D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole and Committee on Executive Administration and Labor Joint Public Roundtable on:
PR25-1095 – Working Conditions and Compensation Agreement between the District of Columbia Public Schools and the Washington Teachers’ Union, Local #6 of the American Federation of Teachers Emergency Approval Resolution of 2024
Greetings, Chairman Phil Mendelson, Chairwoman Anita Bonds, members, and staff of the Committee of the Whole and Committee on Executive Administration and Labor. My name is Jessica Giles. I am a Ward seven resident and the Executive Director of the D.C. Chapter of Education Reform Now Advocacy (ERNA), a non-profit organization that advocates for a just and equitable public education system for all students in the nation’s capital.
Thank you for holding a public hearing on PR25-1095 – Working Conditions and Compensation Agreement between the District of Columbia Public Schools and the Washington Teachers’ Union, Local #6 of the American Federation of Teachers Emergency Approval Resolution of 2024. Given that the hearing was limited to invited witnesses and agency representatives, we are submitting written testimony.
We are writing to urge the Mayor and D.C. Council to support funding for public charter schools that is equivalent to the DC Public Schools (DCPS) contract package with the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) and to fund this through the UPSFF in fiscal year 2025 and for all future years.
For all D.C. public students to thrive, we need a healthy education ecosystem that attracts, prepares, and retains highly effective educators within their chosen fields, particularly educators of color. For this to happen, educators must be fairly evaluated, incentivized to teach underserved students, well-trained, have opportunities to grow in their profession, and be well compensated. This is not a D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) need or a public charter school need; it’s a Districtwide challenge that calls for Districtwide funds.
Last year, Mayor Bowser, through an initiative called the charter teacher pay program led by OSSE, distributed more than $73 million to provide 7.6 percent retroactive payments to returning teachers and increase charter teacher pay by 12.5 percent. These pay increases coincided with the significant salary increases received by teachers at DCPS. When this funding was provided to charter schools, 100 percent of public charter schools publicly posted payscales and submitted them to OSSE. Public charter schools also worked closely with OSSE on all compliance requirements. We applaud the D.C. Council for supporting this effort. This is what true collaboration and leadership look like.
We urge you to support both sectors equally during the budget process because all students deserve a high-quality education, and all effective educators deserve a raise in compensation. Thank you for allowing me to submit written testimony. I am happy to continue discussing this issue with you in the coming days, weeks, and months.