Reply to WaPo: How D.C. and its teachers, with shifting plans and demands, failed to reopen schools

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Reply to "WaPo: How D.C. and its teachers, with shifting plans and demands, failed to reopen schools"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Plenty of blame to go around. I'm never voting for Bowser again, I can say that. I'm also angry with the union and can't believe how poorly they've handled this entire situation. But it's the unions job to advocate for teachers (I personally do not think they did a good job with it). It's the mayor's and chancellor's job to negotiate with the union, to communicate with parents, to build coalitions and to solve difficult logistical issues. That's the job. It pays pretty well and people beg to to get it. Sorry it's hard?

One thing the article points out is just how bad the city's messaging to parents was, how little outreach they did to build support for reopening. I attended some of the town halls they mention in the article and had the same takeaways as the parents they interviewed -- it was hard to ask questions, and when we did, we got unsatisfactory answers that only made me wary of reopening. And that's as a parent who really wanted schools to reopen and believes the science supports it! But I had real misgivings about DCPS's ability to do it in a way that not only protected teachers, but protected my kid and the rest of my family.

So I'm angry with the union, but I'm not going to pretend like teachers were the only ones who wanted some answers to basic questions about how this would work and was disturbed (though not surprised) by how few answers we were given. And the article also points out that once schools did not reopen in September, families scrambled to figure out other arrangements. Those arrangements were largely not great, but they were a known quantity. So when DCPS started talking about CARES classrooms and limited reopening, but had very few details or actionable plans in place, a lot of parents who do want schools open (me included) were not sure if it was worth the risk to cancel those plans and take a flyer on the district's half baked plan.

Anyway, it's a cluster that has me wondering if we can even stay in the district. We can't afford private and I don't think homeschool is a real option for us. Maybe we switch to a charter (I never thought I'd say that). Or maybe we just move. I've never loved DCPS but this experience has left me hating it, and I don't know if I can spend the next decade plus hating the school district we are part of.[/quote]

Agree with a not of what you said, but my kid’s DC charter school is still closed, too. They won’t do shit until DCPS reopens. And unless you leave the area altogether, there’s nowhere to go. MCPS, FCPS, APS—all closed too. I feel hopeless. There’s nowhere to go. [/quote]

This is a good post and as a real DCPS elementary parent, I agree with a lot of it.

As someone who is very skeptical of the mayor and chancellor, I have joined Empower Ed, which is building a teacher-parent effort to fight for a directly elected school board or chancellor.

Having a single elected official focused on education builds accountability.
The mayor handles a lot of issues and even if she screws up education people will vote for her for other issues.
An elected chancellor is ONLY about education.[/quote]

These posts hit it right on the nose. Bowser managed this the way she manages everything—secretively and ham-handedly. The fact that she didn’t include principals in the planning is just mind-blowingly stupid; that letter their union wrote in opposition to the November “return” plan cast an absolutely glaring light on her (and Kihn’s and Ferebee’s) incompetence and arrogance. They managed to unite labor and management against the bureaucracy—quite an achievement!

Bowser can get away with this because of her command and control approach to public education. It’s time for mayoral control of the schools to end. More accountable stakeholders will reduce not only her power but also the WTU’s. [/quote]

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