Washington teachers’ uNION
In your own words…
1. How have you interacted with public schools? Please include any experiences you have advocating for DC public schools, parents or students.
I have two small kids, a two year old future DCPS student and a kindergartener in his second year at Mann Elementary. My wife and I are also former public school teachers. (I taught 5th grade social studies and she taught middle school English and social studies.) That experience has shaped the way I think about the challenges facing our public schools and the many ways policymakers fail teachers. I do not need to be convinced that teachers face a plethora of difficult challenges every day—often with insufficient support and resources. I am also clear-eyed about the problems with “corporate turn-around style” education reform.
As an ANC Commissioner, I have advocated for investments in school facilities and in outdoor learning so that interested students and teachers could safely return to in-person learning in Fall 2020. I have also testified in favor of requiring that students be vaccinated against COVID.
During our many discussions at ANC meetings regarding the proposed schools on MacArthur and Foxhall, I have been a consistent advocate for the need to put kids first, above traffic concerns, and I have repeatedly pushed for a date-certain by which the Chancellor will announce his decision regarding the proposed school sites.
2. What is the top priority facing public education in the District of Columbia, and how will you address it if you are elected?
As we surge resources to address learning loss and an ongoing mental health crisis, it is essential that we make progress on reducing high teacher turnover, which we know negatively impacts student achievement.
Excessive turnover is a sign that something is not working. It happens in a system where teachers are not sufficiently supported or developed. I will champion investments in strengths-based, retention-focused training, coaching, and evaluation practices. Each dedicated teacher brings their own strengths and effective teacher training and management will use these strengths as starting points to foster growth. For best results, we need to focus on fostering an educator’s growth. This is particularly true of new teachers, who are at greater risk of becoming alienated and leaving the classroom if they feel unsupported and at sea.
We need a real plan and regular publication of detailed turnover statistics. I will propose creating “Retention Crisis Funds” for schools dealing with excessive turnover to fund evidence-based initiatives to boost retention. As each school is unique, this money would first fund a school-specific root cause analysis.
3. If you receive the WTU endorsement and support, how will you work with WTU in the future?
We cannot build a successful, thriving public school system in the District of Columbia without engaging—in a good faith manner—with our teachers and their union. Even when we diverge, I will never close the door to further engagement nor will I engage in rhetoric that demonizes public school teachers. WTU members take on such a high-stress job, for inadequate pay, because they care deeply about the children in their classrooms. Teachers take on such a difficult job because they believe in the mission - something that some policy leaders have failed to recognize.
On my first day as a teacher in Texas, I joined the local AFT affiliate, even though I knew my union was effectively powerless due to draconian anti-labor laws. My parents, both college professors, were proud union members throughout their entire careers, and I saw up close how their union fought for them, their colleagues, and for their students’ right to a quality education. I believe in and value unions, especially teachers’ unions. I also believe that we cannot tolerate a status quo where the academic outcomes for children attending neighborhood public schools in Ward 3 are dramatically different from children elsewhere in the city. I don’t see any tension there and I suspect that is true of WTU’s membership as well.
Fund Our Schools
4. Do you support an increase in the per-student funding minimum, specifically the amount recommended in the 2013 Adequacy Study?
Yes.
5. Do you support an increase in the funding dedicated to support Special Education and English Language Learner students?
Yes.
6. What is your role and how will you ensure that students with special needs are receiving the services they need to succeed academically and socially in school?
The Council has an obligation to ensure that our schools are meeting their obligations to students and teachers. A re-formed Education Committee, in partnership with SBOE and other players, must actively investigate to ensure that the needs of students with special needs are being met, that budgetary requests are sufficient, and that funds are being spent appropriately.
That kind of oversight extends way beyond simply holding hearings, although that is important. Councilmembers must engage teachers, parents, students, and other stakeholders where they are. That means visiting schools over and over. Holding conversations in the community and meeting with organizations that are close to these issues. With respect to students with special needs, we must ensure that individual schools have sufficient funding and resources to serve the full range of student needs.
