DC Public Education Candidate Forum starting now

[Anonymous]

You can stream on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DniIXejzO3Q

Starts with candidates for Mayor, then Delegate to Congress (around 7pm), then Council Chair (around 7:45pm)

[Anonymous]

Wake us if anyone talks about raising academic standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wake us if anyone talks about raising academic standards.

You're welcome to submit that question via the YouTube chat.

[Anonymous]

Thanks OP. Following along.

[Anonymous]

I do not have time to watch this tonight, unfortunately, but I’d love if someone watching gave us some key points - particularly differences between candidates.

[Anonymous]

Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not have time to watch this tonight, unfortunately, but I’d love if someone watching gave us some key points - particularly differences between candidates.

The recording is available at the same link. TBH the mayoral discussion wasn't useful because Orange and Goodweather couldn't provide any meaningful answers and McDuffie declined to attend, so there was no way to compare him to Lewis-George (who gave very thorough and well-informed answers).

The conversation between two delegate candidates (Robert White and Kinney Zalesne) was actually substantive and felt like they were pushing each other to be better. Pinto wasn't there.

I'm just catching up now on the conversation between candidates for Council Chair: Phil Mendelson and Jack Evans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

Thanks for this - what structural changes is JLG supporting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

Thanks for this - what structural changes is JLG supporting?

DP- overall? The debate was pretty short.
But universal childcare (little kids), more aftercare slots,actually addressing truancy and how kids get to school. As well as how we can address challenging behaviors.
Changing who is in charge not just the chancellor but possibly deputy of education, superintendents.
More listening to what teachers, parents, and students are saying.

I think no one is offering the huge changes teachers and parents would really want.

But I also agree that of all the candidates Janice and Gary are the best but Gary’s answers were way less polished and he admitted he has no expertise in running education. I know I will not be voting for McDuffie either, I do need the next mayor to not just care about businesses and crime (well I’d like them to actually care about crime more) but also education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

Thanks for this - what structural changes is JLG supporting?

DP- overall? The debate was pretty short.
But universal childcare (little kids), more aftercare slots,actually addressing truancy and how kids get to school. As well as how we can address challenging behaviors.
Changing who is in charge not just the chancellor but possibly deputy of education, superintendents.
More listening to what teachers, parents, and students are saying.

I think no one is offering the huge changes teachers and parents would really want.

But I also agree that of all the candidates Janice and Gary are the best but Gary’s answers were way less polished and he admitted he has no expertise in running education. I know I will not be voting for McDuffie either, I do need the next mayor to not just care about businesses and crime (well I’d like them to actually care about crime more) but also education.

I'm always surprised when people here rip JLG on education because she has been incredibly engaged on education during her time on Council. People see DSA and lose their minds but she's from Ward 4, went to Deal and Wilson, and she and her staff have shown up and pushed for school improvements even outside of just her constituents. I'm sure there are things we disagree on but the blanket "she's DSA and hates standards" is so reductive.

I also believe she may be in favor of relinquishing mayoral control of DCPS which would be huge and one of Bowser's worst decisions. It makes everything at the school level, even small things, a political fight which is not how we should view education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

Thanks for this - what structural changes is JLG supporting?

DP- overall? The debate was pretty short.
But universal childcare (little kids), more aftercare slots,actually addressing truancy and how kids get to school. As well as how we can address challenging behaviors.
Changing who is in charge not just the chancellor but possibly deputy of education, superintendents.
More listening to what teachers, parents, and students are saying.

I think no one is offering the huge changes teachers and parents would really want.

But I also agree that of all the candidates Janice and Gary are the best but Gary’s answers were way less polished and he admitted he has no expertise in running education. I know I will not be voting for McDuffie either, I do need the next mayor to not just care about businesses and crime (well I’d like them to actually care about crime more) but also education.

Feel like any school discussion needs to be split in two parts. One is how to help the kids that are falling behind (aftercare slots, truancy, etc.) and then the other how to make DCPS better for the many kids who don’t have those problems

Always too much attention on the bottom and never much on the top 49%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

I think anyone who thinks things were better before Rhee is on the really good drugs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not have time to watch this tonight, unfortunately, but I’d love if someone watching gave us some key points - particularly differences between candidates.

The recording is available at the same link. TBH the mayoral discussion wasn't useful because Orange and Goodweather couldn't provide any meaningful answers and McDuffie declined to attend, so there was no way to compare him to Lewis-George (who gave very thorough and well-informed answers).

The conversation between two delegate candidates (Robert White and Kinney Zalesne) was actually substantive and felt like they were pushing each other to be better. Pinto wasn't there.

I'm just catching up now on the conversation between candidates for Council Chair: Phil Mendelson and Jack Evans.

Robert White’s problem is he is a genuinely stupid man who can’t think about unintended consequences for his policies.

Take the pet rent legislation- just an example. Ok, we’re gonna cap rent for pet owners at some minuscule amount with no cost benefit analysis- great now buildings ban pets because they can’t cover insurance, taking housing off the market and raising prices for people.

His housing stuff is the same way. It’s like a kid who shows up to a college class once a semester, hears something nice, half remembers it, and that half remembered snippet becomes a core policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

Thanks for this - what structural changes is JLG supporting?

DP- overall? The debate was pretty short.
But universal childcare (little kids), more aftercare slots,actually addressing truancy and how kids get to school. As well as how we can address challenging behaviors.
Changing who is in charge not just the chancellor but possibly deputy of education, superintendents.
More listening to what teachers, parents, and students are saying.

I think no one is offering the huge changes teachers and parents would really want.

But I also agree that of all the candidates Janice and Gary are the best but Gary’s answers were way less polished and he admitted he has no expertise in running education. I know I will not be voting for McDuffie either, I do need the next mayor to not just care about businesses and crime (well I’d like them to actually care about crime more) but also education.

I’m not the world’s biggest JLG fan but she’s the only person putting any effort into defining the problem, let alone solutions to the problems she defines. This slate of candidates, and this is generally true of DC pols, is just really grim. They lack the ability to even describe problems nor any real analytical framework to solve them. I think with McDuffie it’s an unwillingness to engage as he views himself as the prohibitive framework, but I’ve never seen such a low level of intelligence, analytical thinking, and accomplishment in supposed political leaders as I see in DC. Thankfully there are usually one or two candidates who do have the juice, so it’s not all bad, but the pool is very shallow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly Janice Lewis George is my pick -she is the only one who talked about actually structural changes.
My second is Gary Goodweather, who talks about classroom changes and training for teacher but to me it’s also a red flag. If you know Michelle Rhee, she did a number on DCPS and helped ruin it. Teachers don’t need MORE training, we need GOOD training and planning time.

I find it interesting McDuffie is ALWAYS declining debates involving education. I also recently discovered his plan is to get kids ‘AI ready.’ Just no, we don’t need more tech. The research clearly shows this is not the way and let’s be honest most dummies can utilize AI -to use it well should be an elective a kid in HS can take IF they are interested.

Thanks for this - what structural changes is JLG supporting?

Janeese is a vote for the status quo. She will slavishly do whatever the teacher's union wants (she was trying to re-close schools during the pandemic for months after they had finally opened for good). Her answer to every problem is throwing more money at it. Let's face it. These schools are extremely well funded. What they need are higher academic standards. She is the last person on Earth who will support making schools more rigorous.