hilariously tone deaf tweet by CM Robert White

[Anonymous]

An example: A charter teacher has her kids in DCPS and DCPS doesn't open but the charter wants to. The teacher tells the charter admin she can't come in because of no childcare. Charter admin sees this is an issue with something like 10 of its staff and doesn't want to lose the teachers and says "oh we should stay closed".

I'm not saying that's right or wrong, I'm just saying that's something that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the union bashers are barking up the wrong tree. There are no heros or villains in this story at the end of the day. Lot of mistakes on all sides. In my opinion, the mayor and the chancellor wanted the optics of reopening. They got that and now they don’t care any more. Michelle Rhee decimated the union but what did that do - not much. The only solution is to respect each side and try to genuinely work together.

no, not when one side has shown its willingness to use the nuclear option to further its own interests. that’s the union’s choice to use their power that way. and that choice means that they cannot have any role on a school board.

Very well said.

It’s funny that no one seems to notice or care that 90% of charter students are still doing DL too. I know that messes with the “WTU=evil” narrative, which is why posters on this board don’t acknowledge it. At the end of the day, they cannot allow charter teachers to serve on the SBOE and ban WTU teachers. It’s unfair and shows blatant favoritism to the charter sector. Make it fair—teachers either can or can’t, regardless of where they work.

But also, the DC Charter Alliance IS pressing for altering the OSSE guidelines (based on updated science and metrics) in order to allow regular school. I don't see WTU doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I’m not having this legislation. Kick the charter teachers off the SBOE too - I agree that part makes no sense. But regardless of the terrible way that the chancellor and mayor have handled reopening (which has indeed been bad) WTU has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they DO NOT have the kids best interests in mind. They advocate only for themselves. You can say that’s the purpose of a union, which is fine, but they absolutely should not be allowed to run the schools with no oversight! Completely unacceptable.

This. All of it, but especially the bolded.

Shut the Fffffff up. Where were you when they were able to raise funding for schools?
Oh wait you’re privileged a** only cares about other privileged a**es.

Do you have a link or something that could describe the WTU efforts?

But also: there have been people in this forum saying they are WTU members, telling everyone that the union’s job is to protect its members, not advocate for children.

Oh wow seriously? So you can remember #onlywhenit'ssafe but not #fullyfundourschools?

That's hilarious. And yes, the union's main duty is to protect teachers, however prior to this I assure you they were doing very little for teachers and all their focus was on students (title 1 students specifically W 7/8) and changing impact.

“prior to this” doesn’t matter. the WTU ruined all pretense that they “care deeply about children.” as you and others have been lecturing us all year, unions represent the teachers’ interests, and that’s it.

+1. They showed us that when the going gets tough and it really matters, they don't care.

Better than you who has done nada and continues to do nada. You support white higher SES kids and that's it. You're not in a place to judge but carry on.

Unlike the union, we’re not actively harming kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I’m not having this legislation. Kick the charter teachers off the SBOE too - I agree that part makes no sense. But regardless of the terrible way that the chancellor and mayor have handled reopening (which has indeed been bad) WTU has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they DO NOT have the kids best interests in mind. They advocate only for themselves. You can say that’s the purpose of a union, which is fine, but they absolutely should not be allowed to run the schools with no oversight! Completely unacceptable.

This. All of it, but especially the bolded.

Shut the Fffffff up. Where were you when they were able to raise funding for schools?
Oh wait you’re privileged a** only cares about other privileged a**es.

Do you have a link or something that could describe the WTU efforts?

But also: there have been people in this forum saying they are WTU members, telling everyone that the union’s job is to protect its members, not advocate for children.

Oh wow seriously? So you can remember #onlywhenit'ssafe but not #fullyfundourschools?

That's hilarious. And yes, the union's main duty is to protect teachers, however prior to this I assure you they were doing very little for teachers and all their focus was on students (title 1 students specifically W 7/8) and changing impact.

“prior to this” doesn’t matter. the WTU ruined all pretense that they “care deeply about children.” as you and others have been lecturing us all year, unions represent the teachers’ interests, and that’s it.

+1. They showed us that when the going gets tough and it really matters, they don't care.

