Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

This. I am stuck on the GDS thing. How do you trust someone to lead DCPS that has abandoned our schools? Also how does a council member and a CSOSA employee pay for two kids to go to GDS?

With financial aid.

Also, whoever said that GDS is the most exclusive and expensive private school in DC - I think Sidwell wants a word with you. Ha!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

This. I am stuck on the GDS thing. How do you trust someone to lead DCPS that has abandoned our schools? Also how does a council member and a CSOSA employee pay for two kids to go to GDS?

With financial aid.

Also, whoever said that GDS is the most exclusive and expensive private school in DC - I think Sidwell wants a word with you. Ha!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

This. I am stuck on the GDS thing. How do you trust someone to lead DCPS that has abandoned our schools? Also how does a council member and a CSOSA employee pay for two kids to go to GDS?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


This take is ridiculous. If his kids went to a charter would that also disqualify him? It's nonsensical.

I am a DCPS parent but I'm a pragmatist, not a purist. I know that if we could afford private we'd heavily consider it, especially because we live on the East side and our MS/HS options are really limited. We have multiple friends with kids in privates, including people on financial aid who don't make a ton of money but decided it was the right place for their kids. Also fully half of our friends with kids in private are black, and I will fully acknowledge that black families often have different educational concerns than white families and reasons for sending their kids to private that go way beyond elitism -- the public school system fails a lot of black kids. So no I'm not going to sit here and judge McDuffie for sending his kids to what is considered to be a very good school. Oh no, he cares about his kids and sought the best possible education for them? What a jerk


+1 I am a product of public schools, my kids are in public schools, my mom was a public school teacher. But if we could easily afford GDS for two kids I am not going to pretend I'd reject the idea out of hand purely due to solidarity or something. And I don't think it's the case that sending your kids to private (or charter) schools means you don't care about improving public schools.

+1. and this is why JLG's hostility to charters is so terrible. There are many families who elected to stay in DC and utilize public schools as long as they could precisely because of the charter school sector. It is not a racial issue but a socio-economic one. Middle class families who have the ability to vote with their feet will do so if they have no educational options for their kids. 25 years ago when I lived on the Hill, families moved away when their kids were school age. Over several decades, families stayed and invested in their neighborhood elementaries, largely because they then had growing charter opportunities for middle and high school. All of JLG's economic and education policies seem determined to take DC back to the days of the early 90s---when DC was a city of the extremely wealthy, a lot of low income, and an ever-declining middle class. Do I think Kenyan will be a great mayor like Tony Williams was? Probably not. But JLG is dangerous.

Duffie is dangerous. No experience with public schools for his own kids.

And charters are still public, not as bad as GDS. I’m sure you’ll make up more thoughts that belong in a toilet to disparage JLG. But Duff doesn’t know his stuff. He does know how to give kick backs to family members. You must be his cousin. Or perhaps you work for one of the lobbyists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

+1

This take is ridiculous. If his kids went to a charter would that also disqualify him? It's nonsensical.

I am a DCPS parent but I'm a pragmatist, not a purist. I know that if we could afford private we'd heavily consider it, especially because we live on the East side and our MS/HS options are really limited. We have multiple friends with kids in privates, including people on financial aid who don't make a ton of money but decided it was the right place for their kids. Also fully half of our friends with kids in private are black, and I will fully acknowledge that black families often have different educational concerns than white families and reasons for sending their kids to private that go way beyond elitism -- the public school system fails a lot of black kids. So no I'm not going to sit here and judge McDuffie for sending his kids to what is considered to be a very good school. Oh no, he cares about his kids and sought the best possible education for them? What a jerk

+1 I am a product of public schools, my kids are in public schools, my mom was a public school teacher. But if we could easily afford GDS for two kids I am not going to pretend I'd reject the idea out of hand purely due to solidarity or something. And I don't think it's the case that sending your kids to private (or charter) schools means you don't care about improving public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


This take is ridiculous. If his kids went to a charter would that also disqualify him? It's nonsensical.

