Reply to blog post on DC schools and mayoral race importance for the schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm torn as well, and I was a fan of Michelle Rhee. I lived here in 2010 and when I told (educated, liberal) coworkers that I wanted to send my kids to DCPS schools one day they literally LAUGHED at me. The idea of people with options sending their kids to DCPS schools was literally laughable. Now - I'm in a similar job in the same industry, and not only do I send my kids to DCPS EOTP schools, so do tons of other people (and lots at public charters, too). I want mayoral control to continue - it worked.

I'm generally a fan of unions in that workers should have a voice, and should have rights and should have good working conditions and income. But the WTU is just that - a union supporting what's best for teachers. Important, yes, workers rights are important, but not the be all end all of what's best for STUDENTS, and I fear JLG doesn't see that distinction. And things like all those extra snow days they wanted to do made me so angry, and JLG supported them in that. Either kids being at school is important, or it's not. And I think for JLG, it's... not. She was also crazy about this around Covid, wanting to keep schools closed even longer!

I do like what McDuffie is saying about screen time. No screen time before 3rd grade is so smart, no YouTube videos, no ads, go back to computer labs.

He honestly might get my vote because of education, even though I prefer JLG on basically everything else. And I think the linked article about efficiency of the related departments is probably something she'd be better at.

Have any of them said anything about the crappy ELA curriculum? Or the problem with middle schools? [/quote]

Agree with this. Even though I'm a Ward 5 resident and can't stand McDuffie. It's hard to imagine voting for him but I'm very skeptical about what JLG is saying about schools.

One problem here is that I think both of them are just parroting talking points designed to appeal to specific constituencies. I don't actually think either has new ideas on schools or a meaningful understanding of what is needed to improve them. Notably, though both are parents, neither has ever had a public school student -- McDuffie's kids go to private and JLG's sone is not school age yet. Do they have people on their staff with actual experience in DC public schools? No idea, based on their education platforms, I would guess not.

So given that I think they are both pandering, I will give a slight edge to McDuffie who I think is at least pandering in a smarter way that more closely matches what I want. For a long time the trend in schools has been more tech, more screens, touting EdTech contracts and 1:1 student to device ratios. That has shifted dramatically in the last couple years, but some of us have been advocating to reduce or remove screens from schools for a lot longer than that. McDuffie recognizing this is an issue that DC can be on the vanguard of is smart. The LA Unified School District just adopted policies similar to what he's now proposing, and there are a number of other major school districts in the country moving that direction. It's kind of like the whole "science of reading" thing -- people bought into what turned out to be a crock of $hit on reading and the smart school systems figured that out faster and started pushing phonics and actual reading instruction sooner. DCPS was actually ahead of the curve on that as well, especially in Title 1 schools. So I think McDuffie is right there, even if only accidentally because he was looking for a way to stand out on this issue and grabbed an issue he knows a lot of voters are passionate about.

Whereas JLG is quite clearly just pandering to the teacher's union and to people who care more about appearing progressive and open minded than improving schools. This was Robert White when he ran for mayor too, and it's also why I didn't vote for him either even though Bowser was extremely mediocre. I am not interested in a mayor who just gives special interest groups exactly what they want without actually thinking aobu the underlying policy or how it all hangs together. I like Mamdani but what people don't get about him is that he's progressive AND pragmatic. He's not just parroting progressive talking points for votes, he's actually identifying practical policy shifts that he believes will improve people's lives. JLG is not doing that. She's just putting on a show and I suspect she would govern very similarly to Bowser.

As usual, no good options. I guess leaning McDuffie. Might give the other candidates a second look to see if there is anyone worth ranking first and then rank McDuffie and JLG after.[/quote]

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