Reply to If DMV schools don't open in the fall, are you moving?

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Reply to "If DMV schools don't open in the fall, are you moving?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city.  I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years.  I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people.  I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS.  They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me.  If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS.  Out of the area, perhaps.  Out of the public school system, definitely. [/quote]

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

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Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.[/quote]

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.[/quote]

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