NYC public schools.

I attended a forum tonight on the different public Kindergartens and pre-Ks in my part of Brooklyn, and how to get into same. Basically it's a confusing shitstorm of bureaucracy* wherein you have too many parents trying to get their children into too few good schools. And the Department of Education is undergoing yet another epic reorganization, so the rules about where/how/why your kid can go to a school are expected to change within the next year. It's like a fun thing for politicians to boast how they "shook up" the DOE but all that really happens is that millions of dollars get spent on seemingly random restructuring plans and bizarre, meaningless school assessments.

There's not much of a point to this post, except to say that I'll probably end up paying two preschool tuitions next year; but after that, Tallulah will automatically be enrolled in our blessedly good local school. Also, I got to talk with several parents I know from Tallulah's current and former preschools. It was nice to talk to them and get a sense of solidarity about this whole thing. I'm certainly not alone in feeling overwhelmed and disheartened and a bit desperate.

* The boring, overly-long explanation: the school in the district where you live has to take your child for Kindergarten, but there's also various magnet, charter, and lottery schools that you can try to get your child into instead. All of those "special" schools have their own rules about who can apply and how. And if you don't like the school you're districted for, you can apply for a variance to attend a different one, if that different school accepts students from out-of-district, because not all do. And none of this actually applies to pre-K, since children aren't guaranteed a pre-K spot; so every school, even the one you're districted for, uses a lottery for Pre-K admission. And your odds? NOT GOOD. The most popular lottery-based schools usually have 3 or 4 pre-K spots open (due to sibling preference for existing students) for literally hundreds of applicants every year.