I am a DCPS parent but I'm a pragmatist, not a purist. I know that if we could afford private we'd heavily consider it, especially because we live on the East side and our MS/HS options are really limited. We have multiple friends with kids in privates, including people on financial aid who don't make a ton of money but decided it was the right place for their kids. Also fully half of our friends with kids in private are black, and I will fully acknowledge that black families often have different educational concerns than white families and reasons for sending their kids to private that go way beyond elitism -- the public school system fails a lot of black kids. So no I'm not going to sit here and judge McDuffie for sending his kids to what is considered to be a very good school. Oh no, he cares about his kids and sought the best possible education for them? What a jerk


+1 I am a product of public schools, my kids are in public schools, my mom was a public school teacher. But if we could easily afford GDS for two kids I am not going to pretend I'd reject the idea out of hand purely due to solidarity or something. And I don't think it's the case that sending your kids to private (or charter) schools means you don't care about improving public schools.

+1. and this is why JLG's hostility to charters is so terrible. There are many families who elected to stay in DC and utilize public schools as long as they could precisely because of the charter school sector. It is not a racial issue but a socio-economic one. Middle class families who have the ability to vote with their feet will do so if they have no educational options for their kids. 25 years ago when I lived on the Hill, families moved away when their kids were school age. Over several decades, families stayed and invested in their neighborhood elementaries, largely because they then had growing charter opportunities for middle and high school. All of JLG's economic and education policies seem determined to take DC back to the days of the early 90s---when DC was a city of the extremely wealthy, a lot of low income, and an ever-declining middle class. Do I think Kenyan will be a great mayor like Tony Williams was? Probably not. But JLG is dangerous.

Duffie is dangerous. No experience with public schools for his own kids.

And charters are still public, not as bad as GDS. I’m sure you’ll make up more thoughts that belong in a toilet to disparage JLG. But Duff doesn’t know his stuff. He does know how to give kick backs to family members. You must be his cousin. Or perhaps you work for one of the lobbyists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


This take is ridiculous. If his kids went to a charter would that also disqualify him? It's nonsensical.

I am a DCPS parent but I'm a pragmatist, not a purist. I know that if we could afford private we'd heavily consider it, especially because we live on the East side and our MS/HS options are really limited. We have multiple friends with kids in privates, including people on financial aid who don't make a ton of money but decided it was the right place for their kids. Also fully half of our friends with kids in private are black, and I will fully acknowledge that black families often have different educational concerns than white families and reasons for sending their kids to private that go way beyond elitism -- the public school system fails a lot of black kids. So no I'm not going to sit here and judge McDuffie for sending his kids to what is considered to be a very good school. Oh no, he cares about his kids and sought the best possible education for them? What a jerk


+1 I am a product of public schools, my kids are in public schools, my mom was a public school teacher. But if we could easily afford GDS for two kids I am not going to pretend I'd reject the idea out of hand purely due to solidarity or something. And I don't think it's the case that sending your kids to private (or charter) schools means you don't care about improving public schools.

+1. and this is why JLG's hostility to charters is so terrible. There are many families who elected to stay in DC and utilize public schools as long as they could precisely because of the charter school sector. It is not a racial issue but a socio-economic one. Middle class families who have the ability to vote with their feet will do so if they have no educational options for their kids. 25 years ago when I lived on the Hill, families moved away when their kids were school age. Over several decades, families stayed and invested in their neighborhood elementaries, largely because they then had growing charter opportunities for middle and high school. All of JLG's economic and education policies seem determined to take DC back to the days of the early 90s---when DC was a city of the extremely wealthy, a lot of low income, and an ever-declining middle class. Do I think Kenyan will be a great mayor like Tony Williams was? Probably not. But JLG is dangerous.

Anonymous wrote:


This take is ridiculous. If his kids went to a charter would that also disqualify him? It's nonsensical.

I am a DCPS parent but I'm a pragmatist, not a purist. I know that if we could afford private we'd heavily consider it, especially because we live on the East side and our MS/HS options are really limited. We have multiple friends with kids in privates, including people on financial aid who don't make a ton of money but decided it was the right place for their kids. Also fully half of our friends with kids in private are black, and I will fully acknowledge that black families often have different educational concerns than white families and reasons for sending their kids to private that go way beyond elitism -- the public school system fails a lot of black kids. So no I'm not going to sit here and judge McDuffie for sending his kids to what is considered to be a very good school. Oh no, he cares about his kids and sought the best possible education for them? What a jerk


+1 I am a product of public schools, my kids are in public schools, my mom was a public school teacher. But if we could easily afford GDS for two kids I am not going to pretend I'd reject the idea out of hand purely due to solidarity or something. And I don't think it's the case that sending your kids to private (or charter) schools means you don't care about improving public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

+1

This take is ridiculous. If his kids went to a charter would that also disqualify him? It's nonsensical.

