Reply to Do DC parents still blame teacher unions for everything?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The WTU should be ashamed of itself but, based on teachers' posts here, it's not.

The real problem is that we have mayoral control of DCPS in the hands of a mayor who is uninterested in being in control of the schools.  The chancellor is subpar, the mayor is uninterested.  WTU took advantage of that situation and children suffered. [/quote]

The mayor took advantage of the union. Bowser didn't know how to handle reopening between Wards 3/4 vs. 7/8- it was too political. She played the media and made it seem like the union had way more power than it actually did and the union bit the bait. Other than ADA, there was no reason to keep teachers virtual. Principals had the power to bring back teachers depending on how aggressive their reopening plans were and the population the school served.

Reopening schools in DC was incredibly complex because of it's population. I know everyone on this forum had grand ideas on how to reopen their lNW schools but no one knew how to nor cared about the title 1 schools.

And if you are still harboring this deep contempt and hate for DCPS teachers in the fall- then leave. Even with full reopening, you will be disappointed. Go somewhere that will make you happy.[/quote]

I care about Title 1 schools. The way to reopen them would have been to end virtual and require parents to send their kids back, with a normal 5 day week and after care. And for WTU to have refrained from scaremongering. [/quote]

This is the problem with the people on this site. You don’t get to tell other people what to do. Your feelings are no more valid than those of those in title 1 schools (in fact, I’d argue that they are less valid bc you are trying to tell people what to do with their children).
I swear people love the idea of DC being a diverse city until it impacts them[/quote]

this was in response to a post claiming nobody cared about reopening title 1 schools. I cared, and still care. Frankly DC has done a historical disservice to Title 1 schools that is going to impact them for a generation. But sure, go ahead and tell me again that I don’t care, and also that I am racist for caring and believing black families should have equal access. [/quote]

We agree on almost all of that, honestly, but I don’t think families would’ve come back into schools if they were reopened 5 days a week. It goes back to a point I had made earlier on this thread. DCPS and mayor Bowser were so haphazard on their organizing for reopening that there is no way that they would’ve gotten buy in from families who felt uneasy or were generally insistent on staying virtual. If Bowser wanted kids in seats, the outreach to these families needed to happen sooner. If she wanted parent buy in, she should have worked with the schools and admin from day 1. People hate WTU on this site, but remember that the principals union also spoke out against reopening. There’s no chance that families were going into the unplanned reopening envisioned by the higher up’s in DC. 
I’m really hoping that people take this seriously over the summer and try and work with families, explain how and why these schools will be safe, so that next year is equitable for everyone. Reopening was a disaster for many reasons; one of the biggest was that families WOTP went to school en masse (talking purely ES here), while schools remained much emptier in W7 & 8.
If people keep saying the union failed everyone and continue to pound that narrative, all that is going to happen is more of what we saw this year. [/quote]

it’s not a narrative, it’s the truth: Ward 7 and 8 parents stayed away because WTU and admins made a concerted effort to scare and discourage them, even in T4. Even in our high SES Ward 6 school, teachers and admins made a concerted effort to get parents to chose against returning in person in November and again for T3 - supported by parents who would call up other parents trying to pressure them not to accept IP spots. Perhaps DCPS and Bowser could have done more, but to pretend the choice to stay virtual happened in a vacuum is just false. [/quote]

Yes the WTU made mistakes and could’ve done more. Literally all 7,000 union members can stand up and say that and it’s nothing going to change the fact that you blaming us will help families next year. Teachers were scared, they didn’t trust dc to put them in a safe to teach environment and DC made no effort to support their feelings. What’s the point of continuing to litigate the past? I’m trying to move forward and do better but if you want to continue to use us as a punching bag, have at me. I’m cool with learning from my mistakes and using that experience to make next year better.[/quote]

Meanwhile bars are fully open, masks optional, and you continue to sit on your hands and relegate kids to DL. Nope, we aren’t moving on yet, as much as you’d like to. [/quote]

-1[/quote]

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