D.C.’s last round of contract negotiations with the Washington Teachers’ Union took roughly three years to complete. The one before that took about five years. And given the sluggish start to the latest round of talks, there’s every reason to expect another drawn-out fight.

WTU’s most recent deal with D.C. Public Schools expired Sept. 30, and the two sides have yet to return to the bargaining table. Union leaders tell Loose Lips that they started forwarding proposals to DCPS several months ago, but have barely heard a peep in response. That’s forced WTU, which represents more than 5,000 public school teachers in the District, to start girding for another bruising battle over a contract outlining standards for pay, working conditions, and other issues.

It’s an outcome that’s perhaps not totally surprising given the city’s recent history of difficult negotiations with the union over contracts and COVID-19 policies. But many education policymakers were hopeful that the two sides had patched up many of those tensions after striking a deal a bit unexpectedly late last year to avoid arbitration (which would’ve sent the matter to a third party to hash out a deal, denying the union’s membership a vote on the new agreement). There’s still hope that the two sides could smooth things over before another lengthy round of talks—sparing the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser from difficult budget decisions in the years ahead—but that prospect is rapidly fading.

“Let’s not wait until this is an election year and use it as a political pawn during the election year, talking about who’s endorsing who,” says At-Large State Board of Education Rep. Jacque Patterson, who is up for reelection next year and won three years ago without WTU’s influential endorsement. If the negotiations stretch on long enough, however, the matter could once again be a subject during a mayoral election cycle in 2026. “No, let’s just do right by teachers,” Patterson adds. “Let’s get this contract done.”

WTU President Jacqueline Pogue Lyons says she’s made little progress in bringing DCPS around to that point of view. She believes the Council, in particular, made it clear that they expected the union to start working on a new deal quickly after finalizing its previous contract, which mainly delivered back pay to teachers and addressed only some of their concerns about working conditions.

Accordingly, Lyons says she began forwarding proposals for “ground rules” for negotiations to DCPS back in May. She says it took two months for school leaders to send a counteroffer, and the two sides only finally agreed on those rules at the end of September. Lyons hasn’t made any progress on actually setting dates to get in a room with DCPS, let alone getting feedback on some of the union’s other proposals.

“It’s upsetting and bordering on disrespectful,” Lyons says. “We don’t want the narrative to be, ‘Oh, another late contract.’ We just don’t…But DCPS doesn’t see the urgency here.”

In a statement to LL, a DCPS spokesperson pushes back on that characterization, noting that “while in-person negotiations at the table have yet to begin, D.C. Public Schools and the Washington Teachers’ Union began the contract process in early 2023, exchanging proposals and establishing the ground rules required to ensure both parties arrive at the table prepared to engage in productive, efficient deliberations.” The spokesperson adds that the District wants to reach an “agreement that is fair and reflects the deep appreciation D.C. has for its educators,” but would not answer LL’s additional questions about the negotiations.

Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin, one of the lawmakers most focused on education issues, says it’s “not shocking” that DCPS may not be itching to dive back into contract negotiations. “There’s a certain amount of exhaustion” after the three-year fight over the last deal, he reasons. Plus, officials had to get ready for the start of school over the past few months, so he urges at least some measure of patience.

“There’s a little bit of dispensation there but not a lot,” Frumin says. “Because we don’t want to fall further behind.”

Lyons says her patience can only go so far when there are urgent issues facing teachers right now that DCPS won’t engage on. While she is hesitant to address specifics, Lyons says she is once again centering proposals that will combat the city’s persistent problems retaining teachers. That means the union is supporting contract provisions around things such as “getting and keeping a diverse teaching staff” and ensuring that teachers feel safe on school campuses.

She notes that a recent survey of the WTU’s membership showed that teachers have grave concerns about how DCPS is responding to a rise in violence in and around classrooms (as grimly highlighted by the recent killing of a student near Dunbar High School). And the union has outlined potential changes to make a difference in that area. Lyons has pitched ideas like additional counseling for staff and students who experience violence, or the expansion of the “Safe Passage” program focused on ensuring kids get to and from school safely, but the school system has so far been silent on those proposals.

“When something like [the Dunbar shooting] happens, how do we address the needs of both the students and the teachers?” Lyons says. “You can’t just go back to normal afterwards. What are we going to do to make people feel safe?”

Of course, there’s a financial element to the contract talks, too. Lyons notes that many of her members are younger Black women who increasingly can’t afford to stay in the D.C. region. Patterson, who has also worked as an administrator at public charter schools, has pitched the idea of a specific “housing allowance” for teachers to specifically address this problem.

But perhaps the biggest issue is setting up a pay scale that can give teachers confidence about how much money they stand to earn in the future if they stick around D.C. The last contract included a combined 12 percent pay raise covering the past three years, but teachers have no way of planning for such pay bumps when they’re only ever delivered retroactively. (DCPS’ delays in actually delivering that money don’t exactly help either). Patterson says that it’s become so difficult to retain “qualified teachers” in a post-pandemic world and that DCPS can’t afford to have such an uncertain work environment.

“It’s not good enough for the city or the mayor to say, ‘Well, we got a great contract for the teachers,’ but then to disregard that that contract is expired,” says Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who has oversight over the school system via his Committee of the Whole.

Ever the budget minder, Mendelson also notes that handing out a constant stream of retroactive payments is “from the standpoint of good government, horrible,” since it creates uncertainty as the city sets its budget each year. He adds that the last contract’s increases to the uniform per pupil funding formula—basically, the amount of money the city spends on for each student, whether they’re enrolled in traditional or public charter schools—have yet to be worked into the city’s budget. It becomes all the more difficult for city leaders to know how much money to spend on other priorities if they don’t know how much they’ll need to spend on schools a few years down the road.

“It makes it harder for us to do our jobs well, so we need them to do their jobs in order to get this negotiated,” Frumin says. “Now’s the time for it to get going.”

Frumin is hopeful to see the parties get back to the table before the year is out. If DCPS is still dragging its feet by 2024, however, Frumin says he’d be ready to be “very critical” of the administration, perhaps even backing some sort of letter from the Council on the matter.

Mendelson said he would consider that option, but he’s still “thinking through what strategies to pursue” to get the mayor and DCPS to begin negotiations. He says he’s told Bowser and school leaders that it’s “critical” that they get moving soon, but he has not pressed the issue recently.

Patterson hopes that every little bit of advocacy helps make a difference. He expects that his colleagues on the state board will do what they can to drive attention to the issue, but their powers are limited in a way the Council’s are not. The mayor fundamentally has responsibility for making progress, but lawmakers have the power of the purse and oversight hearings to force the issue—if they care to use them.

“I get the psychology behind, ‘We want to see what’s politically correct at a particular time because we want to get reelected,’” Patterson says. “But right is right, at the end of the day, whether you win or lose. And they should be stepping up.”