports on this or that comparing DC to 50 states. The most recent example is this report showing that "D.C. schools are ranked 51st -- behind every single state in the country".
This is not a defense of our school system, because tragically they are awful, but why do the morons who put out these "reports" continue to compare apples to oranges? DC is a city and should be compared to cities. Just because we have this unique status doesn't mean that states are what we should be compared to and contrasted with.
It's routinely used to show how DC has the worst this and the worst that when compared to 50 states. I see this all the time and it irritates the hell out of me.
MS, generally i bet most agree with your comment about change and the existing obstructing powers, but with regard to the schools most of the council has supported the mayor in his request to take on the project of turning around our schools & DCPS and DC voters accepted his next candidacy as collatoral. Thankfully, most of the council so far is supporting the chancellor who now has some power to boot recalcitrants within The System. It's a long marche so we'll see how it all shakes out, but i am more hopeful now than ever.
I think the problem with DC schools is too much change at the top, not enough in the classrooms.
HA! Go back and read ANY Mayoral or Councilmember speech about dealing with education in DC. Every single one will mention how the problems at DCPS are a "failure of leadership" and how we need "bold, new leadership." What other kind of solution should you expect from our "leaders?" No, we don't need to fire mid level managers or incompetents who've been sucking on the DC teat for decades. WE NEED MORE EXPENSIVE LEADERS!
DC burns through school superintendants like a tourist with "Delhi belly" goes through toilet paper. And they all seem to be master practitioners of seagull management techniques: fly in screaming, crap everywhere, then fly off. They need to listen to more Bob Dylan: don't follow leaders; watch your parking meters.
DC isn't a state - especially according to most Republican congressman. By its very nature, the study is skewed to screw DC. These 51-state studies are really tiring because DC always ends up the odd man out - and it is.
It's routinely used to show how DC has the worst this and the worst that when compared to 50 states. I see this all the time and it irritates the hell out of me.
"Eleven city school districts were tested in 2005, including New York, Boston, Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami and Chicago, as well as the District. The Washington Post's analysis of the data shows that D.C. students ranked last or were tied for last on every measure. That is true even when poor children in the District are compared only with poor children in, say, Atlanta."
"Ever wonder why hardly anyone you know with a kid continues to live in the District?"
So, presumably, none of your readers knows a black working class parent living in DC? Well, aren't we elite.
Thanks for chiming in on that Karlm...I agree.
The comment in the DCist post was elitist, narrow-minded and frankly wrong.
I know plenty of people who continue to live in D.C. once their children reach high school age. Some send them to private school, some to charter schools and some to DCPS. My friends are black, white and Hispanic.
Perhaps DCist should either expand their pool of friends, or expand their view/knowledge of the city.
I agree with everyone else that comparing DC to states is dumb, but it's also dumb to refer to the entire states of Maryland and Virginia when you're only really talking about the context of the DC metro area (DCist does this all the time, but in this case there's a good reason to bring it up). Maryland and Virginia may place 3rd and 5th, which is all well and good, but while I don't know the current numbers, I'm pretty sure Montgomery and Fairfax counties specifically rank high (probably in the top 10) in terms of school districts, which is much more relevant.
I mean "districts, which is much more relevant."
Issues related to the DCPS are more-less fixable - facilities and to lesser extent bad teachers. But sadly, the root causes of why some many DC schools are so horrible are the problems related to the kids who attend them and the toxic environments from which they come. I know it's sad and unfair, but there are too many disinterested, incarcerated, and disruptive parents/ caregivers who are unable and/or unwilling to change their lives. They live in neighborhoods with rampant crime and violence. The kids absorb and project this toxicity and are simply unable to learn effectively under these conditions. Until these misdirected individuals who create the familial and communal toxicity change their lives, I don’t expect to see much meaningful improvement in the schools.
karlm & adamsmorgan - I can only speak for my five years in Logan Circle but with the exception of two families that now have children under two years of age on my block, everyone that I met in the neighborhood that had children has moved out (schools being the #1 reason why). Would it be elitist for me to say that everyone in Logan Circle with school age children has moved out? Perhaps ... but does that make the statement untrue?
If I had children, I would not punish them by sending them to DC public schools. I don't trust DCPS to educate children in any meaningful way.
I find many young professional couples toting their toddlers around the city... but as soon as those toddlers reach school age its off to the burbs with them. I don't blame them for wanting a good life, education and upbringing for their children.
god that painting looks even worse on camera
Logan Resident, what we meant was that DCist betrays its exclusively middle-class readership by saying that "hardly anyone you know with a kid continues to live in the District." Obviously, there are plenty of people with kids who live in the District and send their kids to its public schools, they're just not the ones reading DCist, which is a quite thoroughly bourgeois enterprise.
Actually, if you look at the stats, White students in DCPS outperform students in almost all of the other cities tested. But considering very few DCPS students are White and no one is satisfied with gaping educational divides between the races that only reaffirms what Geezer is saying. And as Edwards has said "None of us believe that the quality of a child's education should be controlled by where they live or the affluence of their community."
So these same people complaining that it isn't fair to compare DC to states are against voting rights, correct?
You can't have it both ways.
So these same people complaining that it isn't fair to compare DC to states are against voting rights, correct?
You can't have it both ways.
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They aren't having it both ways b/c one of the problems is that DC doesn't have the autonomy and control that a state does in controlling its school system and other government affairs if many policies or money has to be approved by Congress. If DC was a state and had all the attending autonomy that a state has, then it wouldn't be an issue. But DC isn't a state. In fact, DC Statehood people could use this in their fight for statehood.