In Ward 3, it is important that we make progress on reducing overcrowding, as that has negatively impacted the capacity of some neighborhood schools to serve the full range of student needs, effectively foreclosing a family’s ability to send their child to their local school.
7. What is your role and how will you ensure that ELL students receive more robust, flexible resources and support?
Ensuring that ELL students are successful is deeply personal for me. When I was in the classroom, the majority of my students were English language learners. I saw up close how insufficient resources and support can undermine the quality of education these students receive.
ELL students, like other students with higher needs and unique challenges, deserve adequate support. It’s on the Council to find a way to ensure that funding meets the need in our classrooms. That means verifying data and other information that is reported up to the Council from OSSE and LEAs. That is why I support the development of a specialized education agency, independent from the executive, with responsibility for auditing schools, reporting data, and identifying gaps. (This role could be filled by the DC Auditor, but I think it would be preferable to create an education-focused agency staffed by education experts and supported by sufficient resources.). I also believe that we need to improve oversight by re-forming the Council’s Education Committee and enhancing SBOE’s oversight power.
8. Will you support guaranteeing that heritage language speakers be given priority for dual language programs by expanding funding and options district-wide?
Yes.
9. What is your role in ensuring that specialty funds (i.e., Special Education, English Language Learner, At-Risk, etc.) are not used to supplant local school budgets ensuring our schools and students get the level of funding they are required to receive under the law?
I will have zero tolerance for budgetary gimmicks and games. It should go without saying that robbing Peter to pay Paul in this context is deeply counterproductive. Specialty funds are necessary because of the increased need and raiding that money will ultimately just hurt kids who deserve so much more from the Chancellor and other education leaders.
If overall funding is inadequate, then the Mayor and Council must take a hard look at other areas of the municipal budget. We cannot use dollars and cents as an excuse to negatively impact schools and students in need of more support. At the end of the day, budgets are about values. If we truly value education and want to close the achievement gap, then we need to recognize that providing a quality public education, especially to ELL, special education, and at-risk students, is not something that can be done on the cheap.
10. Do you support the recommendations of the DC Auditor report on at-risk funds published on June 25, 2019 (DC Schools Shortchange At-Risk Students)?
All.
11. Should LEAs be funded based on the quarterly count of students enrolled in their schools or on a singular annual count day?
Quarterly.
12. Many DC Public Schools receive an inflow of students throughout the school year. Do you support providing additional resources for these schools?
Yes.
13. DC Public Schools has announced a multi-year effort to overhaul the funding of our schools, possibly moving from the Comprehensive Staffing Model which guarantees schools a baseline level of staffing to a Student -Based Budget Model. Do you support this effort?
No.
I do not support discontinuing the Comprehensive Staffing Model. Instead, I will work to ensure the model guarantees an adequate baseline level of staffing.
We know what successful schools look like. They are not campuses with skeleton staffs. In many Ward 3 schools, parents raise significant funds for additional programming and staff, including partner teachers in elementary school classrooms. Why? Because going beyond the bare minimum when it comes to staffing improves education. That is even more the case for at-risk, ELL, special education, and other students with higher needs. Our teachers are more effective when they have additional support. It makes differentiation easier and improves academic performance.
We must also recognize that schools are multifaceted and dynamic institutions. Learning does not just happen in classrooms. Many different adults play a role in helping to guide and mentor young minds. We undercut our schools when we fail to invest in those other adults (e.g. specialists, coaches, librarians, mental health professionals, and counselors). Budgets are about values and we need a Council that prioritizes strong schools above all else.
14. What is your role and what will you do to ensure that any changes made to the budget system will result in increased equity across our city’s public schools and avoid school closures?
The Council must ensure that schools with higher needs receive the funding they deserve. Kids in every ward deserve to have excellent neighborhood schools and we shouldn’t tolerate anything less. I will fight to make sure Ward 3 schools get the resources they need, but I will also be equally focused on ensuring that all DC public schools receive the support they deserve.
