–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 ..read more

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 overpaid $20M in said funds. Details!) –In March, the office of the deputy mayor for education (DME) published a report on school safety. Whether the recommendations will be implemented remains to be seen. Here is a decent summary by W5 council ..read more

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 Prep was recently awarded the former DCPS building Wilkinson (naturally, outside of the legal process for doing so). That >130,000 square foot building (still owned by DC) could house several schools at once—but is reserved now for the <700 students at DC ..read more

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 receipts or records for work done for the rent credits DGS grants to the majority of charter schools leasing former DCPS facilities. Figuring that the DC council ought to hear about this lack of data (and its ominous fiscal sequelae), I signed up to testify at the April 5 DGS budget oversight hearing ..read more

On April 3, the mayor got her budget out—and the next day, budget oversight of DC’s education system began, with a hearing for public witnesses for the office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE), the deputy mayor for education (DME), and DCPS. That April 4 hearing started at about 9:22 am, about 20 minutes late. Hundreds of witnesses later, the hearing ended after midnight. In all those hours, plenty of egregiously bad budget problems were mentioned, including the lack of a current DCPS teachers’ contract; cutting of the DC Futures program; elimination of the pay equity fund for ea ..read more

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 UDC, the charter board, the state board of education (SBOE), the office of the student advocate, the education ombudsman, and the DC state athletic association (see the 2/27 video here); –A 12.5 hour hearing on February 28 for pu ..read more

[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 a report on the petition. Based on statements OP solicited from self-interested public and private actors, that report was factually wrong in many areas. Yet the zoning commission dismissed the citizens’ petition. Asked about that dismi ..read more

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 as recently reported by the office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE). Recall that this 12/19 hearing was a reconvening of one that began on December 12 with public witnesses. Recall also that the 12/12 hearing (see the witness list here and the vid ..read more

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. After all, these civic actors have bolstered their ideation of the closure of schools like Sousa with data showing that most kids in bounds attend other schools; test scores are not high; and its building (like so many other schools of right on that side of DC) itself largely unused (foo ..read more

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 relating to the master facilities plan (MFP) and/or the boundary process. Moreover, while the DME’s website advertises these meetings as only for Bancroft, H.D. Cooke’s November 3 school newsletter indicates that the meetings are for both school communit ..read more