Opinion

It’s not surprising that so much of the conversation in education right now is focused on recovering from the academic damage that students sustained over the past few years, especially our students of color and students deemed “at-risk.”…

I am on the telephone listening to my granddaughter discuss the week’s events. Normally she is a confident, self-assured, sassy high schooler with opinions about everything. Today, however, I hear something else in her voice: anxiety. A…

What a difference a day can make. On Monday, watching the swearing-in ceremony for recently elected and reelected DC officials at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, residents may have thought some kind of unprecedented camaraderie…

What is wrong with at-large DC Council member Robert White? What is he thinking? These are questions some residents may be asking. In the past week, I have wondered the same thing. The two-term legislator has leapt from the…

It’s unsurprising that many of the District’s poor and working-class residents — and their advocates — lack faith in Mayor Muriel Bowser to act in their interests. There have been myriad occasions where she seems to have ignored their…

Some of the best teaching outside of the classroom happens on a trip to the grocery store. Reading labels. Checking items off a list. Introducing new foods and, in the process, new words, too. Imagine a little boy and his dad…

With too much gun violence in neighborhoods across the District, local leaders and residents continue an urgent debate around the best strategies and policies to solve the root causes of crime and reduce violence fast. Yet, too often in…

We are fresh off the election of five of seven of the District’s major citywide offices — mayor, DC Council chair, two at-large council members, and attorney general. These five officials, four of whom are veteran public servants, have all…

A fever broke out across the District earlier this week. It was unrelated to COVID-19 or any of its associated variants; it seemed to have affected some public housing leaders, their advocates and so-called progressive political…

Former DC Mayor Marion Barry often extolled the collective and generous forgiving nature of District residents. He said that helped fuel his post-prison comeback, which included elections as the Ward 8 DC Council member, a fourth term as…

There’s currently no guarantee that school librarians will be funded in future DC Public Schools budgets, despite general support for school librarians from both the DC State Board of Education and members of the DC Council. We can fix…

After winning her historic third term as mayor of the nation’s capital and chief executive officer of the DC government, Muriel Bowser started throwing around terms like “transformation.” She is supposed to have a “big ideas” summit Dec. 3…

If you are a DC resident going up for parole — or if you’ve violated parole — your fate is decided by the U.S. Parole Commission. This body is currently staffed by only two commissioners: one from Maryland, and the other from Kentucky. The…

Whew! Raise your hand if, like me, you are happy to see the end of DC’s 2022 election season. Don’t get too comfortable, though. There still are unresolved government management and structural issues as well as political battles — not…

A few weeks ago, before I received an email from DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson with the subject line “My Vision for D.C.’s Future,” I had conversations with several DC residents during which they lamented the fact that neither Mayor…

What makes a great public school, where students can truly thrive, teachers want to teach, and parents want to send their kids? As parents of students who have attended three schools operated by DC Public Schools (DCPS), we have a pretty…

When it comes to economic mobility for young people, their neighborhood and the education it affords are important, but not as important as their social network. A new study from economist Raj Chetty shows who one interacts with while…

DC residents, especially those who are either Medicaid recipients or DC Health Care Alliance members, should be elated that the seemingly endless managed care procurement finally ended this week. In a 10-2 vote, the DC Council approved…

Don’t expect me to mince words here. The DC government and, thus, the entire city, particularly low-income residents, have been drowning in high-cost mediocrity and breathtaking incompetence for decades. Some of the adverse consequences of…

DC voters began receiving their ballots for the November general election this week. The contests for mayor, DC Council chair and council seats in wards 1, 3, 5 and 6 are mostly sleepers; the winners of the June Democratic primary are…