Better than you who has done nada and continues to do nada. You support white higher SES kids and that's it. You're not in a place to judge but carry on.

Unlike the union, we’re not actively harming kids.

Sure you are, you're white privilege and upholding of systemic racism is much worse to me.

[Anonymous]

And yet, the kids most harmed by school closures in terms of educational progress are low SES kids, who are disproportionately Black and Latino/a. So the WTU keeps schools closed, which disproportionately hurts Black/Latino/a kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet, the kids most harmed by school closures in terms of educational progress are low SES kids, who are disproportionately Black and Latino/a. So the WTU keeps schools closed, which disproportionately hurts Black/Latino/a kids.

And somehow that is the "not racist" stance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I’m not having this legislation. Kick the charter teachers off the SBOE too - I agree that part makes no sense. But regardless of the terrible way that the chancellor and mayor have handled reopening (which has indeed been bad) WTU has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they DO NOT have the kids best interests in mind. They advocate only for themselves. You can say that’s the purpose of a union, which is fine, but they absolutely should not be allowed to run the schools with no oversight! Completely unacceptable.

This. All of it, but especially the bolded.

Shut the Fffffff up. Where were you when they were able to raise funding for schools?
Oh wait you’re privileged a** only cares about other privileged a**es.

Do you have a link or something that could describe the WTU efforts?

But also: there have been people in this forum saying they are WTU members, telling everyone that the union’s job is to protect its members, not advocate for children.

Oh wow seriously? So you can remember #onlywhenit'ssafe but not #fullyfundourschools?

That's hilarious. And yes, the union's main duty is to protect teachers, however prior to this I assure you they were doing very little for teachers and all their focus was on students (title 1 students specifically W 7/8) and changing impact.

“prior to this” doesn’t matter. the WTU ruined all pretense that they “care deeply about children.” as you and others have been lecturing us all year, unions represent the teachers’ interests, and that’s it.

+1. They showed us that when the going gets tough and it really matters, they don't care.

Better than you who has done nada and continues to do nada. You support white higher SES kids and that's it. You're not in a place to judge but carry on.

Unlike the union, we’re not actively harming kids.

Sure you are, you're white privilege and upholding of systemic racism is much worse to me.

yes, it is white supremacy to say Black kids should have the same opportunity for education as rich white kids in private schools!!! totally racist.

if Ibrahim Kendi has taught us nothing else, it’s that “racist” is a label to apply to any policy with a disproportionate racial impact. ergo, WTU is racist.

[Anonymous]

You have the nub of an argument there if you would flesh it out and be generous to the other side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I’m not having this legislation. Kick the charter teachers off the SBOE too - I agree that part makes no sense. But regardless of the terrible way that the chancellor and mayor have handled reopening (which has indeed been bad) WTU has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they DO NOT have the kids best interests in mind. They advocate only for themselves. You can say that’s the purpose of a union, which is fine, but they absolutely should not be allowed to run the schools with no oversight! Completely unacceptable.

This. All of it, but especially the bolded.

Shut the Fffffff up. Where were you when they were able to raise funding for schools?
Oh wait you’re privileged a** only cares about other privileged a**es.

Do you have a link or something that could describe the WTU efforts?

But also: there have been people in this forum saying they are WTU members, telling everyone that the union’s job is to protect its members, not advocate for children.

Oh wow seriously? So you can remember #onlywhenit'ssafe but not #fullyfundourschools?

That's hilarious. And yes, the union's main duty is to protect teachers, however prior to this I assure you they were doing very little for teachers and all their focus was on students (title 1 students specifically W 7/8) and changing impact.

“prior to this” doesn’t matter. the WTU ruined all pretense that they “care deeply about children.” as you and others have been lecturing us all year, unions represent the teachers’ interests, and that’s it.

+1. They showed us that when the going gets tough and it really matters, they don't care.

Better than you who has done nada and continues to do nada. You support white higher SES kids and that's it. You're not in a place to judge but carry on.

Unlike the union, we’re not actively harming kids.

