Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oversight from the feds has varied over the past 30 years i've lived in DC - some neutral, some positive and some bad. Depends on who they put in charge. Someone like Lauch Faircloth for example would not be good - he used it as a campaign prop to show people back home how much he was bashing the District, when we actually give more to the feds than we get unlike many states that voted in the new administration

I’ve also lived here for nearly 30 years, and I think we are about to face something unprecedented since the advent of home rule. This will be full-scale fed takeover, with the goal of killing public education in DC. Here’s what I anticipate in the near future: “don’t say gay” type language control, no lessons that involve race, no recognition of non-cis gender identities, end of protections against harassment based on race/gender/identity, prayer/religion in school. Everything you’ve heard about in Florida and Oklahoma and other states on the vanguard of destroying public education will come here. Anything bad we thought we had seen in terms of past interference will seem minor compared with what’s coming.

My youngest graduates in 2026, so we don’t have much choice but to stick it out. But if I had younger children, I’d be seriously considering a move to Maryland (and we are considering this after our kid graduates). I love this city, and my kids have had good experiences in DCPS. But I think a lot is going to change pretty quickly.

Most of the changes you list don't actually currently exist in our DCPS school. I've never heard any curriculum or school activity that directly addressed LGBTQ issues -- it's an elementary school and I think there are actually likely a diverse range of attitudes on those issues among teachers and staff (plenty of people with conservative Christian views mixed in with progressives as well as likely a bunch of live-and-let-live types). Our school teaches DCPS's fairly middle of the road Common Core based curriculum, not some far left fever dream based on CRT and the 1619 project.

I just don't get exactly what changes they would propose here. DC already has a lot of school choice including vouchers. So I just don't get what the specific threat to DCPS is.

Now I do have concerns about the proposal to eliminate the Department of Education but that will impact us even if we leave DC as long as we have kids in public school. So I don't see the point in panicking right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, the last control board really bailed out DCPS and is the reason DCPS is an option for you now.

This. You are too recent of an arrival to appreciate this / the trajectory of the city. The results of the control board, then board-selected Mayor Williams are why you considered buying here in the first place

I am a GenX lifelong Dem who’s lived here since 1990 when the place was a dumpster fire with no functioning fire trucks or snow plows. The Republican-driven ControllBoard (aka, federal takeover) + Abe Polllin was the best thing to happen to DC since Home Rule.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oversight from the feds has varied over the past 30 years i've lived in DC - some neutral, some positive and some bad. Depends on who they put in charge. Someone like Lauch Faircloth for example would not be good - he used it as a campaign prop to show people back home how much he was bashing the District, when we actually give more to the feds than we get unlike many states that voted in the new administration

I’ve also lived here for nearly 30 years, and I think we are about to face something unprecedented since the advent of home rule. This will be full-scale fed takeover, with the goal of killing public education in DC. Here’s what I anticipate in the near future: “don’t say gay” type language control, no lessons that involve race, no recognition of non-cis gender identities, end of protections against harassment based on race/gender/identity, prayer/religion in school. Everything you’ve heard about in Florida and Oklahoma and other states on the vanguard of destroying public education will come here. Anything bad we thought we had seen in terms of past interference will seem minor compared with what’s coming.

My youngest graduates in 2026, so we don’t have much choice but to stick it out. But if I had younger children, I’d be seriously considering a move to Maryland (and we are considering this after our kid graduates). I love this city, and my kids have had good experiences in DCPS. But I think a lot is going to change pretty quickly.

Other than prayer/religion...nothing else you mention has much to do with education. I get it's bad from a society standpoint.

The issue with DC is let's say they create some massive voucher program, there literally is nowhere for anyone to go. It's not like any private school doesn't already receive significantly more applications than slots. The private schools that do have slots are at schools that nobody wants to attend (there are lots of private schools nobody has ever heard of because they actually have terrible academic results).

there already is a voucher program in DC and it basically doesn’t do much.

Because it's means tested and only very few vouchers are available. If it becomes widely available, many middle class families will leave DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oversight from the feds has varied over the past 30 years i've lived in DC - some neutral, some positive and some bad. Depends on who they put in charge. Someone like Lauch Faircloth for example would not be good - he used it as a campaign prop to show people back home how much he was bashing the District, when we actually give more to the feds than we get unlike many states that voted in the new administration

I’ve also lived here for nearly 30 years, and I think we are about to face something unprecedented since the advent of home rule. This will be full-scale fed takeover, with the goal of killing public education in DC. Here’s what I anticipate in the near future: “don’t say gay” type language control, no lessons that involve race, no recognition of non-cis gender identities, end of protections against harassment based on race/gender/identity, prayer/religion in school. Everything you’ve heard about in Florida and Oklahoma and other states on the vanguard of destroying public education will come here. Anything bad we thought we had seen in terms of past interference will seem minor compared with what’s coming.

