WaPo: How D.C. and its teachers, with shifting plans and demands, failed to reopen schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools are open for in-person learning in about half the country. Here’s a map

https://cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker/

Schools have been open for in person learning in much of the country for almost six months now. Seems pretty clear at this point that it’s safe.

This.

If it was actually unsafe, we’d see the evidence by now.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have much sympathy for entitlement. I have sympathy for low SES families trying to survive. Strange how they don’t complain about DL and yet you do.

I honestly wish the WTU asked for more, at least when we’d come back in person all kid’s schools could have working lights, toilets, opening windows, working heat/air, etc.

While they were at it they should have asked for more pay for teachers on the caveat they are deemed essential workers, unless they have a condition or someone in their immediate family who lives with them.

I acknowledge my privilege, it doesn’t mean I don’t suffer, DL is hard for us all but I’m not worrying about how to pay my bills.

What percentage of low SES families are just not doing DL? (DCPS statistics suggest the number is significant.) Why would they be complaining if they’re not bothering with it in the first place?

How many low SES families do you know and regularly chat with? The parents on my dc's fall rec soccer team and the ladies on our cleaning group ALL hate distance learning, they think it is terrible. Don't assume .

90% of my school is low SES and I’m part of the parent engagement team so a heck of a lot. I also do outside FREE tutoring BEFORE the pandemic so there’s that. I think you’re assuming when you’re not even part of the community in which this mostly effects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disgusting. Disgusted with the teachers. No civic duty.

"Civic duty." LOL. Teachers are not your babysitters in a pandemic. They provide education via DL. If you need childcare, hire it.

As a taxpayer, I have a right to have my child in a public school teacher’s care from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Not even just a right; I HAVE to send my kid to school by law. So yes, part of your job, even (arguably especially) in a pandemic, is babysitting, so I can, oh I don’t know, do my own damn job.

No where does it say public school must be in person. You have a right to nothing but your white privilege makes you believe you do, welcome to real life where things are more difficult. We all pay taxes, sometimes for things that don’t even involve us. Shove your tax comments where the sun doesn’t shine because you’re not special.
Some people have to work multiple jobs and don’t get to see their children from 7am to 6pm normally every weekday and they are making it, what’s your excuse?

White privilege? Last I checked the majority of those enrolled in DCPS are POC.

Last I checked the loudest voices of return in person now are white families. And don’t act like that’s not slowly changing with gentrification. You must be new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools are open for in-person learning in about half the country. Here’s a map

https://cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker/

Schools have been open for in person learning in much of the country for almost six months now. Seems pretty clear at this point that it’s safe.

This.

If it was actually unsafe, we’d see the evidence by now.

Teachers just don’t want to have to work.

Parent just don’t want to parent.

See how idiotic remarks move the conversation? I can do that too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have much sympathy for entitlement. I have sympathy for low SES families trying to survive. Strange how they don’t complain about DL and yet you do.

I honestly wish the WTU asked for more, at least when we’d come back in person all kid’s schools could have working lights, toilets, opening windows, working heat/air, etc.

While they were at it they should have asked for more pay for teachers on the caveat they are deemed essential workers, unless they have a condition or someone in their immediate family who lives with them.

I acknowledge my privilege, it doesn’t mean I don’t suffer, DL is hard for us all but I’m not worrying about how to pay my bills.

What percentage of low SES families are just not doing DL? (DCPS statistics suggest the number is significant.) Why would they be complaining if they’re not bothering with it in the first place?

Many may be too busy working multiple jobs to pay attention to how their kids are doing or simply not have the human and cultural capital to discern how their children are doing school. That’s one reason we have compulsory schooling. Don’t use low income kids as a justification to stay home and bake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this in a city that has consistently had some of the lowest coronavirus levels in the country. Even today, there’s only three states with better numbers than ours.

Teachers should be ashamed of themselves.

This was all so unnecessary. Schools should have opened in August.

Private schools opened in August. Many daycares never closed, ever, during the pandemic.

The comparison is not fair. Maybe compare DCPS to the successful reopening of DC charter schools and nearby districts like FCPS and PGCPS.


Oh wait..

The local school districts are taking cues from each other. As long as one stays closed, it provides cover for the others to do the same.

No way. I don’t think MCPS cares a fig what DCPS does.

FCPS 188,000 students
MCPS 162,700
PGCPS 136,500

DCPS 51,000

Who should be able to manage this first?

Guess which chancellor/superintendent is paid the most? DCPS of course. For accomplishing absolutely nothing this year.

[Anonymous]

I read the article and nobody looks good - absolutely nobody. DCPS is a sinking ship. It can just about manage in a normal year but any type of crisis and we are done for. I think we may just have to move as my kids are young

[Anonymous]

Yeah DCPS is a dumpster fire, and sadly the best we can hope for is probably for other area schools to get reopening plans going and DCPS will just bring up the rear.

[Anonymous]

Problem is that teachers have a lot of power here. There is a national teacher shortage. If we fire all the teachers, we will be in an even worse off position. Alienating teachers and principals was a very stupid move by the mayor and chancellor. I don’t fully blame teachers as the US worships at the altar of capitalism and why wouldn’t teachers act in their own best interests.