Sure you are, you're white privilege and upholding of systemic racism is much worse to me.

yes, it is white supremacy to say Black kids should have the same opportunity for education as rich white kids in private schools!!! totally racist.

if Ibrahim Kendi has taught us nothing else, it’s that “racist” is a label to apply to any policy with a disproportionate racial impact. ergo, WTU is racist.

Mhmmm whites quoting non whites doesn't make them not racist. And since Black and brown parents don't want IPL what do you want them to do?

You'll never be a true ally as long as you are supporting a system against minorities. All you care about is your precious snowflakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sure you are, you're white privilege and upholding of systemic racism is much worse to me.

yes, it is white supremacy to say Black kids should have the same opportunity for education as rich white kids in private schools!!! totally racist.

if Ibrahim Kendi has taught us nothing else, it’s that “racist” is a label to apply to any policy with a disproportionate racial impact. ergo, WTU is racist.

Mhmmm whites quoting non whites doesn't make them not racist. And since Black and brown parents don't want IPL what do you want them to do?

You'll never be a true ally as long as you are supporting a system against minorities. All you care about is your precious snowflakes.

Well it's more complicated than you're making out.

If Black and brown parents don't want to send their kids to IPL they can do that. Other people (regardless of skin color) sending their kids to school IPL doesn't take away from some Black and brown kids staying home. I haven't seen anyone advocate for forcing everyone to go IPL. Forcing Black and Latino/a parents to do something they don't want does seem to be racist. But that's not happening.

But it's also true that distance learning is disproportionately hurting the educational progress of Black and Latino/a kids. The "system" at present (partial hybrid) is against Black and Latino/o kids in this manner. So supporting this system would seem to be the racist stance. In any other scenario, if presented with a system in which Black and brown kids were disproportionately hurt in relation to their white peers, the PP would call that a racist system.

Of course, now we've got the conundrum that (a disproportionate share of) Black and Latino/a parents are supporting a racist system, so that doesn't seem right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I’m not having this legislation. Kick the charter teachers off the SBOE too - I agree that part makes no sense. But regardless of the terrible way that the chancellor and mayor have handled reopening (which has indeed been bad) WTU has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they DO NOT have the kids best interests in mind. They advocate only for themselves. You can say that’s the purpose of a union, which is fine, but they absolutely should not be allowed to run the schools with no oversight! Completely unacceptable.

This. All of it, but especially the bolded.

Shut the Fffffff up. Where were you when they were able to raise funding for schools?
Oh wait you’re privileged a** only cares about other privileged a**es.

Do you have a link or something that could describe the WTU efforts?

But also: there have been people in this forum saying they are WTU members, telling everyone that the union’s job is to protect its members, not advocate for children.

Oh wow seriously? So you can remember #onlywhenit'ssafe but not #fullyfundourschools?

That's hilarious. And yes, the union's main duty is to protect teachers, however prior to this I assure you they were doing very little for teachers and all their focus was on students (title 1 students specifically W 7/8) and changing impact.

“prior to this” doesn’t matter. the WTU ruined all pretense that they “care deeply about children.” as you and others have been lecturing us all year, unions represent the teachers’ interests, and that’s it.

+1. They showed us that when the going gets tough and it really matters, they don't care.

Better than you who has done nada and continues to do nada. You support white higher SES kids and that's it. You're not in a place to judge but carry on.

Unlike the union, we’re not actively harming kids.

Sure you are, you're white privilege and upholding of systemic racism is much worse to me.

yes, it is white supremacy to say Black kids should have the same opportunity for education as rich white kids in private schools!!! totally racist.

if Ibrahim Kendi has taught us nothing else, it’s that “racist” is a label to apply to any policy with a disproportionate racial impact. ergo, WTU is racist.

Mhmmm whites quoting non whites doesn't make them not racist. And since Black and brown parents don't want IPL what do you want them to do?

You'll never be a true ally as long as you are supporting a system against minorities. All you care about is your precious snowflakes.

??? 30% of Ward 8 parents want to return - probably more now. The “system” hurting minorities is the one keeping the schools closed, whereas rich white kids have been in private school this whole time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sure you are, you're white privilege and upholding of systemic racism is much worse to me.

yes, it is white supremacy to say Black kids should have the same opportunity for education as rich white kids in private schools!!! totally racist.

if Ibrahim Kendi has taught us nothing else, it’s that “racist” is a label to apply to any policy with a disproportionate racial impact. ergo, WTU is racist.

