--Building on years of reporting and investigation, DC’s auditor testified on May 25 about ongoing issues around DCPS renovation accountability and warranty guarantees—including outlining Roosevelt HS’s nonfunctioning HVAC. The auditor’s testimony also included a list of that office’s nine reports since 2015 on DCPS renovations, outlining tens of millions in problems, delays, and cost overruns. … Continue reading News Round Up As The School Year Winds Down

On May 30, two events will likely determine the future of some DCPS schools of right. One is the third meeting of the advisory committee for the boundaries study, which is slated to finalize guiding principles for that work. Here’s information on that May 30 meeting, and here is information on all of that body's … Continue reading Will DC Codify Inequity and Erase Some Education Rights on May 30?

In the wake of testimony this spring about charters needing, and deserving, the monetary increase that DCPS teachers fought for (and won) through their union, this blog post aims to be an outline of some basics of charter school funding and expenditures in DC as well as public accountability behind both. The bottom line is … Continue reading Public Accountability & DC Charter Finances

On April 5, the DC Council held a budget hearing for public witnesses to testify about all publicly funded agencies with education responsibility. The hearing was supposed to start at 9 am, but began about 40 minutes late. It had more than 400 public witnesses and went until 11:59 pm that night. Alas, as public … Continue reading The Cruelest Month Carries On

By the end of 2023, DC will likely have both a proposal for new DCPS boundaries as well as a new iteration of its master facilities plan (MFP). As both are integral to the future of DCPS, it’s useful to look at how we got here—and where we might be going. This is the second … Continue reading Planning for Schools AND Saving Them, Part 2: The MFP And Boundaries Process

For more than 5 hours on February 28, public witnesses at the DGS performance oversight hearing outlined a variety of physical problems in DCPS schools, which DGS is charged with maintaining. To wit: Nonworking toiletsBroken elevators, preventing any handicap accessNonworking HVACFaulty or missing locks on class and other doorsDCPS deferring to DGS on maintenance decisionsStudents … Continue reading The Story Of DGS In Our Schools: Crumbling Infrastructure, Unsafe Conditions, & Work Order Hell

On March 3, on the heels of a 10+ hour hearing for all DC education agencies on March 1 (during which public witnesses testified), the DC Council invited the leaders of those agencies to another mega education performance oversight hearing. (For a cheat sheet on locating testimony and other oversight information, see the note marked … Continue reading Oversight Oversights

The mega education performance oversight hearing on March 1 (7 agencies, more than $2 billion annual DC taxpayer $$) lasted slightly over 10 hours and had more than 200 public witnesses, while only a fraction of the council attended—and all for a fraction of the entire hearing’s time. At various points I saw Phil Mendelson, … Continue reading Some Of What The People Said In 10 Hours On A Wednesday

here’s some other recent stuff going down in DC’s largest LEA: --DCPS used covid recovery funds to pay a school bus company even when the company's operating license was suspended. Shortly thereafter, DCPS students were traveling on one of the buses when its inebriated driver had an accident. --Speaking of money mysteries: DCPS has not … Continue reading And While DCPS Isn’t Providing Equitable, Stable, And Adequate Budgets . . .

[Ed. Note: What follows immediately below is a brief burying of the lede above, for context setting. If you wish, simply scroll down to the bold heading "Powerful Information To Help Advocate For Our Schools," which has some budget resources, including a budget outline by DCPS parent and education researcher Betsy Wolf.] Last Friday, February … Continue reading To Survive DCPS Budget Horrors, Learn From Expert Advocates