Reply to Is DCPS going to fall to the feds if/when Home Rule is over?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]oversight from the feds has varied over the past 30 years i've lived in DC - some neutral, some positive and some bad.  Depends on who they put in charge.  Someone like Lauch Faircloth for example would not be good - he used it as a campaign prop to show people back home how much he was bashing the District, when we actually give more to the feds than we get unlike many states that voted in the new administration[/quote]

I’ve also lived here for nearly 30 years, and I think we are about to face something unprecedented since the advent of home rule. This will be full-scale fed takeover, with the goal of killing public education in DC. Here’s what I anticipate in the near future: “don’t say gay” type language control, no lessons that involve race, no recognition of non-cis gender identities, end of protections against harassment based on race/gender/identity, prayer/religion in school. Everything you’ve heard about in Florida and Oklahoma and other states on the vanguard of destroying public education will come here. Anything bad we thought we had seen in terms of past interference will seem minor compared with what’s coming.

My youngest graduates in 2026, so we don’t have much choice but to stick it out. But if I had younger children, I’d be seriously considering a move to Maryland (and we are considering this after our kid graduates). I love this city, and my kids have had good experiences in DCPS. But I think a lot is going to change pretty quickly.[/quote]

Most of the changes you list don't actually currently exist in our DCPS school. I've never heard any curriculum or school activity that directly addressed LGBTQ issues -- it's an elementary school and I think there are actually likely a diverse range of attitudes on those issues among teachers and staff (plenty of people with conservative Christian views mixed in with progressives as well as likely a bunch of live-and-let-live types). Our school teaches DCPS's fairly middle of the road Common Core based curriculum, not some far left fever dream based on CRT and the 1619 project.

I just don't get exactly what changes they would propose here. DC already has a lot of school choice including vouchers. So I just don't get what the specific threat to DCPS is.

Now I do have concerns about the proposal to eliminate the Department of Education but that will impact us even if we leave DC as long as we have kids in public school. So I don't see the point in panicking right now.[/quote]

DCPS has an LGBTQ+ inclusion plan and does an annual leadership conference to support more inclusive schools. DC also adopted new social studies standards that were revised to reflect our student populations and validate their lived experiences. It's hard to see why any of this would be offensive to anyone. However, we live in a world where politicians with an axe to grind will accuse DC of being too woke and could threaten funding and/or advance regulations that hurt DC schools. I'm not panicking but I do wonder (and worry about) what will happen with DC schools.[/quote]

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