Is Bowser's goal really to damage and destroy DC public schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: school closure: schools were closed because of Trump and Republicans. Blew up the Wh pandemic team. Muzzled the CDC. Made it worse.

If you care about schools, white is an excellent candidate. And stop blaming anyone but Trump, who did this to our children, intentionally.

this is delusional.

It truly is delusional, I agree. How exactly did Trump close schools? No, Trumps desire was for schools to open. I hate the orange one but it’s absurd to say this was all Trumps doing.

Because he was anti-vax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that the charters school rose up because DCPS was such a disaster. Talk to older people in DC and they are happy to tell you of the abysmal state of the schools in the Barry years, and particularly prior to Fenty. The charters also generated an ability for middle class ("middle class" by DC standards, I mean, so between HHI of ~$80K to ~$200) families to remain in the district and get possibly decent education.

DCPS can still improve individual schools and attract those families. They just weren't doing so in the "before" years. Part of that seems to be due to wild mismanagement on the part of both the DC government but also the WTU.

As someone who has lived in DC for 20 years and has kids who have attended both charters and DCPS, I can attest that this is accurate. The creation of charter schools enabled the middle class who used to leave DC for schools to stay. This also led to people being willing to try their poorly performing in boundary DCPS for early elementary. Each year, more and more families would stay past PK, past 1st, etc. There was a symbiotic effect and DCPS wouldn't have improved as much if charters weren't there to help keep more families in DC. WTU had such a bad influence on DCPS that many of us chose charters for this reason. However, I do believe that there's an argument to be made that charters are now siphoning off MC/UMC families who might go to their IB DCPS if they didn't have a charter spot. But that wasn't the case 10 years ago and there are still parts of the city with very poorly performing DCPS schools and we would lose those families if they didn't have a charter spot. There's no easy answer.

Fenty did more to improve public education in DC than any other Mayor. But remember that he butted heads with the WTU when he fired the worst of the worst teachers - including ones who abused children - and that cost him the election because a lot of blacks saw him as taking away good jobs from black people. That was the WTU message to vote against him and it worked. There are no perfect answers here, but WTU-endorsed Robert White would set us back to the pre-Fenty years and DCPS would basically become a jobs program. I'm not a big Bowser fan, but she at least tried to reopen schools when Robert White and WTU were agitating to keep them closed. She's by far the least worst candidate, so she has my vote.

P.S. The people voting against Bowser due to increased crime are ignorant at best. The increased crime is due to WTU keeping schools closed and bad policies like defunding the police from WTU-endorsed candidates like Robert White and Janeese Lewis George. Bowser is opposed to defunding the police and in favor of keeping schools open. Schools and crime would get much, much worse under Robert White as Mayor. He's done enough harm as a council member.

I will not vote for charter loving bowser. For someone who cares about big donors rather that schools. I don’t care if white loves the WTU. Great. Cause my DC’s charter was still closed.

Stay salty that teachers fought for themselves and their safety. Unless you are homeschooling, you are inadvertently STILL supporting those teachers.

[Anonymous]

Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

How? I don't see this at all. His office never responds to my emails. He never speaks to any of my concerns in his council hearings. I don't get it at all. I have never seen any plan of his, or anything that he has done, that has any substance at all. He's just soundbites and hot air.

I'm not a huge fan of Bowser but she opened the schools, and would have opened them sooner if it weren't for WTU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will vote for whoever hates the teachers union the most.

THIS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

How? I don't see this at all. His office never responds to my emails. He never speaks to any of my concerns in his council hearings. I don't get it at all. I have never seen any plan of his, or anything that he has done, that has any substance at all. He's just soundbites and hot air.

I'm not a huge fan of Bowser but she opened the schools, and would have opened them sooner if it weren't for WTU.

This is horseshit. Massachusetts has some of the strongest teachers unions in the US and they opened in fall of 2021. Bowser’s weak leadership and desire to stick it to Trump kept the schools closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

How? I don't see this at all. His office never responds to my emails. He never speaks to any of my concerns in his council hearings. I don't get it at all. I have never seen any plan of his, or anything that he has done, that has any substance at all. He's just soundbites and hot air.

I'm not a huge fan of Bowser but she opened the schools, and would have opened them sooner if it weren't for WTU.

This is horseshit. Massachusetts has some of the strongest teachers unions in the US and they opened in fall of 2021. Bowser’s weak leadership and desire to stick it to Trump kept the schools closed.

Right, you just said teachers unions in MA kept the schools closed until fall 2021. I think that is bad. That is not selling the positives of teachers unions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

How? I don't see this at all. His office never responds to my emails. He never speaks to any of my concerns in his council hearings. I don't get it at all. I have never seen any plan of his, or anything that he has done, that has any substance at all. He's just soundbites and hot air.

I'm not a huge fan of Bowser but she opened the schools, and would have opened them sooner if it weren't for WTU.

This is horseshit. Massachusetts has some of the strongest teachers unions in the US and they opened in fall of 2021. Bowser’s weak leadership and desire to stick it to Trump kept the schools closed.

Right, you just said teachers unions in MA kept the schools closed until fall 2021. I think that is bad. That is not selling the positives of teachers unions.

Sorry, typo. Massachusetts opened their schools in fall of 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

How? I don't see this at all. His office never responds to my emails. He never speaks to any of my concerns in his council hearings. I don't get it at all. I have never seen any plan of his, or anything that he has done, that has any substance at all. He's just soundbites and hot air.

I'm not a huge fan of Bowser but she opened the schools, and would have opened them sooner if it weren't for WTU.

This is horseshit. Massachusetts has some of the strongest teachers unions in the US and they opened in fall of 2021. Bowser’s weak leadership and desire to stick it to Trump kept the schools closed.

