In this budget season, fraught as it always is, there are actions that all of us can take right now to help our schools. 1. To demand that our neighborhood schools are properly funded (please!), the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) is sponsoring a rally this Thursday April 25 at 4 pm at Freedom Plaza, across … Continue reading Rallying For Our Schools: What You Can Do NOW

Back in January, I made several FOIA requests of DC government agencies for information about future plans for the building currently occupied by DCPS’s Banneker high school, on Euclid Street. I did this because the plan to re-locate the school to the site of the closed Shaw junior high never mentioned what would become of … Continue reading What Is The Plan For Banneker High School’s Current Building? (Or, Conflicts Of Interest And “The Middle School Program”)

In the wake of excellent reporting about the private nature of publicly funded charter schools in Los Angeles and New Jersey, I wanted to get an answer to the question in the title of this blog post, prompted by that picture above, which I took in February. That is: who really owns St. Coletta charter school … Continue reading Just Tell Me: Who Owns This?

That statement above was uttered on March 19 by DCPS chancellor Lewis Ferebee, at a meeting of Ward 6’s Public School Parent Organization (W6PSPO). It was, literally, the last thing the chancellor said as he was leaving the room--and it was in response to a question by a parent, who asked whether DCPS would be … Continue reading “We Will Not Be Closing Schools In Ward 6”

[Ed. Note: Today, as nearly 200 public witnesses take hours out of their day to document at the ongoing DCPS budget hearing how our schools and kids are being shorted yet again, this (very long!) blog post by DCPS teacher Laura Fuchs is eminently fitting. It shows the expenditure of more than $77 MILLION in … Continue reading The Generosity Of DCPS (Central)

At the March 6 council hearing for the renomination of Hanseul Kang as the head of our office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE), I had the odd distinction of being the only one of 13 public witnesses to testify against the renomination. Given what has transpired at OSSE during Kang’s tenure—a major graduation … Continue reading The Generosity Of OSSE

[Ed. Note: Every day at Anacostia High School, social worker Nathan Luecking is on the front lines of treating trauma caused by community violence that is, sadly, a common experience for many children in DC. The mental health supports that Luecking and other social workers provide in our schools are both necessary to help our … Continue reading The Urgency Of Childhood Trauma & School-Based Mental Health Programs

Here are five actions [3/22: and 1 more added today! See below.] that you can do--most in less than 5 minutes--to help public education and students in DC in some way. 1. Call council chair Phil Mendelson and education committee chair David Grosso and tell them that the newly introduced school transparency bill needs a hearing … Continue reading Want To Help DC Public Education & Kids In Less Than 5 Minutes? Let’s Get Started!

Once again, it’s almost spring and that means money--or rather, the money that our public schools need and are not getting. Below is a list of budget hearings for DC’s various education agencies before our city council. Sign up and more information are available here. All hearings are at our city hall, the Wilson Bldg., at … Continue reading Budget Oversight Time (>4000 New School Seats Edition)

At the end of February, the Post ran a story on a light industrial building at 3400 New York Avenue NE being used as a halfway house. Now, this has really nothing to do with our public schools, right? Wrong! In November 2018, an apparently well-connected group made a deal with Douglas Development, the building's … Continue reading Hallowed Hallways Or Halfway House? Law Or Lawless? Fun With School Facilities! (Secret Edition)