I am a DCPS parent but I'm a pragmatist, not a purist. I know that if we could afford private we'd heavily consider it, especially because we live on the East side and our MS/HS options are really limited. We have multiple friends with kids in privates, including people on financial aid who don't make a ton of money but decided it was the right place for their kids. Also fully half of our friends with kids in private are black, and I will fully acknowledge that black families often have different educational concerns than white families and reasons for sending their kids to private that go way beyond elitism -- the public school system fails a lot of black kids. So no I'm not going to sit here and judge McDuffie for sending his kids to what is considered to be a very good school. Oh no, he cares about his kids and sought the best possible education for them? What a jerk

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm having a really hard time with this election, I have serious reservations about both of these candidates.

We are a family that put our kids in both DCPS and charter, and want robust, challenging classes and well-supported teachers.

Let's start a thread -- i would love to hear from people about their experiences with JLG and McDuffie on schools.

McDuffie is disqualified from being considered because BOTH of his kids were/are at GDS. So not just any private school but the most exclusive, expensive school in the area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She hates charters with a passion and supports a plan their funding by $9k+ per child.

I think it’s true that JLG as a mayor will negatively impact charters. There is a constituency of Ward 4 and 5 parents plus WTU who believe that charters are now threatening the progress that DCPS has made. They are smart enough to mostly keep their opinions off this message board, but they want EOTP students who are peeling off for the “good” charters to be rerouted into Wells, Coolidge, etc. They’re probably right, but it’s too
soon to unwind the charter school system in DC. And I say this as a gung ho DCPS parent, “low standards” and all.

OK but you cite no evidence other than “I think.”

Just more garbage posting.

They are afraid he will lose. When people are worried they often take the low ground - fear-mongering and lying.

We do not have any stellar options but based on JLG’s track record in W4, she will be a better choice.

Her what now?

-NP and Ward 4 resident

Ha, sure you are girly pop.

Why don’t you provide a list of what she has done for Ward 4?

-another Ward 4 resident

Yeah I am in Ward 4 too and I don't know what this record is either.

I doubt you are or you live under a rock.




**Housing:** She led the fight to extend the eviction moratorium during the pandemic so people could stay housed while rental assistance caught up. She introduced the Green New Deal for Housing, proposing a publicly-owned mixed-income housing model that reinvests rent into deeper affordability — not private profit. She passed the Housing with Integrity Amendment Act, blocking landlords with five or more violations from getting new building permits. She pushed for more Department of Buildings inspectors to hold slumlords accountable. She introduced the Extreme Heat Eviction Protection Act, preventing evictions during dangerous heat waves. These aren’t press releases — they’re bills she wrote and fought for.

**Workers:** She ended the subminimum wage for restaurant workers — and held the line when the restaurant lobby pushed back with biased data. She created jobs pipelines for construction and retail workers. She expanded Paid Family Leave. These are real wins for working people in every ward.

**Food access:** She increased SNAP food assistance for families and seniors. Simple, impactful, done.

**Traffic and neighborhood safety:** She improved traffic safety infrastructure around schools and worked to expand the Safe Passage program for students. She partnered with the Office of Neighborhood Safety to create job training and transitional employment programs for at-risk youth in Wards 4 and 5.

**Police accountability:** After the killing of Karon Hylton-Brown in Brightwood Park, she fought alongside the community for accountability for the officers involved. She introduced legislation to investigate ties between MPD officers and hate groups. She has called for stronger oversight of MPD’s cooperation with federal law enforcement as the Trump administration has escalated pressure on DC.


She will actually stand up to the federal government

This is maybe the biggest issue of the moment for DC. The Trump administration has been aggressive about overriding DC’s home rule, deploying National Guard troops to our streets, and threatening the city’s budget. JLG has been the clearest and most consistent voice saying: we do not cooperate with that.

