What could a new Mayor mean for schools - DCPS and charters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

It’s her affiliation with the Democratic Socialists. “Elected in November 2020, George became the first self-described democratic socialist to serve as a member of the Council since Hilda Mason was defeated for re-election in 1998.”

The Democratic Socialists in DC are extremely progressive. They have been vocal against school measurement, standardized testing, charters. I don’t know if she shares all of their views but when I read concerns of Bowser being in developers’ pocket, I wonder what it could mean in the next mayor is beholden to democratic socialists.

Are you seriously for more standardized testing? I feel like my kids have so much standardized testing that they barely have a chance to learn

Not for more but that doesn't mean not for any. There is one statewide standardized test that takes a couple of weeks of staff time in the spring but should only take each kid a couple of sessions.

There's PARCC or whatever it is now at the end of the year, which doesn't actually help my kids. There's the beginning/middle/end of year standardized testing. Then there are SATs, APs, etc. And then regular classroom tests.

As a parent I'd be happy to see more focus on learning than all these tests. I'm certainly open to someone with new ideas.

[Anonymous]

If the democratic socialist wins you can say goodbye to any gifted and talented programs.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Nothing will change unless DC somehow elects a mayor who is more conservative than Bowser who is willing to challenge the status quo.

I think that you may have found yourself in the wrong city if you think that DC will ever become conservative. I certainly don't believe conservatism is required for a leader to create better schools. Fenty did more than any other mayor to push forward our schools and make change and he was far from conservative.

PP here. You've misread what I wrote. I said "more conservative than Bowser." Not "a conservative." Fenty is precisely the kind of person I was talking about. He was "more conservative than Bowser" (not to mention everyone on the city council). We need someone who will stand up to the status quo, and raise standards and introduce a measure of accountability. You don't get that when you vote for extremely liberal Democrats. That's like voting for extremely conservative Republicans and expecting them to raise taxes on the rich. It's simply not in the cards.

I disagree that Fenty was more conservative than Bowser. He went to Oberlin. Bowser is in the pockets of every developer she ever met.

Ok, well, you're just totally wrong. It was Adrian Fenty who put Michelle Rhee in charge of schools. It sounds Michelle Rhee was before your time. The short version is that Michelle Rhee did more to improve schools in DC than anyone else in our lifetime and she did it by doing the exact opposite of what Bowser and the rest of our city council does today re: schools. Michelle Rhee was a parent's dream and a liberal politician's nightmare.

The only candidate that’s declared so far is Lewis-George. Is she more or less conservative and what might that mean for schools?

Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Untrue. She would agree to end mayoral control of schools. In which case educators and parents would have their power back. A school board isn’t a dream but it would be better. Of course she could be lying about her beliefs and give us the same old crap.

Why would a school board would be better? Power still would be functionally in the hands of a select few.

Focused attention by people elected to work on that one thing instead of general politicians that may (or frequently may not) understand the issues.

It works well in other parts of the country. Why not here?

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

That's OK. That happens at every level (rich parents get tutors, hire someone to write admission essays, etc). That is NOT a reason to not have high quality educational offerings (because too many people will want them???)

Also, it's satisfying to see Ward 3 parents who think they have gifted because bc they have privileged kids realize their kids don't meet the testing threshold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

That's OK. That happens at every level (rich parents get tutors, hire someone to write admission essays, etc). That is NOT a reason to not have high quality educational offerings (because too many people will want them???)

Also, it's satisfying to see Ward 3 parents who think they have gifted because bc they have privileged kids realize their kids don't meet the testing threshold.

I’m with you on the second paragraph. But I can see why DCPS central office folks don’t want to deal with those parents. Creating these high quality offerings will not help enough of the kids that they want to help. The juice won’t be worth the squeeze for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

That's OK. That happens at every level (rich parents get tutors, hire someone to write admission essays, etc). That is NOT a reason to not have high quality educational offerings (because too many people will want them???)

Also, it's satisfying to see Ward 3 parents who think they have gifted because bc they have privileged kids realize their kids don't meet the testing threshold.

I’m with you on the second paragraph. But I can see why DCPS central office folks don’t want to deal with those parents. Creating these high quality offerings will not help enough of the kids that they want to help. The juice won’t be worth the squeeze for them.

Um, it's the responsibility of Central Office to provide appropriate education to all the kids, academically challenged and academically gifted, whether they like the parents or not.

If CO employees think (which I doubt they do) that they can just serve the residents of their choosing, then they need a different job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely. Mayor practically abandoned schools policy, except where her DME and chancellor did bureaucratic things that no one could gainsay.

The chancellor is milquetoast, and one of the DME's children has returned to private for high school. Gotta love his confidence in his own work accomplishments.

And the Mayor only has confidence in WOTP schools, or why else would she step in to reject the boundary changes that would affect her.

[Anonymous]

It is possible for DC to have stellar schools with rigorous education standards. It would take someone who does not cater to the social justice warriors and the teachers union. Would voters vote for that though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

Look in the mirror.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing will change unless DC somehow elects a mayor who is more conservative than Bowser who is willing to challenge the status quo.

I think that you may have found yourself in the wrong city if you think that DC will ever become conservative. I certainly don't believe conservatism is required for a leader to create better schools. Fenty did more than any other mayor to push forward our schools and make change and he was far from conservative.

PP here. You've misread what I wrote. I said "more conservative than Bowser." Not "a conservative." Fenty is precisely the kind of person I was talking about. He was "more conservative than Bowser" (not to mention everyone on the city council). We need someone who will stand up to the status quo, and raise standards and introduce a measure of accountability. You don't get that when you vote for extremely liberal Democrats. That's like voting for extremely conservative Republicans and expecting them to raise taxes on the rich. It's simply not in the cards.

