Since when did school become a privilege and not a right - for every child?
When I watched "Waiting for Superman" almost a decade ago, I never thought my wife and I would actually have to go through this process. But, this process now also applies to us as parents here in Washington, DC. One would think that any school that our kid(s) get matched with is an acceptable school. However, with the rise of public charter schools, the rise of private schools, the decline of quality education offered in public schools, and the drastic rise of population in DC (which is also gentrifying DC), the school competition is just as bad as the housing market.
For almost my entire life, I never had to worry about which school I would attend. I was an Army kid and my schools were preset for me. After college and living the world that most Americans live, I quickly caught on to the root issue for most systems in America. Our education system sucks. I'm not just saying this. Anyone can look it up online for our nation's ranking in education among all nations.
When my wife and I had to research (looking up school rankings, mapping school locations near us, using online tools like Niche) and learn about the school lottery process in DC, it was daunting. We had to learn about all the schools in DC. We had to learn about our own dreams for our first kid who would attend school. We had to learn about the school lottery system. We even went to the DC schools convention (called EdFest) to learn more about each school via school representatives. By the way, the convention was overcrowded and it's difficult to have a quality conversation with a school rep in such an atmosphere. Lastly, we had to go online (which means any parent who wants their child to enter a school offering a quality education suiting his/her child will need to be somewhat computer literate). All of this, just to hope that schools in our top picks will somehow match up with our kid. Well, after submitting our application almost one month ago, today the results came in and here they are:
Thank God, we got matched with one of our school picks! We can't imagine if our kid didn't get matched at all. How horrible of a feeling a parent will have to cope with? Would a parent then decide on homeschooling? Would a parent have to choose between working to put food on the table and schooling his/her kid with a quality education? Would a parent move, if s/he could?
Just to help myself understand the weight of these questions, I decided to investigate what my kid's lottery number actually meant in terms of probabilities getting into the school per the waitlisted schools. I couldn't find the actual number of applicants for PK3 and had to make due with the information that I did find.
For our top pick with Mundo Verde, my kid is ranked either #117 or #208. I would like to believe that this school opened another school to help increase the chances of kids getting into the school and it sounds great. But with looking at the total enrollment of 578 students for PK3-5th grade and the increasing rate of applicants, I can only remind myself that it's not actually out of the interest of the students (or parents) rather than the school's interest causing the opening of another school. Else, why not open two more schools since they have so many applicants? My complaint here isn't only directed towards Mundo Verde, but all of these schools in the lottery system.
Moving on to our next pick with DC Bilingual, my kid is ranked at #197. This school has a total enrollment of 440 for PK3-5th grade. Really, only one school from this program with this many applicants (based on my kid being ranked at almost 200)?
Last, but not least (on the waiting list) is our pick with Elsie Whitley Stokes. My kid is ranked #131 and this school has the lowest enrollment total at 350 for PK3-5th grade. This is no better than DC Bilingual especially knowing they have two language programs and the total enrollment is most likely based on both programs.
Overall, being waitlisted in the 100's when there are only about 40 slots for PK3 for each school is not really providing any hope at all. They might as well have said that my kid just didn't get in (and not raise anyone's hope).
Another challenge here is understanding what it means to be "matched" along with the rest of the terminology here. I had to search and learn about this on the DC school lottery website.
https://www.myschooldc.org/enroll/waitlist-management
As I learned, the only reason why I don't know if my kid was accepted into E.W. (French), Yu Ying, and/or Bunker Hill is because my child got matched to a higher ranked school, Mary McLeod Bethune. This is strange because what if I decided that the location of the school now mattered more than a program offered at the school? For instance, E.W. is closer to me and perhaps I would choose E.W. (French) instead. I guess I'm just out of luck? Is this how the lottery works? Do I really need to be a pro at this school lottery game to give my kid a chance to get into the most preferred school for my family?
In addition, being the parents that my wife and I are, we also applied separately to another public charter school not participating in DC's School Lottery: LAMBS. And, we heard that our kid has been accepted into their school. Thank God!
But, did you notice what I noticed with the bold text on the header of the school lottery results? That there are "no spaces available for PK4 and Kindergarten"? Most likely meaning that if your kid didn't get into the school during PK3, then it's even less likely your kid will get into the school later (unless his/her younger sibling is a lottery winner).
Before I close out my thoughts here, I want to show you the reality of this insanity. Our son got into one of the 40 slots out of 627 students that applied (via parents, of course). If you compare the list below with the list pictured above, then you'll notice that the PK4 and the Kindergarten lists don't expand to 627 students. PK4 ended with 307 and Kindergarten ended with 215 students (still applying). Thank you LAMB for your transparency.
Overall, this doesn't excuse the system that our nation has created for our families. For a nation that prizes its morals and values based on a family foundation, our nation is failing without a doubt. In conclusion, parents will not only have to be smart with parenting their own children but also other children in the neighborhood if we truly want this nation to be safe and healthy.
God help America.
