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

–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 on the report cards. This session will be held in person at the MLK Library, 901 G St. NW, 4th floor conference center; register here. Monday November 13, 6–7 pm: session on how and where the report cards should display schools’ summa ..read more

[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 on major federal grants in agencies across DC. On April 12, 2023, I testified against this practice before the DC council committee on business and economic development, at a budget oversight hearing for the office of the CFO, who is the recently appointed Glen Lee. M ..read more

—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 council is willing to have (new) public witnesses sign up. –The deputy mayor for education (DME) will hold town halls for the boundaries process on Tuesday September 26 (12 pm) and Wednesday September 27 (6 pm). More information on both is here, where it ..read more

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 Meetings Act (OMA). While OOG is not the only district agency that handles concerns about DC agencies, I have found that other DC investigative agencies (DC inspector general and BEGA, the latter of which OOG is a part) don’t have any listing of (and/or any investigative ..read more