Opinion

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…

There we were, the only three golfers on the Rock Creek Golf Course off 16th Street NW, teeing off on a blustery afternoon during the week of Thanksgiving. The Rock Creek course, in the heart of Northwest DC, is practically never…

These days, most of us probably associate gerrymandering with the Republican Party and snake-like boundaries established to create districts that enhance conservatives’ efforts to dominate the political landscape in perpetuity. The most…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many DC residents to lose their jobs and erased years of employment progress. In February 2020, just before the pandemic began, the District’s unemployment rate had fallen to a five-year low of 4.9%. Two months…

The legal battle fought by Walter Smith and his organization DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice to ensure a regional nonprofit corporate giant, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, contributes its fair share to improving the quality of…

Uncertainty has been a consistent theme for so many of us since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Progress has occurred since the virus’s initial introduction into our daily lives, but emerging mutations and variants make the course of the…

During the recent kickoff for his mayoral campaign, Ward 8 DC Council member Trayon White led his supporters in a chant: “We are going to take our city back. We are going to take our city back.” It was a dog whistle as loud as any…

Ward 5 DC Council member Kenyan McDuffie is in the proverbial political catbird seat. He is the legislature’s chair pro tempore; chair of the powerful Committee on Business and Economic Development, holding sway over significant financial…

In February, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a $9 million investment to “support outdoor learning and learning partnerships” — spending that was intended to prepare city schools for the fall reopening. Two months into the school year, the $9…

In cities across the United States, local government officials are worried about rising violent crime, and DC is no exception. In addition, pandemic-related court backlogs have led to claims that the courts are not working fast enough,…

At-large DC Council member and newly announced mayoral candidate Robert White is right in asserting that the District government has essentially aged out. “We have been on autopilot for years,” he said during an interview with me last…

Ask that question of most DC tenants and the answer is sure to be a resounding no — although last week Mayor Muriel Bowser kicked off her annual feast for developers to entice more affordable housing projects. Using federal and local tax…

Passage of the Clemency Board Establishment Act of 2018 gave the District the opportunity to create its own, local clemency board and to ensure that applications from people convicted of DC Code offenses have a direct route to the…

Next week when legislators return from their summer recess, the DC Council is expected to approve the “Contracts with Managed Care Organizations for the Provision of Health Care Services to District Residents Emergency Approval and…