[Anonymous]

But the blame goes to all of you, too. Where were you? Who organized parents to reopen like in NYC? This has been a huge disappointment. You’d think reading DCUM that plenty of parents are angry and fired up, but there wasn’t any public pressure? A petition, one article in the WaPo, and that’s it?

Are you too scared to stick your neck out?

“ The result: Teachers were applying maximum pressure to stay closed, but there was virtually no public pressure to reopen.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have much sympathy for entitlement. I have sympathy for low SES families trying to survive. Strange how they don’t complain about DL and yet you do.

I honestly wish the WTU asked for more, at least when we’d come back in person all kid’s schools could have working lights, toilets, opening windows, working heat/air, etc.

While they were at it they should have asked for more pay for teachers on the caveat they are deemed essential workers, unless they have a condition or someone in their immediate family who lives with them.

I acknowledge my privilege, it doesn’t mean I don’t suffer, DL is hard for us all but I’m not worrying about how to pay my bills.

What percentage of low SES families are just not doing DL? (DCPS statistics suggest the number is significant.) Why would they be complaining if they’re not bothering with it in the first place?

Many may be too busy working multiple jobs to pay attention to how their kids are doing or simply not have the human and cultural capital to discern how their children are doing school. That’s one reason we have compulsory schooling. Don’t use low income kids as a justification to stay home and bake.

+1

This idea that everyone has time to be watching their kids do DL all day is nuts. Lots of parents work out of the home and it’s older siblings or relatives or no one with the kids all day. And I know everyone’s voice matters but there are some baseline expectations for all children in terms of school. For instance I’ve had parents tell me they don’t think their kid should have to go to school on Fridays so they can have a longer weekend. That is the parent’s opinion but it’s wrong in terms of their child learning. And that kid ended up pregnant at 16 and dropped out of school. Extreme example? Maybe. But not everyone actually knows what’s best for kids to learn ( and this example is not from DC).

[Anonymous]

Coronavirus numbers in DC are still very low. It is crazy schools have been closed so long in a city with such low coronavirus rates.

[Anonymous]

Regarding low SES families- a lot of them don’t feel they have power to complain and feel that no one listens to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have much sympathy for entitlement. I have sympathy for low SES families trying to survive. Strange how they don’t complain about DL and yet you do.

I honestly wish the WTU asked for more, at least when we’d come back in person all kid’s schools could have working lights, toilets, opening windows, working heat/air, etc.

While they were at it they should have asked for more pay for teachers on the caveat they are deemed essential workers, unless they have a condition or someone in their immediate family who lives with them.

I acknowledge my privilege, it doesn’t mean I don’t suffer, DL is hard for us all but I’m not worrying about how to pay my bills.

What percentage of low SES families are just not doing DL? (DCPS statistics suggest the number is significant.) Why would they be complaining if they’re not bothering with it in the first place?

Many may be too busy working multiple jobs to pay attention to how their kids are doing or simply not have the human and cultural capital to discern how their children are doing school. That’s one reason we have compulsory schooling. Don’t use low income kids as a justification to stay home and bake.

+1. If we turn this into another debate about “entitlement” and “white privilege” we’ll be losing the true focus here. First of all, don’t assume that all parents complaining here about DCPS are white parents or rich parents. Second, DL is less effective and was meant to be temporary. Kids don’t socialize, to start with, which is an important component of their education and school experience. Private schools and daycares have been able to open and learn how to navigate the new normal without all this drama and hype. Kids in public schools will be very far behind by the time they go back to school. Just the thought of DCPS wanting to delay school start even more is depressing. WTU could have fought harder for teachers to be considered essential workers and negotiate higher pay, which would have been widely supported by parents. Instead, they became obtuse and selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the blame goes to all of you, too. Where were you? Who organized parents to reopen like in NYC? This has been a huge disappointment. You’d think reading DCUM that plenty of parents are angry and fired up, but there wasn’t any public pressure? A petition, one article in the WaPo, and that’s it?

Are you too scared to stick your neck out?

“ The result: Teachers were applying maximum pressure to stay closed, but there was virtually no public pressure to reopen.”

Well, this isn't an excuse, it's just an explanation:

Many MC and UMC white parents who wanted schools to re-open were shamed by WTU and by a small minority of parents supporting the teacher's union into staying quiet. We were threatened with the prospect of being labeled racist, Trump/DeVos supporters, and suffering the social and community consequences. We were afraid to speak up because wanting schools open was effectively equated with things like being a Covid denier, voting for Trump, hating unions, and not caring about POC. So we stayed quiet.

That this whole debate happened on the heels of a summer of BLM protests, and a real reckoning for white people, compounded the issue. We genuinely wondered whether advocating for our kids was an okay thing to do. Especially since survey after survey showed that white parents were far more likely to support re-opening. So many of us because uncertain in our convictions. I know I did. I was afraid to speak out, and I was effectively shamed by the union and other parents into believing that I needed to suck it up and stop complaining. That's a big reason I post on this board instead of taking a more vocal position at my school or in the community. In those places, I let other voices take the lead because I don't want to be seen as an entitled white person. But here, I tell the truth.

I'm not proud of this but I also don't know what the solution is, because as you can see, anyone who advocates for reopening is indeed accused of being a tone-deaf, privileged white person who doesn't care about POC or teachers. I have live in my community and my kid has to go to school, and I can't risk becoming a pariah.