Hello DC taxpayers: You may have just lost a lot of money! That is, depending on the fate of a bill (23-0256) to exempt four charter school properties from property taxes (which the DC council on December 3 voted to approve), the loss could be almost $11 million in lost property tax revenue. First introduced … Continue reading The Public Costs Of Legislating Private Wealth

While I was writing this blog post, on the November 25 DC council hearing on safe passage, a DC public school student who was shot during school hours died and DCPS announced the closure of an alternative high school whose students had poor attendance, quite possibly because many had to travel across town to attend … Continue reading Safe Passage To Nowhere

--In announcing an at risk lottery preference for the new early childhood facility at the old Stevens school, DCPS has now made a moot point of the 2018 study (by lottery head Cat Peretti) of an at risk preference in the lottery. Never mind that the study determined that the at risk preference didn’t do … Continue reading Calling 240-342-4170 . . . And Other Recent DC Education Tidbits

With a new DCPS chancellor mulling changing the school system’s budget model and the DC public charter school board (PCSB) executive director leaving, the two school agencies are asking for more public feedback. DCPS Two upcoming public meetings are being billed as community budget forums. They were announced at DCPS’s mandated public budget hearing on … Continue reading Feedback Time: DCPS And Charter Board

In a charter board meeting on October 28 filled with incredible events, perhaps the most incredible was when the charter board did not even let a kidnapping from the Rocketship school where they were meeting slow down their approval for a new Rocketship campus in Ward 5. In the first (and at the time only) … Continue reading Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Kidnapping (Stays DC Charter Real Estate Ventures)

For hours on October 21, supporters of Maret--the private school with whom DC’s department of parks and recreation (DPR) recently signed a 9-year extension of a previous 10-year, exclusive use agreement for prime hour use of the publicly owned field Jelleff--testified to the DC council about the brutal way in which their school had been … Continue reading Fields Of (Broken) Dreams: Jelleff & Ellington

Next Tuesday October 29, our city will hold two events important for community engagement in our schools: --From 6-9 pm, at Maury Elementary (1250 Constitution NE), DCPS will hold its annual, mandated, budget hearing. Sign up by TOMORROW October 25 at 3 pm to testify. See here for more information and see here to sign up. … Continue reading October 29: Engaging On Schools

This Wednesday evening, October 23, at 5:30 pm, the DC state board of education (SBOE), DC’s only elected body with a direct (if relatively powerless) voice on our schools, will take public testimony on teacher retention in DC’s publicly funded schools. (See more information here.) While public voice is sorely needed in every conversation about … Continue reading Let’s Be Clear: DC Teacher Retention Isn’t Just A Problem. It’s A Crisis.

Perhaps the oddest moment of the 5+ hour city council hearing on October 3, dedicated to sussing out why we have actionable lead levels on DC public playgrounds and recreational spaces with synthetic surfaces, was when the director of the agency responsible for those public places and all DCPS facilities (DGS) noted that lead is … Continue reading Toxic Brew: DGS & Child Safety

[Ed. Note: This blog post is an update of one written by Grace Hu in July 2018 on technology challenges in DCPS. A Ward 6 parent who serves on the Amidon-Bowen Local School Advisory Team, Hu is also the founder of Digital Equity in DC Education, a volunteer coalition of DCPS parents dedicated to closing … Continue reading Moving The Needle Together On DCPS’s Computer Challenges