Opinion

The opening salvo in the anticipated fight over the executive’s fiscal year 2023 budget and financial plan came quickly. On March 16, seated inside the auditorium of the newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library,…

In recent weeks a unanimous recommendation by the District’s State Board of Education (SBOE) and new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reinforced the Office of the DC Auditor’s finding a year ago that school…

When governments run by prudent decision-makers have money to spare, they generally opt for big investments that will significantly enhance community assets while raising the quality of everyone’s future reality. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s…

DC Attorney General Karl Racine may have crossed an ethical line when he endorsed Brian Schwalb as his successor. One of four candidates in the AG race vying for the Democratic Party nomination in the June 21 primary, Schwalb previously…

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration appears to be ready to follow through on plans to terminate 913 formerly homeless families this year from a time-limited housing program called rapid rehousing. The Department of Human Services (DHS),…

A publicly governed, managed and funded system for public education is a critical part of our democratic system of government. Here in Washington, DC, this is the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). This citywide system must…

Back during the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone seemed to be condemning the deplorable health disparities and inequities in the nation’s capital: Better services were sorely needed for low-income and working-class Black…

District officials, including DC Council members, may believe they have helped design an effective public safety model, replete with interrupters, interventionists, and a sprinkling of police officers on the streets. However, this…

That’s the question many people were initially asking after The Washington Post released poll results that seemed to be a two-step takedown of incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser. After all, 74% of the 904 people surveyed between Feb. 2 and Feb.…

A few days after the DC Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) released the city’s annual comprehensive financial audit, the agency’s spokesperson sent out a one-page announcement celebrating the fact that the District had received a…

That French phrase came to mind in recent weeks as I discovered that DC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage and other officials in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration seemed to be up to their old shenanigans around a…

While the omicron wave appears to have peaked in the District, residents are still staring in the face of calamity unless Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Council act to head off an eviction crisis. Tens of thousands of households could be…

In 2022 we have a big opportunity to start implementing a comprehensive Green New Deal for DC. In revisiting this exciting prospect, we should take note of efforts elsewhere.  The global vision expressed by C40, an international network…

Two years into the pandemic, the District has made some progress on technology access, but it has yet to provide digital equity to all students and families. Long-term planning and investment are desperately needed to provide continued…

On Wednesday, the DC State Board of Education (SBOE) will vote on recommendations to modify the STAR Rating framework that is currently used for school accountability. Among the recommendations are welcome proposals to eliminate the…

We don’t need to just follow the science. We need to actually use it to make reasoned and transparent policy decisions.  The Bowser administration’s Dec. 29 coronavirus situational update included the announcement of expanded testing…

For more than two years, the DC State Board of Education (SBOE) has been discussing changes to the School Transparency and Reporting (STAR) Framework, which serves as the state accountability system for all DC schools. Across two different…

“If I can't get everything done in a 12- to 14-hour workday, there is something seriously wrong with the system, not me.” This sentiment, shared by DC teachers across our city, reflects the crucial turning point facing DC schools. We…

When DC Inspector General Daniel W. Lucas and his team released a report in September that indicated the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) had misspent $82 million from the Housing Production Trust Fund, advocates…

The National Park Service (NPS) recently began its eighth year of killing deer in Rock Creek Park, with culling activity scheduled to occur between Nov. 22 and March 31. NPS would like you to believe that this is necessary to protect the…