I disagree that Fenty was more conservative than Bowser. He went to Oberlin. Bowser is in the pockets of every developer she ever met.

Ok, well, you're just totally wrong. It was Adrian Fenty who put Michelle Rhee in charge of schools. It sounds Michelle Rhee was before your time. The short version is that Michelle Rhee did more to improve schools in DC than anyone else in our lifetime and she did it by doing the exact opposite of what Bowser and the rest of our city council does today re: schools. Michelle Rhee was a parent's dream and a liberal politician's nightmare.

The only candidate that’s declared so far is Lewis-George. Is she more or less conservative and what might that mean for schools?

Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

I see someone has never before interacted with the Councilwoman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I support Lewis-George for Mayor. The charter system wants autonomy and DCPS wants support from neighbors and financial support to keep low- attendance schools open. Those seem doable. And I would appreciate a shift from focus on capital projects to spending to get student success.

A lot of what we talk about here is nice to have. I’d rather have a full Roosevelt and Dunbar that drive success than another test- or grades-in high school. That’s not what everyone wants but it’s OK. I’d like a real school board. Some people fear dysfunction but that’s not a given.


Appreciate all the thoughts.

JLG has a reputation of being anti-charter. She is also very pro-teachers union and unionization of charter schools typically results in the closures of those schools because they do not have the financial wherewithal to meet union demands. So unionization of charters is the back-door way for anti-charter forces to destroy the sector.

DCI unionized and it's still extremely prized by parents and this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP but she's not for raising academic standards, repealing Ferebee's disastrous "no such thing as a zero" policy, or tracking. She's never once advocated for those things. The only things she talks about w/r/t schools are 1) improving run-down facilities (good, fine, reasonable), 2) social emotional learning (good in theory, but already pretty well addressed in DC curriculum), and 3) raising ECE pay by making the Covid bonuses permanent (not opposed to this as a policy, but she framed it very misleadingly which has left a bad taste in my mouth).

That's it. She has a positions page on her website and under education it segues almost immediately to childcare - she's never once said anything about improving DCPS academically, so I think it's perfectly valid for PP to say she's going to stick with the status quo.

JLG has been in office for five years. She's at a seat at the table for *half* of Bowser's time as mayor. If JLG actually supported raising academic standards or tracking or doing something about discipline, you would have heard it by now. Her silence should speak volumes. The only thing she's for is spending more money on schools, which is great, but money is not the issue. DC schools are usually pretty nice. Even the bad ones. Democrats in general tend not to stint on school spending.

She's the Ward 4 rep and it's fair to say that Ward 4 facilities are not nice. She's representing her constituents and is not an at-large council member. Right now those constituents are fighting for safe facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

That's OK. That happens at every level (rich parents get tutors, hire someone to write admission essays, etc). That is NOT a reason to not have high quality educational offerings (because too many people will want them???)

Also, it's satisfying to see Ward 3 parents who think they have gifted because bc they have privileged kids realize their kids don't meet the testing threshold.

I’m with you on the second paragraph. But I can see why DCPS central office folks don’t want to deal with those parents. Creating these high quality offerings will not help enough of the kids that they want to help. The juice won’t be worth the squeeze for them.

Not to defend a central office I despise but just watching what happened with Lafayette and the redshirting issue I kind of understand their hesitancy on programs which will almost solely benefit privileged parents with a constituency of privileged parents who will literally sue for their privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Lewis-George is about as left wing as they come. She will keep schools as is. She will adamantly oppose raising academic standards or flunking kids or creating admissions standards for some schools. People like her see all that as racist because it will disproportionately hurt black kids.

Source? Or just your perception based on....? She is a Walls graduate and sounds like she had a positive experience so I'm curious where you are coming from other the progressive label.

DP. People keep saying she's DC's Mamdani (based on her DSA affiliation and leaked outreach planning). Mamdani came out against some G&T policies and has talked about ceding some mayoral control. He's also a graduate of Bronx Science, a selective high school.

The left despises G&T programs. If you support G&T programs you will not work for JLG, should she get elected mayor.

Honestly, drop the label and just make sure there's some differentiation. I think we've tried it for long enough to know that "honors for all" isn't working. And yet....

The baby got thrown out with the bathwater with gifted and talented. The problem with G&T is that some parents (guess which ones) will game the system to get their kids into it/bias in the selection process. I for one completely understand why DCPS will not do G&T. The Ward 3 parents are insufferable enough, can you imagine?

That's OK. That happens at every level (rich parents get tutors, hire someone to write admission essays, etc). That is NOT a reason to not have high quality educational offerings (because too many people will want them???)

Also, it's satisfying to see Ward 3 parents who think they have gifted because bc they have privileged kids realize their kids don't meet the testing threshold.

I’m with you on the second paragraph. But I can see why DCPS central office folks don’t want to deal with those parents. Creating these high quality offerings will not help enough of the kids that they want to help. The juice won’t be worth the squeeze for them.

Not to defend a central office I despise but just watching what happened with Lafayette and the redshirting issue I kind of understand their hesitancy on programs which will almost solely benefit privileged parents with a constituency of privileged parents who will literally sue for their privilege.

I don't know what happened in those instances though I do understand how a privilege mindset can lead to frustrating dynamics. But the lack of gifted programming is a universal problem. IMO, it is worse for underprivileged kids than it is for privileged ones. I think it's wrong not to have it for any kid that can do the work -- wealthy or not, minority or not. But it is absolutely worse for a kid whose parents may not have options to supplement, move to a better school neighborhood, pay for summer programs, etc. Parents need to get together from across the city and demand better. There may be less kids in certain schools or parts of town to take advantage of the programming but to not provide the opportunity is wrong.