DCI Union

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fear that millennial progressive parents who are supporting the millennial progressive teachers down this path in the charter sector are not realizing that part of the reason that DC has such a robust charter sector is due to the deleterious effect that unions have had on regular DCPS. Incompetent teachers cannot be fired. Seniority---not teaching talent---becomes more important. There is no reward for being an exemplary educator but lots of protection for being a poor or mediocre one.

There seem to be a lot of union boosters on this thread who are embracing unions because it is the progressive cause celebre. Unions are a business. They take their members' money in exchange for promising them better pay and working conditions through the collective bargaining process. Education unions have fought charters for the last 20 years because the charter sector has cut into the unions' business model---which is a monopoly on public education.

Charter schools already struggle mightily with financial constraints that regular DCPS does not. There is an equal chance that unionizing in the charter sector will just result in the closure of charters---which may ultimately be what the unions are after in order to regain their market share. So if you are in a parent in a neighborhood with poorly performing unionized schools who was hoping to get your kid into a desirable charter school, be cautious about the long term effects of what you are supporting when it comes to promoting unions in the charter sector.

(I also remember 20 years ago when the head of the DC teachers' union went to jail after stealing millions of dollars of teacher dues which she used for shopping sprees at Neiman's and fancy vacations.)

Unions ain't all that.

You are so uniformed. You can 100% be fired in DCPS, just not within the day like an at will charter. It will be after 1 school year unless it was something egregious.
FYI there is no data to support charters doing better with the students in poor performing neighborhood schools.

No data... except for PARCC and OSSE report cards. Can we agree that the Ward 7 and 8 schools are considered the poorest performing (by this board)? PARCC data is readily available to compare schools in those. The data is available and it does support that charters test performance is better.

The problem with comparing charters to public schools in a neighborhood is that it isn’t apples to apples. You have to apply to a charter- yes it’s through the lottery but a parent or guardian has to have the knowledge and drive to do that. Public schools have to take every student no matter what. Including the ones whose parents don’t remember when school starts and send them late after a week of school already.