–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.

–In the wake of a March report by the state board of education recommending changes to education governance in DC, former Ward 3 state board rep Ruth Wattenberg recently reported the troubles of mayoral control. It’s a good read, accounting for some of the scandals that have plagued our schools. Sadly, it does not go into detail about the waste inherent in DC’s school proliferation—specifically, how 50% of our publicly funded schools can create seats and locate wherever, whenever, and however they wish without anyone in the public having any say whatsoever and with the people approving all of it publicly unaccountable. OTOH, now that Ward 3 has its first charter school, should real estate prices decline appreciably areas west of Rock Creek Park may soon get a feel for what the rest of us have been enduring for the last several decades. (Good luck, Ward 3.)

–The deputy mayor for education (DME) recently promulgated data showing where students go to school from other schools–presumably related to work his office is doing on boundaries. Bottom line: Despite high rates of mobility (which we know hurts student academic progress), DC leaders including the DME keep enabling it by promoting school choice and fostering inequity among schools of right.

–The May 3 meeting of the common lottery board for DC’s publicly funded schools was notable inasmuch as it appeared to contradict official celebratory reporting of the recent lottery. (See the May 3 slide deck and video here.) For one, this was the second year with fewer applicants than seats offered, while there were fewer matches overall. For another, while 583 students were matched under the equitable access preference, that represented only 173 more than would have been matched without it. Or, as the propagandists might say, it was all a smashing success.

–For years, DCPS didn’t do what it was legally obliged to do—get council approval of contracts worth more than $1 million. One result: the council approved at least one contract after the fact. Another result: the DC inspector general has launched a criminal investigation. And yet another result: The DC council held a roundtable on May 31, with many stern words from council members.

–The FY24 budget approved on May 30 inevitably validates some of the nonsense behind initial DCPS school budgets. Nonetheless, it is likely overall an improvement compared to what the mayor originally proposed. See here and here for spreadsheets, courtesy of C4DC, on what the approved budget changes mean for schools.

–Though DCPS promised it on May 19 (see it here on #17 of written responses to council oversight questions), DCPS teachers still (still!) don’t have any pay increase as a result of their latest contract approved in December 2022. Notification of the delay came out during teacher appreciation week (naturally). It was not the first delay around that contract: the approved contract was submitted late to the council by the mayor. Though teachers are penalized for being late, no one else appears to be (naturally).

–But while DCPS teachers still wait (while embarking this month on a new contract negotiation that would be for pay and other benefits beyond next school year), the folks in the Wilson building on May 30 made sure charter teachers receive a windfall from this contract (naturally).

According to council budget gurus, the FY24 budget will provide $148.1 million in back pay for DCPS teachers for school years 19-20 through 22-23, with $57.7 million for increases to salaries for SY23-24. (The actual total for the latter number is $81.8M, but DCPS has agreed to cover about $24M of it.)

Now, charters will receive $19.5M for teacher back pay for school years 21-22 and 22-23 (up from the mayor’s initial proposal of $15M), while charters will also receive $54M for increased salaries for SY23-24 (down from the $58M the mayor proposed). The charter teacher back pay amounts to about $5000 per teacher (per this statement from the DME on p.3 of responses to council oversight questions). The total for charters is about $73M, not one penny of which DC is legally obliged to pay.

Nonetheless, in a show of some oversight of this windfall for charter LEAs in the name of parity, the council on May 30 also approved legislation that would add requirements around this money. Among other things, charters must publish by May 2024 teacher pay scales by steps and grades, along with the number of educators at each (in lieu of actually publishing salaries, as with the DCPS teachers who fought for and earned the money that is the basis for this charter windfall).

Here is the legislative language on those requirements and others to ensure charter teachers actually get the money (as opposed to the LEAs themselves). NB: I was sent this by someone at the council, as it is not yet in the legislative database (well, that I could find). You can see the May 30 council debate over charter teacher pay increase requirements starting at the 3 hour, 57 minute mark of the video here.

–Among the many ills of high teacher turnover, in DCPS it also means not many teachers ever get to avail themselves of retirement money.

–Seems DC’s publicly funded schools will get police—oops, I mean school resource officers–whether students want them or not.

–Finally, in 2017, the executive director of the DC public charter school board attributed 1000 people moving to DC every month as a direct result of a “dazzling array of choices” in DC’s publicly funded schools. Now, you might think that as a major donor to Democrats (more than $15K in just the last year!), DC’s former charter executive has nothing in common with right-wing Republican ideologues opining about parenthood and school choice.

But you’d be wrong.

So let’s leave the realm of fairy tales for a moment and just put this chart of DC’s child population here:

Now, professional propagandists might say:

Look how many more kids we had in DC before the school lottery and charters!

While that statement is nonsense (there are many factors, census data does not represent causation, etc.), that statement in bold above is exactly the kind of nonsense that DC taxpayers have literally sponsored in their own education leaders.

Such nonsense not only permits public servants to turn away from demanding publicly funded entities to BE public, but it permits lies and misrepresentation to thrive while threatening teachers, closing schools, and ending education rights.

DC certainly can do better.