This year, instead of one massive council performance oversight hearing for all DC education agencies arising from committee of the whole oversight (RIP council education committee), we were treated to three (slightly less massive) hearings covering oversight of >$2 billion in taxpayer funds: --An 8-hour hearing on February 27 for public and government witnesses for … Continue reading Brief Recaps: Performance Oversight 2024

[Ed. Note: In 2022, Ward 8 residents harmed by a charter school development petitioned the zoning commission (ZC case 22-26) to have DC charter schools—all of which are private businesses--declared private for land use and development, thus ensuring better public oversight through the BZA (board of zoning adjustment) process. DC’s office of planning (OP) created … Continue reading The Undue Burden Of Charter Development On DC Residents

Watching the December 19 DC council hearing on truancy and absenteeism, featuring a bevvy of government witnesses testifying over the course of 4 hours, brought to mind the parable of blind men trying to describe an elephant—in this case, the causes of, and solutions to, the high percentages of DC students chronically absent and truant … Continue reading Losing Sight On DC Absenteeism & Truancy

Part of the difficulty in writing about DC’s boundary process and the associated master facilities plan (MFP) is that the civic actors at the head of both have thus far assembled an array of data so predictable in its conclusions that there is almost no reason for any discussion. Which appears to be the point. … Continue reading School Games

--The continued rationing of school nurses (in the wake of zero enforcement of the many years’ old law mandating a full-time nurse in every DC publicly funded school) has galvanized some DCPS families to organize a community meeting on the subject for Tuesday, November 28, at 6 pm at the Northeast Library. (For questions and … Continue reading The Said, The Unsaid,& The Unspeakable: Fall 2023

Tonight and tomorrow evening (November 7 and 8), the deputy mayor for education (DME) will hold public meetings for communities around Bancroft and HD Cooke elementaries. (See here and here for more information and to register for the virtual meetings.) Just don’t expect to know any details beyond the fact of these meetings entailing something … Continue reading Hidden Agenda, Hidden Plans: The MFP & Boundary Process

--The DC office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) is updating school report cards and is seeking public feedback on the same starting tomorrow at three upcoming sessions, each with its own subject matter. Registration and more information is here for the following sessions: Monday October 30, 5:30–7 pm: session on what information should be … Continue reading School Report Cards, Budgets, & Teacher Retention, Oh My: Upcoming Events

[Ed. Note: The following is by Mary Levy, DC school budget expert, on the lack of accounting of federal grants in DC’s public schools in the wake of a new financial management system.] By Mary Levy In a startling blow to fiscal accountability, the office of DC's chief financial officer (CFO) has eliminated budget information … Continue reading The Continuing Opacity Of DC School Funding: Federal Grants

—On Wednesday September 6, the DC council will reconvene a hearing on DCPS food contracts. Recall back in August, council chair Phil Mendelson cancelled the hearing’s first iteration when DCPS didn’t provide the contracts (despite being legally required to do so). It is unclear whether the council has the contracts in hand now—and whether the … Continue reading New School Year, Old Problems

This blog post is intended as a resource, compiling recent problems of public access to information held by the DC charter board, with a list of related decisions by the DC office of open government (OOG) as well as other examples. For background: OOG handles complaints around violations by DC government agencies of DC’s Open … Continue reading A Compilation Of Publicly Inaccessible Information Around DC Charter Schools (Or, Do Better DC)