With respect to school closures, a public school should never fail for want of adequate funding. That is especially true of schools serving a student population with greater academic and socio-emotional needs. As noted below, closing a school and terminating a learning community should be a last resort and only considered after all other interventions have been tried and failed.
15. Do you support, within DC Public Schools, giving the Local School Advisory Team increased autonomy and authority?
Yes.
Empowering teachers, parents, and other adults can help build stronger, more dynamic school communities. One reason we know this is true is that highly effective principals invariably recognize the importance of nurturing a strong and engaged school community and take steps to empower their educators.
While an LSAT should not displace school leaders or become a mini-school board micromanaging school decisions, giving the folks closest to a school more say in how policies and initiatives are implemented makes a lot of sense. School systems need to set district-wide policies and the leaders like the Chancellor should be actively trying to align schools towards the same goals, promote best practices, and identify opportunities where district-wide initiatives can boost academic growth, teacher morale and retention, and student wellness. But each school is different and has its own set of unique challenges and opportunities. It is essential that we reduce micromanagement of principals by the central office and of teachers by school leaders. We know from research of effective private sector management that people perform best when they are given the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and creativity.
16. Unfunded mandates often disrupt the local school environment and place increased burdens on school-based staff. If you become elected, what would you do to ensure that local school budgets are adequately staffed and resourced to meet any new mandates adopted by the Council or implemented by the Mayor and/or DCPS?
It is essential that members of the Council proceed thoughtfully before legislating, especially with respect to schools. That is equally true of the Chancellor and other central office leaders. New policies and requirements should not be rushed without time for consultation with all stakeholders, analysis by experts, and some space for introspection. I am not opposed to “education reform” by any means—we must do more to improve outcomes for all students in all schools. But I am extremely wary of top-down plans dreamed up by adults sitting around a conference table, especially when it seems like those plans were hatched without much consultation with classroom teachers or principals. I can recall many examples of laudable initiatives that had the right goals and that could have greatly improved outcomes for my students but largely fell flat because of design flaws that could have been easily avoided by thorough real engagement with teachers and principals.
We must also recognize that we cannot do everything all at once and be successful. We cannot lose our sense of urgency on education, but sometimes the wise course is to proceed methodically, delaying full implementation until there is sufficient capacity to execute effectively. That could mean phasing in mandates gradually over time or investing in pilot projects before scaling up initiatives.
17. Do you support and will you fully fund legislation for a DCPS Technology Plan?
Yes.
18. What is your role in ensuring that DCPS is supporting our local schools and using the security contract to improve trauma informed and restorative practices in our buildings?
As a member of the Council, I will back efforts to disentangle our schools from the criminal justice system. Schools should be safe and loving spaces. Expert after expert states definitively that a punitive discipline model is counterproductive and affirmatively harmful. And yet, we see plenty of examples of schools doing just that.
As a child, I struggled due to behavioral issues. I refused to follow directions, I would shut down during tests, I would speak out of turn, I would throw fits. I would shout down adults who tried to discipline me, and I would try to keep them away by swinging sticks and hitting. I was rude and I refused to apologize. I took up too much space and too much time. Things were better when I wasn’t there. As a result, suspensions were frequent. By 6th grade, I had cycled through 5 different schools, two public schools, one Jewish day school, one local private school, and finally a Waldorf-inspired school. My parents were able to keep looking for different educational environments, which required both research and resources, and I shudder to think what our experience would have been like had we been unable to do so. In fourth grade, the principal at the fourth elementary school I attended confidently told me and my mom I would end up in jail. I suppose he intended to try “scare us straight” before he expelled me. I grew up becoming accustomed to seeing my mom be shamed and browbeaten over my behavior. My father worked in another state and was only home every other weekend during the academic year so the burden of sitting through conference after conference and having to drop everything to pick me up fell on her. I still remember sitting in the backseat as she broke down and cried after yet another suspension. It took a long time for me to find my footing but I eventually did, in large part because I had several incredible teachers who believed in and encouraged me despite the outbursts or the fits of aggression.
