Reply to How would you rate how Mayor Bowser has handled DCPS reopening?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am enraged. Currently disenrolling DS13 in favor of homeschooling.

Spring semester at his middle school was a shitshow. We are very on top of him, especially in regards to academics, so he was attending every single meeting/class and doing all his work, but it quickly became clear he was falling behind reasonable grade equivilencies especially relating to math/science. I feel real bad for his classmates, many of whom missed weeks of meetings and assignments. I stead of giving him an academic break like we do most summers only requiring 1-2 hours of academic work, he now has to be doing 5-6 hours every weekday to catch up/get ahead and we had to hire a tutor to work one on one with him 2-4 days a week.

I dont think online schooling, in this manner, is effective or acceptable at all. The fact DCPS isnt reopening is a shame. I understand why they overreacted in the spring, but the science is clear that children/teens are at far lower danger of serious complications from COVID, and other schools, many in far worse hit areas of the country, are reopening for full in person instruction with very positive results. [/quote]

By positive results you mean COVID results right??[/quote]

No, I mean kids butts in seats.

Look, I'm going to be honest, if you open schools you are going to get /or some kids with COVID. Luckily, as I said, all evidence points to children being at far less risk of serious complications from the virus.

Look, I dont like to talk about problems facing those less well off as I am very aware that me and my family are incredibly blessed with wealth, health and happiness and it isnt my place to speak to the plight of people whose lives I havent lived, but the fact is that even if we do get some kids sick with what will amount to a mild kr moderate flu like sickness, schools are far too important to just shut down indefinitely. Parents, many of whom are going back to work in retail/restaurants and dont have the finances, especially now, to hire dedicated nannies and tutors and depend on the school system to provide meaningful instruction and supervision for their kids. And furthedmore, many of these same families want to see their children further their well being past their parents' current struggles, which gets harder and harder the longer we deny them proper education, letting their kids fall further and further behind, especially considering schools in low income areas are already underfunded and underacheiving. It has been proven that as people get older, playing educational catch up gets harder and harder.

So yes, while I am lucky that we have the money that we can disenroll our child and go through the process, with the help of expensive tutors and curriculum, of giving him an excellent education at home, that is a luxory many in this city do not have.

Which is why this is only a debate in ohr wealthy bubble of DCUM and the far upper NW. Because in poorer areas, they dont have any other options. And so they are screaming for the reopening of schools.[/quote]

That isn’t true in DC.  There was a whole thread about it here. [/quote]

So you are saying that DC is the only place in the country where parents working service/retail style hourly jobs can just decide not to work in order to keep their kids in line? Or that they can, because they live in DC, afford the childcare they need?

Or maybe you are saying this because your one friend who is "slumming it" east of the Park in Mt Pleasent is working from home you assume everyone else also has it figured out. After all, she is "poor" compared tk you.

Believe me, this is very much just as huge a concern in DC as elsewhere. Just because the people effected have all been pushed back to Anacostia (and parts of PG county) so it is easy for us stuck in the upper-class DC bubble to ignore them/their needs doesnt mean we shouldnt take their needs into account. They live in this city the same as me kr yku. [/quote]

No I was talking about your assertion that lower ses families want their kids in school.  By a large margin they want distance learning. It’s because they know the consequences and many of family members and friends who have died.  There was a whole nasty racist thread about it. It revealed lots of horrible opinions and thought of many upper nw residents.  You should do a search if you want to be disgusted. [/quote]

This. Parents in lower SES communities and schools have by-and-large voted for distance learning in school surveys. At much higher rates than the ‘top-tier’ UpperNW schools.

You don’t speak for them and you obviously don’t understand their concerns - just how inconvenienced you are.[/quote]

+1000. I appreciate this forum and the often unfiltered opinion of parents who care deeply about their kids. But we all know that this forum disproportionately reflects white, privileged families. In all of our schools -- even if at low percentages -- there are children of color and poor children. These children DIE at much higher percentages than yours. They die. The same is true for staff of color and the lower paid staff in schools (think food service workers, aides, security, etc). The staff at my local DCPS is mostly black and that's true at a lot of schools -- DCPS and charter.

From a recent article, "Hispanic children are approximately eight times more likely and Black children five times more likely to be hospitalized with covid-19 than their White peers, according to a study released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

If YOUR children were eight or five times more likely to have devastating effects from this disease, would you be calling for schools to open and trashing the people with the responsibility for trying to keep ALL kids safe?

Use your privilege for good. Start a pod, get tutors, maybe invite a kid or two who wouldn't have the opportunity on their own (if you can keep them safe). Ask your politicians to publish the stats by race and economic status. Look at the demographics of your school staff. And think about someone other than yourself for a moment and whether you truly want to put them in harm's way when you've got other options.[/quote]

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