Right, you just said teachers unions in MA kept the schools closed until fall 2021. I think that is bad. That is not selling the positives of teachers unions.

Sorry, typo. Massachusetts opened their schools in fall of 2020.

But that might be true for some MA schools; it isn't true for all. Or even the majority.

"Sept. 10, 2020: At the beginning of the school year, Burbio reported a majority of schools were using virtual or hybrid learning in Massachusetts .[12][13]"
https://ballotpedia.org/School_responses_in_Massachusetts_to_the_coronavirus_(COVID-19)_pandemic

[Anonymous]

https://ballotpedia.org/School_responses_in_Massachusetts_to_the_coronavirus_(COVID-19)_pandemic

(prior link was not copied well)

[Anonymous]

Reading more, it seems like the governor had to order schools to open in MA in March 2021. Suggesting that they didn't open in Fall 2020.

"The controversial move to override local school officials’ decision-making power comes amid the Baker administration’s continued push to reopen schools, citing the adverse academic and mental health impacts of remote learning, as well as research suggesting that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is rare when safety measures are implemented."

https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2021/03/09/massachusetts-public-schools-reopening-plan/

And then there was a lot of press about Brookline and the teachers' union there, including voting to strike in Nov. 2020. They didn't return until March 2021.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/11/02/brookline-teacher-strike-vote

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/school-reopening-teachers-unions-parents-brookline-massachusetts.html

https://patch.com/massachusetts/brookline/brookline-students-return-fully-person-school-march

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that even if White is pro WTU I’m still not supporting Bowser. She is so downtown/corporate it is a joke. Like all she wants to do is play junior developer and wanna be Bloomberg fan. At least White is about constituents, actual humans, not sound bites and paint on 16th Street.

How? I don't see this at all. His office never responds to my emails. He never speaks to any of my concerns in his council hearings. I don't get it at all. I have never seen any plan of his, or anything that he has done, that has any substance at all. He's just soundbites and hot air.

I'm not a huge fan of Bowser but she opened the schools, and would have opened them sooner if it weren't for WTU.

This is horseshit. Massachusetts has some of the strongest teachers unions in the US and they opened in fall of 2021. Bowser’s weak leadership and desire to stick it to Trump kept the schools closed.

NP. Please explain how Bowser worked to keep schools closed in fall of 2020 to stick it to Trump. You were evidently wrong about the teacher’s unions in Massachusetts being the driving force of (or at least not an impediment to) school openings there, but maybe you can explain your claim about what happened in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading more, it seems like the governor had to order schools to open in MA in March 2021. Suggesting that they didn't open in Fall 2020.

"The controversial move to override local school officials’ decision-making power comes amid the Baker administration’s continued push to reopen schools, citing the adverse academic and mental health impacts of remote learning, as well as research suggesting that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is rare when safety measures are implemented."

https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2021/03/09/massachusetts-public-schools-reopening-plan/

And then there was a lot of press about Brookline and the teachers' union there, including voting to strike in Nov. 2020. They didn't return until March 2021.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/11/02/brookline-teacher-strike-vote

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/school-reopening-teachers-unions-parents-brookline-massachusetts.html

https://patch.com/massachusetts/brookline/brookline-students-return-fully-person-school-march

Interesting. So it took a Republican governor to get kids back to school.

This is all so depressing. I’m a lifelong Democrat and I just cannot come to terms with the degree to which we screwed kids during this pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading more, it seems like the governor had to order schools to open in MA in March 2021. Suggesting that they didn't open in Fall 2020.

"The controversial move to override local school officials’ decision-making power comes amid the Baker administration’s continued push to reopen schools, citing the adverse academic and mental health impacts of remote learning, as well as research suggesting that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is rare when safety measures are implemented."

https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2021/03/09/massachusetts-public-schools-reopening-plan/

And then there was a lot of press about Brookline and the teachers' union there, including voting to strike in Nov. 2020. They didn't return until March 2021.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/11/02/brookline-teacher-strike-vote

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/school-reopening-teachers-unions-parents-brookline-massachusetts.html

https://patch.com/massachusetts/brookline/brookline-students-return-fully-person-school-march

Interesting. So it took a Republican governor to get kids back to school.

This is all so depressing. I’m a lifelong Democrat and I just cannot come to terms with the degree to which we screwed kids during this pandemic.

Democrats decided it was more important to be friends with teachers unions than to allow children to attend school. Republicans don't care about teachers unions so they sided with kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading more, it seems like the governor had to order schools to open in MA in March 2021. Suggesting that they didn't open in Fall 2020.

"The controversial move to override local school officials’ decision-making power comes amid the Baker administration’s continued push to reopen schools, citing the adverse academic and mental health impacts of remote learning, as well as research suggesting that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is rare when safety measures are implemented."

https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2021/03/09/massachusetts-public-schools-reopening-plan/

And then there was a lot of press about Brookline and the teachers' union there, including voting to strike in Nov. 2020. They didn't return until March 2021.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/11/02/brookline-teacher-strike-vote

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/school-reopening-teachers-unions-parents-brookline-massachusetts.html

https://patch.com/massachusetts/brookline/brookline-students-return-fully-person-school-march

Interesting. So it took a Republican governor to get kids back to school.

This is all so depressing. I’m a lifelong Democrat and I just cannot come to terms with the degree to which we screwed kids during this pandemic.

Democrats decided it was more important to be friends with teachers unions than to allow children to attend school. Republicans don't care about teachers unions so they sided with kids.

PP you are responding to. Yes, that is true. However, what is also clear is that Republicans didn’t side with kids because they actually care about their welfare, but because they knew schools needed to be open for the economy’s sake.