WHAT'S HAPPENING?The Mayor's proposed 2025 budget cuts 200 full-time teaching positions across DCPS, reduced funding for flexible scheduling for educators, reduces funding for Grow Your Own educator programs and-critically- eliminates the Pay Equity Fund for early childhood educators. This is an emergency for not just our educators but our schools, families and DC's economy.
MYTH: We are "right-sizing" school staff and budget after the big increase in staff during the pandemic aided by federal funding. REALITY: Our schools were not right-sized to begin with! Our goal is not and cannot be to just go back to the way things were pre-pandemic or before we began to pay early childhood educators what they deserve. Educator mental health and burnout and the turnover it produces has damaging effects on our students and schools. We must invest in programs like Educator Wellness grants, flexible scheduling and permanent substitutes at all schools (something we did during the pandemic but have also retreated from). Additionally, if we send our early educators back to poverty wages after giving them a raise and requiring them to go back to school to earn it, we will have early educators flee, child care centers shut down and DC families will face a crisis. FACTS: * DC has among the highest educator turnover in the country with 25 % of educators leaving their classroom year to year. Educator turnover has a direct negative effect on student learning. * 16 DC schools will be benefiting from the council's investment in flexible scheduling last year, but the mayor's proposed budget not only guts $1 million of that funding but requires them to spend the money this current school year even though it was designed for SY 24-25 pilots. * One of the single biggest stressors on our schools has been teacher coverage. With increased staff absences students, teachers are missing planning time, burning out and students are being taught by daily substitutes who don’t have a relationship with them and often aren’t able to effectively deliver instruction. Schools East of The River almost never receive daily substitutes. We need to guarantee every single school has adequate full-time permanent building substitutes. * CLICK: Learn about the Pay Equity Fund for Early Childhood Educators. |
WHAT CAN YOU DO?Our Teacher Retention Agenda: |