--On October 9, at 9:30 am, the council will hold a hearing on two bills, one of which is B25-0690, introduced in February. The bill would require 30 hours of nursing coverage per week at all DC publicly funded schools. Ahead of the hearing, it may be worth recalling that the DC state board of … Continue reading What’s Happening At The DC Council (And, Notably, What’s Not)

On September 16, the DC charter board voted to approve an expansion of BASIS into elementary grades. A large part of the board’s justification was that BASIS offers “high-quality seats.” This is hardly surprising, as the (racist, ableist, classist) lie of “high-quality seats” has been embraced by education reform proponents nationwide. But the charter board’s … Continue reading Exploring The Lie Of “High-Quality Seats”

--On August 30, the charter board presented to the DC council its SY23-24 attendance and discipline report. Despite listing a few details of high absenteeism and suspensions in some of DC’s charter schools, the report has no data on discipline at all of DC’s charter schools—much less the percentages of specific student groups disciplined. And … Continue reading A Stunning Lack Of Truth & Action (And Other Recent Events in DC Education)

In the wake of the closure of Eagle Academy, Phil Mendelson, chair of the DC council, sent a letter on August 23 to the executive director of the DC charter board with questions around the charter board’s actions. As a first step toward true oversight, the questions were fine (well, once Mendelson got to them … Continue reading The Unanswered Questions Around Eagle Academy

Last month, DC education analyst and advocate Mary Levy died, after a protracted battle with cancer. To say Mary’s work in education was essential to our city is an understatement. As others have noted, she was a fixture at practically every DC council education budget hearing for decades, patiently explaining how school budgets work; why … Continue reading A Brief Note On An Extraordinary Washingtonian: Mary Levy

--In March, parents of students with disabilities filed a lawsuit against DC for transportation problems around buses that DC’s office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) runs for disabled students. The buses have been legendarily bad. This month, a judge ruled that OSSE has to cough up a transportation plan for disabled students for … Continue reading The Long, Hot Days Of Summer . . . Gather No Moss*

[Ed. Note: The following was sent by me via email on July 18, 2024 to the chair of the DC council, Phil Mendelson, and DC's deputy mayor for education, Paul Kihn. AFAIK, no DC media outlet has covered the fiscal distress and possible closure of Eagle Academy. That stands in contrast to the fiscal distress … Continue reading No Oversight, No Coverage, No Justice

Major studies around DC public education were recently published, which may influence policy, budgeting, and facilities going forward. (Or not, given that the recent first budget vote by the council included restoring the 3% annual increase in charter per pupil facilities funds (for $17M) despite one of the studies showing that DC charters are annually … Continue reading In Brief: Recent Studies of DC Schools

As the DC council prepares to take its first votes on the budget, let’s plunge into some recent developments around our schools: --For much-needed swing space, DCPS is leasing the (presumably soon-to-be vacated) Anacostia Elementary building owned by DC Prep at 1409 V Street SE. The fiscal grotesquery could not be greater: Recall that DC … Continue reading As The Budget Turns

Back in March, I wrote about a DGS FOIA production covering 2021 through 2023 that showed that most DC charter schools do not pay rent for the former DCPS schools they lease from DC—all the while the production also made clear that DGS had no records or receipts for sublet proceeds due DC and no … Continue reading DGS Budget Oversight (Or, About That Charter Leasing Of Former DCPS Facilities)