Several efforts are well underway in DC to change how money is apportioned to our public schools. The results of either may rapidly change our school landscape. DC’s Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) working group, convened by the office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE), has just had two meetings out of a … Continue reading The School Expense That Must Not Be Named (Or, How DCPS Schools Might Close Faster)

[Ed. Note: On Friday, DCPS parent Danica Petroshius sent a plea for DCPS to cover the (as much as 60%!) shortfall in digital devices and internet access before school starts tomorrow, Monday August 31. Below, Petroshius outlines what has happened since her plea: her school has received needed devices, possibly at the expense of other … Continue reading A Case Study In Inadequate Planning, Budgeting, Communications And Transparency (Digital Devices Update)

[Ed. Note: Right now, an astonishing 60% of respondents to a DCPS survey on technology apparently do not have adequate digital coverage at home to engage in mandatory distance learning when school begins on Monday August 31. To delineate this outrage, which parents across the city warned about for months running, look to the email … Continue reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being [a Public School Family in DC]: Digital Device Edition

In a pandemic that has wrecked the economy generally, and DC revenues specifically, the spectacle of a last-minute addition of $48 million in capital spending to purchase the Georgetown Day School’s lower school building, to create a new Ward 3 middle school, provided unique entertainment value. It added to $56 million newly committed to build … Continue reading Advantaging The Advantaged: A Tale Of $312 Million

--DCPS has a survey out on technology for students and online learning. (See screenshots of each page here.) Please fill it out by July 31 if yours is a DCPS family. Context: Earlier this year, in late May, the deputy mayor for education had a tech survey for DCPS that received 17,000 responses--without any ability … Continue reading What A Year This Week Will Be: Upcoming Events

Yesterday, Mayor Bowser announced that she would not announce what the plan was for re-opening DCPS. Instead, at the press conference, officials outlined several scenarios for DCPS, including a “hybrid” model of part-time in person instruction, alongside an all-virtual model, all of which they clearly had planned to roll out yesterday as a done deal--then … Continue reading Now That Distance Learning Is The New Floor For DC Education, Students Need Devices And Internet STAT

[Ed. Note: The following is an exposition of the release of school-level data on spending in our public schools, by the incomparable Betsy Wolf, DCPS parent and education researcher. It was first posted on twitter and is reprinted here by permission of the author, who thanks DC education budget analysts Mary Levy and Will Perkins for … Continue reading Are We Funding Our Schools Equitably?

Next Tuesday, July 7, the DC council will take a first vote on the FY21 budget and the budget support act. The council’s final vote on the budget will be July 28. All of which means there is limited time to appeal to council as well as to Mayor Bowser to ensure that the following … Continue reading Act NOW To Save Our Schools In The FY21 Budget!

[Ed. Note: Yesterday, the DC Council issued a draft budget report from its education committee, along with draft changes to the budget support act, with both approved by the committee today and now awaiting approval of the entire council. In the latter, not only has an amendment to offer charter co-locations (with revenue to go … Continue reading Will The Council Heed A Letter On The Price Of Disaster Capitalism In DC Schools?

Despite a few things you may have heard about during the first half of 2020 (you know, a pandemic, global economic collapse, police brutality), our mayor has been very busy in that same period excluding the public and advantaging private education interests at public expense. To be more specific: --Mayor Bowser seized the field of … Continue reading Time To Start Advantaging The DC Public In Its Schools