She’s committed to rescinding the MPD order that allows local police to work with ICE. She has called out the Bowser administration for not pushing back hard enough. She has a real plan — not just rhetoric — for protecting DC residents from federal overreach, including displaced federal workers who now need the city’s safety net.


Her campaign is funded by residents, not the lobby

She qualified for DC’s Fair Elections public financing program in four hours — raising the required $40,000 from over 1,000 DC residents. Compare that to Mayor Bowser, who took 14 days to hit the same threshold in 2022. When you look at who’s funding JLG versus who’s funding McDuffie, you’re looking at two very different visions of who a mayor serves once in office.


Yes, some of her proposals are ambitious - the 72,000 housing units goal has gotten pushback as unrealistic. That’s a fair debate. But ambition in a housing crisis isn’t a flaw. And her *actual record* in Ward 4 shows someone who doesn’t just set big goals — she does the grinding legislative work to move things forward.



DC is too expensive, too unequal, and right now too vulnerable to federal interference. JLG is the candidate who has spent five years showing up for residents — in Ward 4 and across the city — before she needed their votes.

I am a W4 resident and cannot support her because for almost every issue you mention, I can think of a direct contradiction in my neighborhood where she has not solved a problem. Directly related to education, LAMB and John Lewis are right next to each other. There is a terrible intersection around the school that is dangerous for kids to cross. She had a few walkthroughs with DDOT, but two years later, not a single thing has been done to improve this intersection. It is the small things in our Ward that she has not dealt with. That's why to me it doesn't matter what her positions are, she just isn't going to do a thing to address them.

.

Building on this, no one I know has had a positive interaction with her in terms of constituent services. In fact, if they bother to respond at all, they come off unhinged basically all the time no matter who is writing and what the issue is (like obviously the Harriets wildest dream person is a lunatic on public safety, so the response there won’t be good, but it’s also stuff like getting trash bins put back in place and questions about the pool).

Honestly, her lack of policy positions, her membership in DSA, and her elevation of some real crazies don’t bother me, it’s a DC election and you need to win ward 8.

The problem is the campaign is thin (partially because McDuffie is at best ambivalent about running a campaign) and all I have to go on is her record as a councilmember and how she runs the ward, and the evidence there is pretty dire!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She hates charters with a passion and supports a plan their funding by $9k+ per child.

I think it’s true that JLG as a mayor will negatively impact charters. There is a constituency of Ward 4 and 5 parents plus WTU who believe that charters are now threatening the progress that DCPS has made. They are smart enough to mostly keep their opinions off this message board, but they want EOTP students who are peeling off for the “good” charters to be rerouted into Wells, Coolidge, etc. They’re probably right, but it’s too
soon to unwind the charter school system in DC. And I say this as a gung ho DCPS parent, “low standards” and all.

OK but you cite no evidence other than “I think.”

Just more garbage posting.

They are afraid he will lose. When people are worried they often take the low ground - fear-mongering and lying.

We do not have any stellar options but based on JLG’s track record in W4, she will be a better choice.

Her what now?

-NP and Ward 4 resident

Ha, sure you are girly pop.

Why don’t you provide a list of what she has done for Ward 4?

-another Ward 4 resident

Yeah I am in Ward 4 too and I don't know what this record is either.

I doubt you are or you live under a rock.




**Housing:** She led the fight to extend the eviction moratorium during the pandemic so people could stay housed while rental assistance caught up. She introduced the Green New Deal for Housing, proposing a publicly-owned mixed-income housing model that reinvests rent into deeper affordability — not private profit. She passed the Housing with Integrity Amendment Act, blocking landlords with five or more violations from getting new building permits. She pushed for more Department of Buildings inspectors to hold slumlords accountable. She introduced the Extreme Heat Eviction Protection Act, preventing evictions during dangerous heat waves. These aren’t press releases — they’re bills she wrote and fought for.

**Workers:** She ended the subminimum wage for restaurant workers — and held the line when the restaurant lobby pushed back with biased data. She created jobs pipelines for construction and retail workers. She expanded Paid Family Leave. These are real wins for working people in every ward.

