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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both sides look bad in the article, but i already knew that the union had been obstructionist. It was helpful to see laid out how the Mayor missed so many opportunities to get the public, parents and principals on her side. Things might have played out differently if Bowser had effectively built up a coalition behind her. Unions will run amok if there is no counter pressure pushing back against them and the Mayor alone was not enough.

Agreed. I am no deBlasio booster but he decided to make schools a priority and approached each road block from a problem-solving position. Bowser and Ferebee repeatedly responded to challenges by throwing up their hands and just blaming the union, which made itself an extremely convenient scapegoat (if I were a teacher I’d be livid about the decision-making and messaging from the union, which was seemingly designed to enrage parents).

The point is: if they really wanted to open schools, they would have found a way. This wasn’t the moon landing.

I said in the very early days of the pandemic that DeBlasio's priority of keeping schools open for in-person learning was the true liberal/leftist position on the issue, just like what many of our leftist European country friends have prioritized. It's really messed up in the USA that wanting to open schools gets you accused of being a Trumper.

This. I am from Germany and think American liberals have it completely backwards on this issue. It's crazy that opening public schools has become branded as right-wing in the US.

It's of course related to the politicization of the pandemic overall in the US. Trump's denial of Covid has led the left to go to the other extreme. The way the danger of the virus as a lethal threat to everyone is being hyped in the US has strongly contributed to parents' reluctance to send their kids back, and has stoked hysteria among teachers and the general public. The discourse in Germany isn't nearly as dramatic - the problem of Covid and the need for lockdowns is usually presented as a matter of preventing hospitals from being overrun, not of every infection being a likely death sentence or a high risk for long-term disability.

+1. We need more of this common sense here! So much hysteria ended up hurting those who needed schools the most: kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of blame to go around. I'm never voting for Bowser again, I can say that. I'm also angry with the union and can't believe how poorly they've handled this entire situation. But it's the unions job to advocate for teachers (I personally do not think they did a good job with it). It's the mayor's and chancellor's job to negotiate with the union, to communicate with parents, to build coalitions and to solve difficult logistical issues. That's the job. It pays pretty well and people beg to to get it. Sorry it's hard?

One thing the article points out is just how bad the city's messaging to parents was, how little outreach they did to build support for reopening. I attended some of the town halls they mention in the article and had the same takeaways as the parents they interviewed -- it was hard to ask questions, and when we did, we got unsatisfactory answers that only made me wary of reopening. And that's as a parent who really wanted schools to reopen and believes the science supports it! But I had real misgivings about DCPS's ability to do it in a way that not only protected teachers, but protected my kid and the rest of my family.

So I'm angry with the union, but I'm not going to pretend like teachers were the only ones who wanted some answers to basic questions about how this would work and was disturbed (though not surprised) by how few answers we were given. And the article also points out that once schools did not reopen in September, families scrambled to figure out other arrangements. Those arrangements were largely not great, but they were a known quantity. So when DCPS started talking about CARES classrooms and limited reopening, but had very few details or actionable plans in place, a lot of parents who do want schools open (me included) were not sure if it was worth the risk to cancel those plans and take a flyer on the district's half baked plan.

Anyway, it's a cluster that has me wondering if we can even stay in the district. We can't afford private and I don't think homeschool is a real option for us. Maybe we switch to a charter (I never thought I'd say that). Or maybe we just move. I've never loved DCPS but this experience has left me hating it, and I don't know if I can spend the next decade plus hating the school district we are part of.

Agree with a not of what you said, but my kid’s DC charter school is still closed, too. They won’t do shit until DCPS reopens. And unless you leave the area altogether, there’s nowhere to go. MCPS, FCPS, APS—all closed too. I feel hopeless. There’s nowhere to go.

This is a good post and as a real DCPS elementary parent, I agree with a lot of it.

As someone who is very skeptical of the mayor and chancellor, I have joined Empower Ed, which is building a teacher-parent effort to fight for a directly elected school board or chancellor.

