Online classes in the District of Columbia in spring had been a disaster. Thousands of students didn’t have computers or reliable WiFi. Many were falling behind. So as spring gave way to summer, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) was determined to open schools again.
By mid-July, she had a plan. But it depended on cooperation of the teachers, and their union responded with protests.
Hours before the mayor was to make an announcement, she said she needed more time.
The city spent the next five months trying to bring students and teachers back to classrooms. A combination of mismanagement by the mayor and her aides and intransigence from the District’s teachers union combined to thwart every move, according to interviews with city officials, union leaders, educators and activists. The city kept changing its plan, and the union kept changing its demands. A lack of trust on both sides fueled failure at every turn.
As urban school districts across the country struggled with classroom reopening plans, a close look at the District’s experience shows how hard it has been to develop workable strategies — and how much power teachers wield, particularly when they have a strong union behind them.
The District’s impasse meant it squandered the chance to give its most vulnerable children classroom time while infection rates were low. Now the earliest any students will have face-to-face instruction will be February.
While teachers worked to persuade parents that reopening was dangerous and the District’s plan inadequate, the city did little to sell either the urgency of going back or the details of its plan to the general public.
The school system had proof that children were falling behind because of remote learning but sowed doubt in the findings by presenting inaccurate data. Principals had no input in shaping the reopening plan and were left in the dark about its details. Advocates for homeless children — the students city officials argued most urgently needed to be in school — never heard from administrators. Groups that worked with students with disabilities said they couldn’t get their questions answered, so these families were reluctant to go back.
Paul Kihn, deputy mayor for education, said the city surveyed families in the summer and knew about half were ready to return to school buildings. But city officials made a major miscalculation. They assumed they would be able to strike a deal with the union and enough teachers would be willing to come back to classrooms.
That never happened.
At least twice, the Washington Teachers’ Union reached tentative agreements with the city to reopen, only to back out a few days later. The union staked out demands that went far beyond what was in place elsewhere and beyond guidelines set by its national union.
The result: Teachers were applying maximum pressure to stay closed, but there was virtually no public pressure to reopen.
“The plans we made assumed we would be able to have our teachers in our buildings,” Kihn said.
Even as restaurants and salons opened to customers, as private and charter schools began in-person classes and available data show scant virus infection in the nation’s open schools, the traditional public school system has remained entirely virtual, with a few hundred elementary school students participating in virtual learning from classrooms under the supervision of nonteaching staff.
City officials maintain they have done everything possible to reopen safely and effectively.
“Our plans are being made on the best available science,” D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said in July before previewing one of the city’s reopening plans. “There is no substitute for in-person instruction.”
The teachers union says it agrees, in theory, but has opposed every plan to open classrooms.
“It’s almost like they are building the plane while flying,” Elizabeth Davis, the union’s president, said. “That is not okay with us.”
Now city leaders are trying again. If health metrics allow for it — a major question given the surging caseloads — they plan to reopen all school buildings with teachers in February. This time around, according to city officials, principals, staff and parents are having more of a say in their schools’ reopening plans.
