I want to be clear that I actually showed restraint regarding my conversation with DCPS Board member Scott Shine. Mr. Shine has lost restraint, publicly attacking Chris Guerrieri (a DCPS teacher), for criticizing him (an elected official). In light of this, I felt it necessary to release some quotes I’d previously decided not to publish because I didn’t want to pile on the guy too hard when he had the courage to speak to me. No more, especially after he had previously lectured me about the importance of civil discourse.

I asked Mr. Shine how he could defend Vitti’s decisions that led to 32 middle and high schools closing their libraries. I stated that this hurts poor kids without cars and computers the most, because school libraries are the only place many low-income kids can research. Shine’s direct response to this statement? “Well, there will always be haves and have-nots,” then continued to downplay the concern.

I want to be clear and reiterate: his quote was a direct response to my concern about the closing of libraries hurting low-income kids.

Furthermore, Mr. Shine told me that he feels teachers are going about our fight the wrong way: that we need to stop campaigning against politicians we disagree with, and instead convince them to agree with us. He further implied that teachers are missing the boat by focusing on anything other than “more teachers at higher salaries” (Edit: I feel the need to clarify because a number of people have misunderstood this: Shine implied teachers cared about too many things. He never said teachers only cared about salary.).

Of course we want more teachers at higher salaries, but that is not all we want. We want our jobs to be as meaningful and productive as possible because to many of us it’s much more than just a paycheck.

And here’s the thing about “convincing” politicians: people don’t generally change their minds about things. On the rare occasion they do, it is usually because they are made aware of new information and take that new information into account.

When politicians (School Board members, governor, state legislators) or bureaucrats (Superintendent, etc.) are made aware of new information, and that information does not change their mind, it isn’t long before the only option is to try to replace them with people who do agree with us.

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