Testimony before the DC State Board of Education Public Meeting
By: Laura Fuchs, WTU President Elect
Given: June 18, 2025
A New Washington Teachers Union
My name is Laura Fuchs. I am a Ward 5 resident, DC Public School Social Studies Teacher at HD Woodson HS since 2007, an executive board member of the Washington Teacher’s Union, Chair of DC-CORE, a board member of Empower DC, and as of June 17th, 2025: the President Elect of the Washington Teachers Union alongside Lisa Haynes as General Vice President and the entire Educators Taking Action slate.
For over a year, I have worked alongside an amazing group of WTU educators who want to see real, significant change brought to the District and our Public Schools. They work in all 8 wards, though perhaps not surprisingly a lot of them live and/or teach in Ward 7. They are at a wide range of points in their careers from 3 years to over 30. We have many special educators, Related Service Providers, Teachers in a variety of subjects, and more. They are ready to bring changes to DC that prioritize our students, social justice, educators and the families we serve in DC Public Schools. It is a slate full of people who want to use their experiences to work hand in hand with DCPS and elected officials for real structural improvements and the Full and Equal Partnership that is promised in our Contract.
But it is also a slate of people, backed by the majority of the WTU, who will not accept anything less than what our communities deserve and are willing to organize and act if and when necessary. It is a slate who is unafraid to tell truth to power. It is a slate that will not hold back and smile when we see our educators, schools and communities are being mistreated. It is not a slate that will make backroom deals or operate in anything less than complete transparency. It is not a slate that is interested in proximity to power but instead the power that comes from an organized and engaged membership who authorize our every action.
On the campaign trail we spoke to hundreds of members in events built to listen to what members were experiencing in all professions and to begin to talk about how we can work together to effect meaningful change. There were plenty of things that we have to handle internally as a union, but there are also many things that members want to see change in this district.
- Our international educators must be supported. We have over 1,000 people signing on to a letter to the DC Council to support our 200-300k line-item request in just over a week and a half, and we are still going.
- Over testing – at every. Single. School. Educators raised the issue of over testing. DCPS is giving too many assessments in pursuit of improving their school report cards on the high stakes assessments required by OSSE. It is not acceptable.
- IMPACT – It is unfair. It is not tailored to growth. It is driving amazing educators away from the District because it gives too much power to administrators who can wield it like a weapon and seemingly get away with it.
- Special Education – Power Schools is a problem and it needs to be fixed. The amount of work placed on our Special Educators shoulders is too much, it is essentially two jobs, and it is under-resourced and under-appreciated leading to students not getting the services they deserve and that our educators want to provide.
- Grievances – DCPS is purposefully the delaying the successful resolution of grievances for our educators, some have been languishing for years, and this creates undo stress and a lack of real accountability in our system that feeds into everything. A comprehensive solution for both the past, present and future will need to be reached if we hope to move things forward for our union and this District. We know we are not the only union facing this.
- Greater leadership and preparedness from those in charge of our District when it comes to protecting our schools and all of our students from the pernicious Federal attacks that we are seeing nationwide.
There is so much more that we learned from each constituency group and it demonstrates how much work there is to be done for so many. Our members are ready to organize and act. This is not the same WTU you once knew. We are here to work, to collaborate and engage but we are also not here to be placated, dismissed, ignored or pushed aside. We will not stand for the continued privatization of our public schools. We will not stand for the misuse of District resources – most importantly our time. We will not stand for the status quo. We are here for real, deep, structural change. We are here to fight for Public Schools our educators, students and community deserve, nothing less.