**Food access:** She increased SNAP food assistance for families and seniors. Simple, impactful, done.

**Traffic and neighborhood safety:** She improved traffic safety infrastructure around schools and worked to expand the Safe Passage program for students. She partnered with the Office of Neighborhood Safety to create job training and transitional employment programs for at-risk youth in Wards 4 and 5.

**Police accountability:** After the killing of Karon Hylton-Brown in Brightwood Park, she fought alongside the community for accountability for the officers involved. She introduced legislation to investigate ties between MPD officers and hate groups. She has called for stronger oversight of MPD’s cooperation with federal law enforcement as the Trump administration has escalated pressure on DC.


She will actually stand up to the federal government

This is maybe the biggest issue of the moment for DC. The Trump administration has been aggressive about overriding DC’s home rule, deploying National Guard troops to our streets, and threatening the city’s budget. JLG has been the clearest and most consistent voice saying: we do not cooperate with that.

She’s committed to rescinding the MPD order that allows local police to work with ICE. She has called out the Bowser administration for not pushing back hard enough. She has a real plan — not just rhetoric — for protecting DC residents from federal overreach, including displaced federal workers who now need the city’s safety net.


Her campaign is funded by residents, not the lobby

She qualified for DC’s Fair Elections public financing program in four hours — raising the required $40,000 from over 1,000 DC residents. Compare that to Mayor Bowser, who took 14 days to hit the same threshold in 2022. When you look at who’s funding JLG versus who’s funding McDuffie, you’re looking at two very different visions of who a mayor serves once in office.


Yes, some of her proposals are ambitious - the 72,000 housing units goal has gotten pushback as unrealistic. That’s a fair debate. But ambition in a housing crisis isn’t a flaw. And her *actual record* in Ward 4 shows someone who doesn’t just set big goals — she does the grinding legislative work to move things forward.



DC is too expensive, too unequal, and right now too vulnerable to federal interference. JLG is the candidate who has spent five years showing up for residents — in Ward 4 and across the city — before she needed their votes.

This is all completely irrelevant to this thread. Maybe start another thread where you cut and paste the campaign's talking points.

This. It's so off-putting. If this is a JLG campaign staff or someone from WTU who thinks they are helping her, you're not. At least not in terms of convincing people on this thread that JLG will work to improve schools (both DCPS and charters) and will work to serve ALL stakeholders in the school system. Instead I'm getting the opposite impression -- that JLG will do what the teachers' union (not even individual teachers, who don't always agree with everything union leadership does or says) wants no matter how it impacts others. It's deeply problematic.

Maybe there is some kind of SEO benefit to spamming this thread with JLG talking points but I'm an actual undecided voter and this is really turning me off. I don't like McDuffie either, but maybe I'll vote for a third party candidate or just abstain from voting for mayor. I'm so unhappy with my options this year.

I am so troubled that a lot of people on this thread seem to not understand ranked choice voting. There is no “protest vote,” you should NOT abstain, and it doesn’t matter if Rini (or whoever) has “no chance.” Rank up to five candidates in your true order of preference (though perhaps throw in one or the other of JLG vs KM so you use your voice if it does come down to them).

Also there are no “third party” candidates on your Democratic Party primary ballot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She hates charters with a passion and supports a plan their funding by $9k+ per child.

I am actually worried that she is going to undermine charters somehow. I've never heard her say a positive word about them, while mcDuffie says charters need to be funded the same as DCPS because half the students attend charters. He clearly has no animosity towards charters but I think JLG actually does.

THIS worries me.

At this point in life I'm essentially a one-issue voter (in DC races), and that issue is education.

Second: how crappy our DCDPR parks and rec offerings are, but that's a distant second.

Since we're ranked choice voting: I'm happy to be convinced to list someone else as my top choice beside JLG (and I won't vote McDuffie on principle; longtime Ward 5-er here). Who do you suggest?

And I am a W4 voter who couldn't vote for JLG on principle! What are we to do?

But you’ll vote for someone who has proven to be corrupt? Some principles!

Corrupt but competent beats pure but inept 6 days a week and twice on Sundays.

Not sure McDuffie is competent though.