My youngest graduates in 2026, so we don’t have much choice but to stick it out. But if I had younger children, I’d be seriously considering a move to Maryland (and we are considering this after our kid graduates). I love this city, and my kids have had good experiences in DCPS. But I think a lot is going to change pretty quickly.

Other than prayer/religion...nothing else you mention has much to do with education. I get it's bad from a society standpoint.

The issue with DC is let's say they create some massive voucher program, there literally is nowhere for anyone to go. It's not like any private school doesn't already receive significantly more applications than slots. The private schools that do have slots are at schools that nobody wants to attend (there are lots of private schools nobody has ever heard of because they actually have terrible academic results).

there already is a voucher program in DC and it basically doesn’t do much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oversight from the feds has varied over the past 30 years i've lived in DC - some neutral, some positive and some bad. Depends on who they put in charge. Someone like Lauch Faircloth for example would not be good - he used it as a campaign prop to show people back home how much he was bashing the District, when we actually give more to the feds than we get unlike many states that voted in the new administration

I’ve also lived here for nearly 30 years, and I think we are about to face something unprecedented since the advent of home rule. This will be full-scale fed takeover, with the goal of killing public education in DC. Here’s what I anticipate in the near future: “don’t say gay” type language control, no lessons that involve race, no recognition of non-cis gender identities, end of protections against harassment based on race/gender/identity, prayer/religion in school. Everything you’ve heard about in Florida and Oklahoma and other states on the vanguard of destroying public education will come here. Anything bad we thought we had seen in terms of past interference will seem minor compared with what’s coming.

My youngest graduates in 2026, so we don’t have much choice but to stick it out. But if I had younger children, I’d be seriously considering a move to Maryland (and we are considering this after our kid graduates). I love this city, and my kids have had good experiences in DCPS. But I think a lot is going to change pretty quickly.

Most of the changes you list don't actually currently exist in our DCPS school. I've never heard any curriculum or school activity that directly addressed LGBTQ issues -- it's an elementary school and I think there are actually likely a diverse range of attitudes on those issues among teachers and staff (plenty of people with conservative Christian views mixed in with progressives as well as likely a bunch of live-and-let-live types). Our school teaches DCPS's fairly middle of the road Common Core based curriculum, not some far left fever dream based on CRT and the 1619 project.

I just don't get exactly what changes they would propose here. DC already has a lot of school choice including vouchers. So I just don't get what the specific threat to DCPS is.

Now I do have concerns about the proposal to eliminate the Department of Education but that will impact us even if we leave DC as long as we have kids in public school. So I don't see the point in panicking right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oversight from the feds has varied over the past 30 years i've lived in DC - some neutral, some positive and some bad. Depends on who they put in charge. Someone like Lauch Faircloth for example would not be good - he used it as a campaign prop to show people back home how much he was bashing the District, when we actually give more to the feds than we get unlike many states that voted in the new administration

I’ve also lived here for nearly 30 years, and I think we are about to face something unprecedented since the advent of home rule. This will be full-scale fed takeover, with the goal of killing public education in DC. Here’s what I anticipate in the near future: “don’t say gay” type language control, no lessons that involve race, no recognition of non-cis gender identities, end of protections against harassment based on race/gender/identity, prayer/religion in school. Everything you’ve heard about in Florida and Oklahoma and other states on the vanguard of destroying public education will come here. Anything bad we thought we had seen in terms of past interference will seem minor compared with what’s coming.

My youngest graduates in 2026, so we don’t have much choice but to stick it out. But if I had younger children, I’d be seriously considering a move to Maryland (and we are considering this after our kid graduates). I love this city, and my kids have had good experiences in DCPS. But I think a lot is going to change pretty quickly.

Anonymous wrote:I mean, the last control board really bailed out DCPS and is the reason DCPS is an option for you now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain what you’re talking about for a progressive immigrant with two kids in an awesome DCPS elementary who was looking forward to sending them to DCPS middle?

We could lose Home Rule. This is a good primer:
https://51st.news/what-to-know-about-dc-home-rule/

the last time we “lost home rule” it was good for DC schools. there’s no reason to believe there’s going to be a disaster.