In the wake of the June 4 invite-only hearing last week on DC’s FY21 public education budget (listen here and see the witness list here), the DC council will be holding two budget hearings next week, on June 17 and 18--and YOU can testify! Deadline to sign up is June 15--see here and here for … Continue reading Building A Better Budget—Oh, And Hearings YOU Can Testify At!!

As you may recall, the DC council decided to not have a truly public hearing on the (disaster) budget for our publicly funded schools. In its place is an invite-only public hearing tomorrow, Thursday June 4. Check out the witness list here. Of the 28 invited witnesses, --3 are representatives of government agencies (state board … Continue reading This Is What Power Is About In DC

By proposing a 3% increase in the uniform per student funding formula (UPSFF) in her post-COVID FY21 budget, Mayor Bowser is pulling off what appears to be a heroic effort in a terrible economic crisis: ensuring some increase in school funding, albeit not at the level previously proposed (a 4% UPSFF increase). Ensuring reasonably stable … Continue reading Satisfying the Satisfied: DC’s Brave New FY21 Budget

[Ed Note: This is the third installment of a series of tales of missing public education information and active disinformation by a wide variety of city actors (and all before the current pandemic!). To see the first and second in this series, see here and here.] Tale #3: The Mystery Of Taft's Money Let us … Continue reading The Education Mysteries, Tale #3: Taft’s Money

Amid our collective struggle at being adrift without a clear light at the end of this pandemic, thoughtful and excellent recommendations have emerged right here in DC for ways forward for our public schools in terms of re-opening and distance learning. These ideas are all the more important now that our mayor announced on Monday … Continue reading Powerful Ideas For Our Public Schools Moving Forward

[Ed Note: This is the second installment in a new series on this blog, consisting of tales of missing public education information and active disinformation by a wide variety of city actors (and all before the current pandemic!). To see the first in the series, click here.] Tale #2: The Mystery Of Ellington Field Some time … Continue reading The Education Mysteries, Tale #2: Ellington Field

[Ed. Note: This new blog series, consisting of tales of missing public education information and active disinformation, arises at a time when both storytelling and truth are at a premium. Recall that on March 17, one of the first actions of our DC council in the current pandemic was to extend the deadline for responses … Continue reading The Education Mysteries, Tale #1: Friendship’s Lottery & Achievement Prep’s Middle School

Here are a few things of interest for this week, as we await both an update on the budget situation (see C4DC’s recent letter to the mayor, demanding balancing of priorities for DCPS) as well as news of when (and/or if) school will reopen this school year. --Starting this week, DCPS has 10 sites that … Continue reading What’s Happening (And NOT Happening)

As the corona virus devastates billions of people world-wide, budgets everywhere are being similarly devastated--including DC’s proposed public education budgets. To address expected shortfalls in revenue, here in no particular order are 15 revenue-neutral (and even revenue-enhancing!) ways that DC could tomorrow cut public education expenses; provide greater oversight; and ensure better public involvement in … Continue reading 15 Ways To Stop DC Public Ed Budget Implosions And Improve Our Schools–Tomorrow

On Tuesday this past week, Mayor Bowser announced that “DC education leaders” were launching a new “digital equity fund.” A “collaboration” between private organization Education Forward DC, the DC Public Education Fund (the private fundraising arm of DCPS), and the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the fund is intended to increase access to the internet and … Continue reading Privilege, Wealth, & The New Digital Equity Fund