I was very lucky. Statistics show that the treatment we received would likely have been far worse had my parents not been white academics. There are so many children in our city dealing with similar issues, lashing out or shutting down as a result of trauma and circumstances far more dire than mine, and we routinely fail to meet their needs year after year after year. We label them. We give up on them. And we eventually push them out and act as if it wasn’t on us. These kids don’t need drilling and testing, they need love and support.
Per Maslow’s hierarchy, schools must first address children’s physiological and emotional needs for safety in order to set the stage for intellectual development. It is my personal belief based on my classroom experience and understanding of education reform debates that too often, well intentioned policy officials who genuinely want to address achievement gaps and learning loss focus only on academic standards and fail to fully account for the emotional work that must be done in order for learning to occur. Not only does this myopic oversight undermine efforts to increase academic progress, it puts too many children, disproportionately Black and brown children, on the path to prison.
Teachers can play a transformative role in the life of a child, but DCPS must ensure that they have receive robust, trauma-informed training and professional development so they can better support their students. To better support our students, it is essential that trauma-informed thinking be infused throughout the system. That does not just mean adding the word “trauma-informed” to existing materials as an empty buzzword. It means that principals, school leaders and teachers need specific, skills based training, on tone of voice, on appropriate disciplinary measures, on specific techniques in structuring their classroom’s physical environment to meet the needs of students grappling with deep, often unseen, emotional challenges. That means ensuring that schools have sufficient funding to provide school-based mental health services that meet student needs.
It also means unapologetically recognizing and addressing teachers’ emotional needs, so they are best equipped to absorb and implement these techniques. Research on talent acquisition across sectors shows that emotionally healthy workers are more effective works, and the same is true of our schools. Strong schools start with healthy teachers, and our children need strong schools – now more than ever.
District Educators
19. Educator turnover is a problem that the District needs to proactively address. If elected, how will you address this problem?
As stated above, I am committed to reducing teacher turnover. Well before the pandemic, the District’s teacher turnover rate was consistently higher than the national average. It is well-established that high turnover reduces school quality, making it essential that we prioritize improving teacher morale and retention if we want to build strong schools.
Addressing retention requires reexamining how we train and support teachers, which is why I have called for a greater emphasis on strengths-based, retention-focused training and coaching. As with trauma informed training, it is not enough to look for something with the word “strengths-based” and assume that does the trick. Teaching requires an extremely specific – and varied – set of skills. Teachers need to be intellectually engaged and engaging – they must think critically about how best to communicate a specific standard to a variety of learners with different learning styles and life experiences. They also need to think quickly – when a student asks a question, a teacher does not have the luxury of mulling it over or getting lost in their own train of thought. They must be able to address the question meaningfully and quickly, making a note to look into it further if need be. And all this for pay that isn’t particularly great.
I write all this out, not because any member of WTU needs to know this, but because too many other stakeholders fail to fully realize this. When evaluation and “support” focus only on those aspects of the job a teacher needs work on, the risk of demotivation and disengagement runs high. This flies in the face of the actual goal of evaluations, coaching, and other professional development should be to help a teacher grow as an educator, not to hound them out of the profession. The best way to do that is to help each teacher – particularly new teachers – zero in on their strengths. What are they naturally good at and how can this teacher capitalize upon these talents to serve their student community? A school community in which teachers and evaluators have a robust understanding of – and appreciation for – each teacher’s strengths, is a community in which growth areas can be identified and worked on collaboratively without risking teacher disengagement.
Typically, turnover is highest at schools that already have the biggest challenges. The scrutiny and intense pressure to turn things around and deliver results can easily destroy morale and trigger a counterproductive rush for the exits, by both novice and experienced teachers. To counter this problem, I propose deploying “Retention Crisis Funds” to fund evidence-based initiatives to boost retention at the school-level. Excessive turnover is a sign that a school is in trouble.