Having a single elected official focused on education builds accountability.
The mayor handles a lot of issues and even if she screws up education people will vote for her for other issues.
An elected chancellor is ONLY about education.

These posts hit it right on the nose. Bowser managed this the way she manages everything—secretively and ham-handedly. The fact that she didn’t include principals in the planning is just mind-blowingly stupid; that letter their union wrote in opposition to the November “return” plan cast an absolutely glaring light on her (and Kihn’s and Ferebee’s) incompetence and arrogance. They managed to unite labor and management against the bureaucracy—quite an achievement!

Bowser can get away with this because of her command and control approach to public education. It’s time for mayoral control of the schools to end. More accountable stakeholders will reduce not only her power but also the WTU’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. There are a whole bunch of entitled angry parents letting their frustrations out on teachers in this thread. The people really struggling and at risk in this pandemic aren’t the ones writing on DCUM complaining about teachers not wanting to sacrifice their lives and go back to work in person without a vaccine. Look, as a parent and a teacher I know from both sides how hard it has been this past almost year now, and I also know that teachers are not to blame here. Get a tele therapist and vent to them.

If this was just a matter of entitled angry parents complaining the rest of the world wouldn't have kept schools open throughout most of the pandemic. Stop trying to frame it this way, it is not convincing when you abandon your parochial perspective. Clearly, there are very good and legitimate arguments in favor of keeping schools open. Nobody is exclusively blaming teachers, but the reluctance of many American teachers to go back is exclusive to the US and was a big factor in this.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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..

[Anonymous]

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..

Or, you know, the many public schools around the world that opened with just reasonable precautions, like masks, hand washing, and opening windows.

[Anonymous]

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..

Or, you know, the many public schools around the world that opened with just reasonable precautions, like masks, hand washing, and opening windows.

+1

The numbers in DC were so low in the fall! We did our part to flatten the curve and still kept schools closed. People who are concerned can keep their kids home. This is just asinine at this point to argue we couldn’t have opened in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. There are a whole bunch of entitled angry parents letting their frustrations out on teachers in this thread. The people really struggling and at risk in this pandemic aren’t the ones writing on DCUM complaining about teachers not wanting to sacrifice their lives and go back to work in person without a vaccine. Look, as a parent and a teacher I know from both sides how hard it has been this past almost year now, and I also know that teachers are not to blame here. Get a tele therapist and vent to them.

Above is a great example of the dismal state of discourse over school openings. Who said teachers are to blame? This entire thread is about how the mayor and the WTU are both at fault and have thoroughly failed our children. Rank and file teachers are not to blame. But it would be helpful if they would climb down from their crosses to acknowledge that the current state of affairs in untenable for their students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both sides look bad in the article, but i already knew that the union had been obstructionist. It was helpful to see laid out how the Mayor missed so many opportunities to get the public, parents and principals on her side. Things might have played out differently if Bowser had effectively built up a coalition behind her. Unions will run amok if there is no counter pressure pushing back against them and the Mayor alone was not enough.

Agreed. I am no deBlasio booster but he decided to make schools a priority and approached each road block from a problem-solving position. Bowser and Ferebee repeatedly responded to challenges by throwing up their hands and just blaming the union, which made itself an extremely convenient scapegoat (if I were a teacher I’d be livid about the decision-making and messaging from the union, which was seemingly designed to enrage parents).

The point is: if they really wanted to open schools, they would have found a way. This wasn’t the moon landing.

This right here. DeBlasio is an incredibly unpopular mayor; if you think WTU is so powerful, then you haven’t seen the NYC teachers union; and the city has many more complexities than DC in terms of diverse populations, poverty, homelessness, etc. If NYC can figure it out then why can’t DC??

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

WTU is evil.

[Anonymous]

My lord, Perry Stein is such a hack.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, normal teachers and parents are not to blame. The Mayor, the school admin, the teachers union, and the 10% of nutcases who make up the rabid part of the union are all at fault here. What a sorry bunch of incompetent losers.