Reply to WTU Contract and Charter Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Your child's teacher chose to work at a school where they are neither a government employee or a union member. Both of those come with a lot of benefits that those teachers chose not to have when they applied at a charter school. I assume there are benefits of working at a charter as opposed to a neighborhood school, but I am not sure what they are. This is often why the average age of teachers and years of experience  at a charter school is much lower than at a neighborhood public school. This has nothing to do with resources for your child except that they are less likely to have a teacher with as much experience.[/quote]

This. It's just the reality of charters versus DCPS. Charters will sometimes tout it as a feature, not a bug -- since their teachers are usually not unionized, charters will argue that it's easier for them to get rid of ineffective teachers. A lot of people dislike WTU or teachers unions generally and choose charters in part for that reason. But the downside is lower pay for teachers means it's harder to attract good, experienced teachers, and harder to retain them. Pretty much all DC charters struggle with teacher turnover, you will see it even at some of the most popular and successful charters. They do find replacements but none of the DC charters have the kind of established core of experienced teachers that you will find at most DCPS schools. And that's for better and for worse -- often the experienced teachers are phenomenal. Sometimes they are terrible and they never leave. A common occurrence is that they are good teachers who get set in their ways and may not make adjustments with changes in pedagogical theory or student needs. But they are a major source of stability in DCPS schools.

Right now, we are in a serious teacher shortage right now, and charters are scrambling for teachers. DCPS has also lost teachers, but the benefits of being a WTU member and a city employee have kept a lot of dissatisfied teachers in their jobs even through the pandemic. There are just major financial incentives to sticking it out, and DCPS teachers are reaping the benefits now with the new contract and the retroactive pay/bonuses. It's honestly why the district didn't see a mass exodus during the Covid years because it has been HARD to be a teacher these last few years, but teachers knew that eventually they would get a new contract and also knew that in the meantime, they had a lot of job security and benefits. Teaching is a tough job but it's also something you can retire from at 55 or 60 with a pension and good benefits. It's worth it to a lot of people, especially since most teachers actually do enjoy teaching itself. [/quote]

And WTU jumps into an otherwise reasonable thread with cogent explanations of why OP was confused to spout garbage. All schools across the country are having challenges attracting and retaining teachers. This is not specific to charters and I am aware of no actual data illustrating any one area being disproportionately impacted. There are some great teachers in DCPS as well as in charters. There is also a lot of dead weight in DCPS and some in charters. The tenured dead weight in DCPS is a major issue for younger, hungrier and better DCPS teachers as well as families in DCPS.

The narrative of better teachers in DCPS or piss poor teachers in charters is old hat. I respect the fact that you will continue to make this case even in the face of data. WTU argues that the charters in DC with the best academic outcomes in the city are staffed with bad teachers. As if the parents in those schools are going to be swayed by this nonsense. [/quote]

(1) I'm not a teacher and am not part of WTU

(2) I never said charter teachers were "piss poor". I have known great charter teachers. They are, on average, younger and less experienced. And charters in DC have much bigger retention issues than DCPS schools. Yes, the flip side of this is that DCPS schools sometimes have older teachers who probably should retire, and in some DCPS schools there is a contingent of teachers who are "dead weight" and negatively impact the culture of the school, and the education of students, but not much can be done because they are job protected. But it doesn't change the fact that charters deal with a lot of teacher turnover because those jobs don't pay as well and don't offer the same good benefits.

It's just how it is. It's the double edged sword of teachers unions. On the one hand, teaching is a tough profession and public teachers unions help to make the profession more appealing to people so that we do in fact wind up with experienced teachers who stick around for decades and are good at their jobs and offer continuity for families. On the other hand, the same incentives the union fights for that help ensure people want to become teachers can make it hard to get rid of someone who really should not be teaching, especially in a time like this when there is, in fact, a teacher shortage.

I'm not even pro-union 100%, I'm just explaining to OP that this is way it is, and you can't just opt for a charter and then get mad when you have to deal with the negative aspects of charters (like lower teacher pay, often less experienced teachers, and higher turnover). Just like you can't opt into DCPS and then get mad when you have to deal with the negative aspects of having a union workforce, especially in DC where you do have the option of charters. We've created a bifurcated system and this is the consequence.[/quote]

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