WTU rallies for new contract
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Anonymous
NP here. You sound insane. Give it a rest already. |
Anonymous
But WTU doesn't want parent support. They keep saying over and over that it doesn't matter if people leave DCPS. And I guess it doesn't matter if they don't get their preferred person elected mayor. In a way, there's truth to this. Who cares if parents support the union? The only thing that happens is some small percentage of people leave or go private or go to charters. Parents have no power, aside from the elections and voting with their feet. The union doesn't need support. |
Anonymous
Yea I agree with this. Life would be a lot easier with some support from people on this board, but let’s be real. Most of you just yell into a void all day, and have no practical influence on whether or not we have a contract. Maybe one day we can all get along! |
Anonymous
The only influence is that you have to negotiate with Bowser versus R. White. So that's probably meaningful. |
Anonymous
True, but nothing that was discussed on here changed that election. |
Anonymous
I’m a teacher. The colleagues I’ve spoken to want smaller class sizes, a raise (do you know other DC employees are receiving a 12% increase over the next four years), I would love cola but maybe that’s a dream, substitutes, real planning periods that aren’t taken up by covering classes or LEAP meetings that aren’t meaningful, true sped resources, and a fair evaluation tool. I teach high school, I image ECE teachers need paraprofessionals and probably other things I’m not aware of. Let me point out here that the rank and file teachers have no idea what’s being negotiated because we don’t have a seat at the table and the negotiations are supposedly confidential. I get really tired of being accused of things that the vast majority of DCPS teachers have nothing to do with. The finger pointing and outrage aimed at educators on this board is disgusting. |
Anonymous
You don't think that support for the union (or lack thereof) had any bearing on the election? Huh. It's possible, but certainly there were enough people loudly proclaiming they wouldn't vote for R. White due to his support from the union. I certainly know many in real life. |
Anonymous
Why do you trust your union leadership, if you don't know if they are advocating for the things you'd like? |
Anonymous
Doubling down on incorrect grammar. Give this teacher a raise! |
Anonymous
I mean that there is nothing we can do presently to convince a certain subset of parents to support us, so we will get what we need with out them. It’s not my preference as I believe coalitions are helpful and beneficial to maintaining good communities, but there is nothing I have seen in my two years on DCUM to think that the majority of people who post here have any interest in this. We’ll get our contract. Maybe we strike, maybe we won’t have to, I don’t know. |
Anonymous
DP (also the OP). I don’t love our leadership but I think theyre much more aligned with my interests than Bowser and her team |
Anonymous
I guess it only matters how far you are thinking into the future, and how long you think people's memories are. There will be future elections, and people may be less supportive of union-endorsed candidates. That won't happen in the next couple of years, so I guess the idea is to hope that no one remembers that the union did something that potentially hurt children (striking). |
Anonymous
WTU might not, but individual teachers do. If DCPS enrollment numbers fall, if more parents move to charters, go private, or move, then DCPS will employ fewer teachers. Alienating parents and saying "WTU doesn't need you" is a good way to make yourself obsolete because parents do have other options in this city for education, but if you want a union teaching gig in DC, good luck getting one or holding onto it if enrollment declines even 10%. This is also one or the ways you can tell whose voice counts in WTU and what union officials mean when they talk about teachers. Are they talking about young teachers, new teachers, specials teachers, paras, librarians? Nope, because those are the people most likely to lose their jobs due to low enrollment, especially at schools in Wards 5/6/7/8. Teachers with seniority, near retirement don't really have to worry about this issue. So they can say "we don't need you" to parents. But this is not true for teachers in the district as a whole, who absolutely need students enrolled. And for specials teachers and paras, the investment of families can literally mean the difference between having a job or not -- it is community action that often saves the job or a librarian or art teacher or pays for paras in many classrooms, when DCPS claims it can't afford to keep them on. None of the actual teachers I know would ever say "we don't need you." They work at Title 1 schools (both my kids are at Title 1 schools) and work hard to build community with parents because it's better for the kids and the school. They are teaching because they care about the kids. They view parents as allies in those efforts. |
Anonymous
I think you are right and it’s an interesting discussion (though probably best served for the dc politics forum). This last election showed a pretty strong swing toward progressive values, which would seem to heavily favor the union. Palmer almost upset Mendo, and Bowser didn’t even get 50% of the vote, with the margin between her and r white trayons vote count. I think you could just as easily argue that the beliefs and values of the people that dominate this thread are becoming obsolete |
Anonymous
I wouldn't bank on a swing to far-left progressivism in DC, nor would I view decisive losses as a sign of winning. But ok. |