20. If elected, what incentives would you support to encourage experienced educators to stay teaching in the District (i.e., support with student loans and childcare)?
I am campaigning on reducing the cost of housing and childcare. I believe the District faces an existential crisis—we must make this a city where everyone can find their footing, raise a family, and age in place. We cannot accept a reality where teachers and other essential workers can’t afford to live in our communities. Those cities exist in the United States and they are not healthy places.
In addition to tackling the problem of unaffordable housing and childcare broadly for all Washingtonians, I support tax incentives and other initiatives to assist teachers with buying a home in the District, paying for childcare, and making student loan payments.
21. Do you believe that all educators should be certified and licensed in their current position?
Yes.
22. Should teachers in the public charter sector have the right to organize and form a Union?
Yes
23. Should a union have the ability to negotiate terms of the evaluation system?
Yes.
With respect to IMPACT, I believe in having high expectations for the adults in our school system. We owe our kids nothing less. But as the voice of rank-and-file educators in the trenches, I think it absolutely makes sense for WTU to negotiate with DCPS regarding aspects of the evaluation process and, more broadly, how we can better support and develop educators professionally.
At the end of the day, our efforts to improve public education will be most successful when teachers are an integral part of the conversation. Creating an evaluation system that is accurate, fair, and effective at identifying strengths, as well as weaknesses, is extremely difficult. I think it is important for all players in the education policy debate to recognize that there has been a paradigm shift over the past two decades. Good faith engagement with WTU and teachers on how IMPACT can be improved does not mean rolling back the clock to the 1990s.
24. Would you support funding and programming for paraprofessionals to become certified as educators?
Yes.
25. Do you support improving the process for international professionals to enter the US on work visas in DCPS?
Yes.
26. Would you support funding for a mentoring program for new educators?
Yes.
27. Would you support additional funding for educators to advance their practice in professional development, tuition, and conferences?
Yes.
28. Do you support all of the employees in DC Public Schools and Public Charter Schools (educators, paraprofessionals, substitutes, clerks, secretaries, cafeteria, and janitors) receiving a fair and livable wage?
Yes.
29. Will you support increasing tax credits for teachers who spend funds on school supplies?
Yes.
30. Will you support an increase in workforce housing and / or tax incentives for educators to purchase housing in the District?
Yes.
Learning Conditions
31. Do you support an increase in funding for school modernization?
Yes.
32. Should there be priority given to the modernization of schools that serve a high percentage of at-risk populations?
Yes.
33. How will you oversee contracting with DCPS and DGS to ensure quality and longevity?
The District is poorly served by a hands-off approach from the Council. As a member of the Council, I will closely review major contracts as part of my oversight work and hold agency officials accountable for wasteful spending, giveaway contracts, and insufficient vetting of vendors. As an attorney, I have closely reviewed and negotiated terms in billion-dollar agreements on behalf of major corporations. I am confident that I will be well-positioned to monitor DCPS and DGS contracting.
34. What is your role in ensuring that work orders are completed in a satisfactory and timely manner so that our students and educators are healthy and safe?
When it comes to our schools, we cannot accept shoddy workmanship or tolerate massive delays in addressing health and safety issues. The entire District is now more fully aware of the poor conditions of some of our school facilities. Providing a safe environment for students and teachers is far below the minimum that we should accept.
I plan to continue and expand Councilmember Cheh’s tradition of conducting annual inspections of schools before the first day of school. At the end of the day, members of the Council need to be visiting schools on a regular basis throughout the school year. Critically, these visits should not all be coordinated PR events.
35. Will you support the expansion of specially designed metro bus routes for neighborhood schools (like the one that is already provided for Deal MS)?
Yes.
36. Will you support funding for a full-time dedicated school nurse in every school throughout the school day?
Yes.