Mhmmm whites quoting non whites doesn't make them not racist. And since Black and brown parents don't want IPL what do you want them to do?

You'll never be a true ally as long as you are supporting a system against minorities. All you care about is your precious snowflakes.

Well it's more complicated than you're making out.

If Black and brown parents don't want to send their kids to IPL they can do that. Other people (regardless of skin color) sending their kids to school IPL doesn't take away from some Black and brown kids staying home. I haven't seen anyone advocate for forcing everyone to go IPL. Forcing Black and Latino/a parents to do something they don't want does seem to be racist. But that's not happening.

But it's also true that distance learning is disproportionately hurting the educational progress of Black and Latino/a kids. The "system" at present (partial hybrid) is against Black and Latino/o kids in this manner. So supporting this system would seem to be the racist stance. In any other scenario, if presented with a system in which Black and brown kids were disproportionately hurt in relation to their white peers, the PP would call that a racist system.

Of course, now we've got the conundrum that (a disproportionate share of) Black and Latino/a parents are supporting a racist system, so that doesn't seem right.

well your last point just goes to show how silly Ibrahim Kendi’s arguments are. Not silly exactly, but not meant to be actual policy proposals.

fact is, we never truly let parents just chose their children’s education. school is complusory. arguably the racist part is the sudden change to making essential school decisions parent choice, when parents are not equipped to make the right choice. (and I say this as a white mom who probably mistakenly kept her child home, so.)

[Anonymous]

So we've got a scenario where (lots of) Black and brown parents are choosing something for their children that hurts their children (in relation to educational progress of their white peers).

I'm sympathetic to the reasons WHY this is happening. Certainly the perceived risk of death (higher amongst Black and Latino/a populations) is outweighing the perceived risk of educational shortfalls. Anecdotally, hybrid also appears to be a thing keeping low SES kids out of schools, given it's an impossible schedule to keep with many less-flexible jobs. I'm sympathetic to schools always having had racist issues anyway, not being a safe space for Black and brown kids, and achievement gaps already being in place. I'm sure in many households the decisions are pretty agonizing.

But what do you do?

I think the only solutions (in the short-ish term) are to reduce the cases of the virus, encourage vaccinations, and try to get back to full-time IPL as quickly as possible. While caseloads decline due to higher vaccine rates, parents can keep pressure on schools to open full-time, at least in the Fall. Allow the possibility of DL in the fall for those that need it due to different medical issues. That actually seems like the least racist strategy.

In the longer term, obviously we need to advocate for resources to help kids recover from education losses, more mental health services to recover from damage done by the pandemic, and a host of other issues decreasing achievement gaps and racist policies in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we've got a scenario where (lots of) Black and brown parents are choosing something for their children that hurts their children (in relation to educational progress of their white peers).

I'm sympathetic to the reasons WHY this is happening. Certainly the perceived risk of death (higher amongst Black and Latino/a populations) is outweighing the perceived risk of educational shortfalls. Anecdotally, hybrid also appears to be a thing keeping low SES kids out of schools, given it's an impossible schedule to keep with many less-flexible jobs. I'm sympathetic to schools always having had racist issues anyway, not being a safe space for Black and brown kids, and achievement gaps already being in place. I'm sure in many households the decisions are pretty agonizing.

But what do you do?

I think the only solutions (in the short-ish term) are to reduce the cases of the virus, encourage vaccinations, and try to get back to full-time IPL as quickly as possible. While caseloads decline due to higher vaccine rates, parents can keep pressure on schools to open full-time, at least in the Fall. Allow the possibility of DL in the fall for those that need it due to different medical issues. That actually seems like the least racist strategy.

In the longer term, obviously we need to advocate for resources to help kids recover from education losses, more mental health services to recover from damage done by the pandemic, and a host of other issues decreasing achievement gaps and racist policies in schools.

Well said.

[Anonymous]

I think this makes the case well that people pushing to go back to school now — while acknowledging that’s not everyone’s preference — are doing the thing that is the “least racist.”