The mega education performance oversight hearing on March 1 (7 agencies, more than $2 billion annual DC taxpayer $$) lasted slightly over 10 hours and had more than 200 public witnesses, while only a fraction of the council attended—and all for a fraction of the entire hearing’s time. At various points I saw Phil Mendelson, … Continue reading Some Of What The People Said In 10 Hours On A Wednesday

here’s some other recent stuff going down in DC’s largest LEA: --DCPS used covid recovery funds to pay a school bus company even when the company's operating license was suspended. Shortly thereafter, DCPS students were traveling on one of the buses when its inebriated driver had an accident. --Speaking of money mysteries: DCPS has not … Continue reading And While DCPS Isn’t Providing Equitable, Stable, And Adequate Budgets . . .

[Ed. Note: What follows immediately below is a brief burying of the lede above, for context setting. If you wish, simply scroll down to the bold heading "Powerful Information To Help Advocate For Our Schools," which has some budget resources, including a budget outline by DCPS parent and education researcher Betsy Wolf.] Last Friday, February … Continue reading To Survive DCPS Budget Horrors, Learn From Expert Advocates

[Ed. Note: At the DC state board of education (SBOE) public hearing on February 15, public witnesses again presented testimony outlining serious shortcomings of proposed social studies standards promulgated by the office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE). We do not know (yet) the content of the more than 5000 comments (!) that OSSE … Continue reading Why DC’s Proposed Social Studies Standards Are Troubling–And The Troubling Path Forward

--A few days after the Post ran a story about the shortcomings of the safe passage program, a school safe passage worker was shot to death near Coolidge High school. At the same time, students have been repeatedly left in the lurch regarding mandated DC school buses not showing up on time (or at all; … Continue reading Unappetizing Food, Unsafe Passages, & Other Unsurprising DC School News

By the end of 2023, DC will likely have both a new boundaries study as well as a new iteration of its master facilities plan (MFP). As both are integral to the future of DCPS, it’s useful to look at how we got here—and where we might be going. This is the first of a … Continue reading Planning For Schools AND Saving Them, Part 1: DCPS Closures

--The office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) is now receiving public comment on draft menstrual health education standards until midnight on February 20. You can email OSSE.HYDT@DC.GOV with your comments on the draft standards, available here. See here for additional information. OSSE is apparently hoping the DC state board of education (SBOE) will … Continue reading Winter Happenings 2023

DC’s office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) is giving the public just a bit more time to comment on newly revised social studies standards promulgated on December 16, 2022. Specifically, the public now has until February 10 to provide comment—see here and here for how to comment (but ignore any mention of the … Continue reading Rewriting History (Standards)

On December 20, the DC council passed a bill (see here and here) authored, edited, promoted, re-presented, and (eventually, thankfully) amended by chairman of the council Phil Mendelson that will re-do how DCPS school budgets are calculated. The bill now includes amendments that advocates fought hard for, as DCPS parent and budget guru Betsy Wolf … Continue reading Slouching Into 2023 With DC’s Zero Sum Education Politics

[Ed. Note: The following is a public comment submitted December 18 via email to the DC public charter school board concerning its new public comment process, which (per the charter board’s memo on it) was created to “improve the integrity of the public comment process.”] Dear charter board members, My name is Valerie Jablow, and … Continue reading Integrity–Or, When DC Charters Lie About Real Estate (And Other Tales Of Public Dissing)