37. Will you support funding for dyslexia screenings and supports for students?
Yes.
38. Will you support increased mental health screening and support for every student in the District?
Yes.
Governance
39. Do you agree with DC’s current system of Mayoral Control of DCPS?
Yes.
For voters, there are few issues more central than those relating to public schools. Mayoral control means that these issues play a central role in mayoral elections, which tend to have the most qualified candidates, the most professional campaigns, and be the subject of the most attention. Mayoral control also makes it easy for voters to know exactly whom they should blame if they are dissatisfied and want a new approach.
In contrast, SBOE candidates are often politically inexperienced, first-time candidates. Their positions, by and large, are not heavily scrutinized—except by the warring factions that dominate education debates. Once elected, the mayor operates under a media microscope, while SBOE members remain largely unknown.
This is not to say our current system could not be improved. It should go without saying that strong oversight is essential in a mayoral control system. We need to do much, much better on that front. But it is also undeniable that, while significant equity gaps persist, learning outcomes have improved and families are increasingly confident that their child will obtain an excellent education in a DC public school.
40. Do you believe that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) should be independent of the Mayor and under the State Board of Education?
No.
41. If elected, what would your role be in overseeing the Chancellor of DC Public Schools?
Over the past two years, students, parents, and educators have suffered the consequences of the Council’s hands-off approach to oversight. Communication from DCPS has consistently been terrible. Teachers and students have been forced to constantly adjust to sudden policy changes—many announced without much consultation or discussion with stakeholders.
In both this and the previous academic year, DCPS botched the return to in-person learning, in large part because the plans were poorly thought out, drafted in a vacuum behind closed doors, and absurd. There isn’t any excuse for why every school wasn’t fully equipped for outdoor learning in August 2020, let alone 2021. It is deeply shameful that DCPS made little real effort to facilitate outdoor learning when countless private schools in Ward 3 safely continued in-person instruction in tents while DCPS kids learned math and reading on Zoom and Teams. Creative thinking and productive engagement with stakeholders, might have mitigated the impact of school closures on kids and families while recognizing teachers’ health concerns and labor rights. Instead, DCPS proved itself to be insular and anything but agile; its sheer lethargy in the face of an urgent pandemic, despite months of opportunity for planning and preparation, pitted working parents, gender equity and essential educational workers against each other unnecessarily. The Council looked the other way—not wanting to come near the political football that was COVID and schools—and no one was held accountable.
42. If elected, what would your role be in overseeing the public Charter School Board?
The Council has an obligation to exercise oversight over all of the District’s public schools. The need to monitor performance, hold leaders accountable, and develop targeted legislation to fill gaps and address weaknesses uncovered in the process of conducting oversight is no less important for charter schools than it is for the DCPS system. The Council must re-form an Education Committee with dedicated staff to ensure the Council can effectively meet this obligation.
The Council’s role in confirming mayoral nominees is of critical importance. This is particularly true of the DC Public Charter School Board given its role in evaluating new charter applications. Given the current landscape in DC, the Board should approach new applications with healthy skepticism and resist the temptation to become a charter school cheerleader rather than a rigorous gatekeeper.
At the same time, I think the Mayor and Council should heed calls for ensuring that the Board better reflects the communities served by DC charter schools.
43. Do you support the re-establishment of a local board of education to oversee DC Public Schools? No.
No.
For the reasons stated above, I oppose moves to abandon mayoral control of schools. I think there has been too much emphasis on the impact from changing the governance structure and too little on the Council’s abdication of its oversight responsibility.
We need more oversight. That begins with re-forming the Education Committee, but it also means empowering SBOE with additional oversight powers and creating a specialized oversight body independent of the Mayor to audit and report data for all of the District’s public schools. (I do not think OSSE is the right vehicle for this and oppose the proposal to make it a standalone agency. I would favor instead enhancing SBOE’s oversight power and creating a separate agency, either answerable to the Council or truly independent, with responsibility for auditing schools and reporting data in a transparent, apolitical fashion.)
Stepping back, it is my observation that much of the advocacy for shifting to a school board governance model is fueled by wishful thinking. An SBOE with real power will look very different. At a minimum, the level of attention and spending will increase dramatically in SBOE elections.
Further, while there are benefits to having a governance body that specializes in education and nothing else, there are major downsides as well. Compromise is more difficult when politicians know their political fortunes rise and fall according to their rigid adherence to a particular orthodoxies or a group’s priority list. Put more directly, a mayor or councilmember that won their office with backing from DFER or from WTU or some other group is far less beholden to them once in office than a member of the SBOE.
44. Would you support changes regarding who appoints the members of the Public Charter School Board?
Yes.*
I think a majority of the voting members of the Board should be appointed by the Mayor, subject to Council confirmation. I would be open to ideas to change how some members are appointed or to the expansion of the Board with additional members appointed through alternative processes, including seats reserved for students, parents, and educators.
45. Do you believe the city should establish a unified, city-wide educational plan that ensures cooperation and planning across sectors?
Yes.
The District’s many LEAs can continue to chart their own course, innovate and experiment, and adjust their approach to meet the needs of its students and teachers without operating in silos. The Council should ensure that the DME, OSSE, SBOE, and PCSB coordinate more closely on shared challenges.
The Council should also use its oversight powers to push the Executive regarding inconsistent rules and policies for different public schools. While DC’s education landscape stands out given the overlapping geography, every state has multiple school districts, each subject to some uniform statewide rules and policies. Autonomy is not unimportant, but we should not allow that to prevent us from developing a shared vision for better managing resources and advancing student achievement in all of our schools.
46. Should DC Public Schools close schools that are deemed “underperforming” by the State Agency or another body?
Yes.*
Closing a school is a drastic decision and should be avoided at all costs. We should not close a school until after we have tried other interventions. But our obligations, at the end of the day, must be to the students in our classrooms. If a public school—DCPS or charter—is failing students despite receiving adequate funding and support, then closure should be considered as an option.
47. Do you support a moratorium on Charter School openings and expansions? No.*
I believe in the value of providing families with alternative learning environments, especially if their child is being poorly served by their neighborhood school. Charter schools can fill curriculum gaps, offering certain students the chance to delve deep into their passions with a curriculum heavy on science, foreign languages, or music and art. Speaking personally, as someone who struggled with behavioral issues as a child, which resulted in me cycling through 5 elementary schools before I landed in an environment that worked for me, I am also sensitive to the fact that some families benefit from increased public school options offering different models.
What is equally clear in my mind is that public charter schools should not be viewed as replacements for traditional neighborhood schools, nor should we tolerate parasitic growth. The dramatic growth of public charter schools in the District has been fueled by a variety of factors. Unfortunately, many families opt for charter schools not because their child is hungry for a specialized curriculum but because they lack confidence in the quality of their neighborhood DCPS school. We must end this dynamic. New charter school applications should absolutely be closely scrutinized to ensure that the school will be a value-add to our public school landscape, but the key thing we must focus on is investing in our neighborhood schools with the goal of making families in every Ward feel confident in the quality of their neighborhood DCPS school.
48. Do you believe that all Local Education Agencies (LEAs) should be subject to the same transparency and reporting requirements with regard to their academic, student data and school-level budgets?
Yes.
49. Should all LEAs be Subject to FOIA?
Yes.
50. In order to ensure accountability for our schools, will you support higher protections to include additional oversight and protections for whistleblowers who are then subjected to retaliation?
Yes.
51. Will you support an update to the 2007 PERRA and 2010 Local Hatch Act that allows individuals employed by DC Public Schools to run for public office (including SBOE, DC Council, Mayor and Attorney General)?
Yes.
Misc. Questions
52. Are you using the public financing option?
Yes.
53. Have you ever and would you ever accept endorsement from Democrats for Education Reform or any of its affiliated organizations?
Yes.