Opinion

For the past year, a citywide coalition organized by Digital Equity in DC Education has continued to push city leaders to address the inadequate, unreliable technology in DC schools. While the city has started to address the technology…

Jack Evans’ resignation as Ward 2’s DC Council member takes effect today. The history books will highlight the investigations by a federal grand jury, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the DC Council, as well as the…

The worry is palpable. At the post office, at the supermarket where I shop, inside my own apartment building — really wherever I went over the weekend — DC residents wanted to talk about President Donald J. Trump’s order to use a…

While I was working many years ago as a community organizer in Jackson, Mississippi, my colleague Marie Ory tried to teach me a few things about the tender care a car needs under its hood. I was, of course, a lost cause. I have always had…

This holiday season, DC Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee could make a decision that would build trust and show some of our city’s most vulnerable students that, on his watch, their voices and needs will be prioritized. He can do this by…

“I think about the man who works across the street from my house, a lot. I wonder whether he ever feels guilty for only being there to help direct me towards the right aisle whenever I can’t find something in the store on my own. The only…

Earlier this month, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) presented designs for safety enhancements and road reconstruction for critical areas of Near Northeast DC in NoMa and Union Market, extending eastward through Trinidad to…

Some education advocates have started describing Mayor Muriel Bowser and sections of her administration as “Trumpian.” They have joked, for example, that Paul Kihn, the deputy mayor for education, continues to suggest that the 2018 Master…

As an editor or reporter working at a newspaper, you can easily see the work you’ve done pile up. My old desk at The Current surely demonstrated that. With an online outlet, it takes a bit more reflection to see the results of the time and…

While the expulsion of Jack Evans from the DC Council moved a step closer this week with the approval and submission of the ad hoc committee’s final report and recommendation, the ethics saga is not yet in the rearview mirror. The formal…

At the heart of the District’s approach to education lies a gaping contradiction. On the one hand, Mayor Muriel Bowser states a belief in “education reforms that guarantee every child a quality seat … regardless of ZIP code.” On the other…

Around 9:30 Tuesday morning, as DC Council members ended their breakfast before the scheduled legislative meeting, some lawmakers seemed uncertain about what would happen when the special committee — created to examine the Jack Evans…

When I was a student teacher at the now-closed Garnet-Patterson Junior High in Shaw in the fall of 1970, my mentor, Brittania Capers, offered me invaluable advice, shared her expertise, and gave me the tools to understand what I was about…

Our city’s school systems have made tremendous progress over the past decade. There are great schools and waitlists for both DC Public Schools and schools in the public charter sector. Elizabeth A. Davis is president of the Washington…

When DC Public Schools first administered the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams in 2015, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School was significantly behind in both English language arts (ELA) and…

The numbers are staggering: 32,000 children are living in poverty in DC. When I heard those statistics earlier this month during the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy’s conference on the “Young and Poor: The Trauma of Child Poverty,” I…

What were they thinking? The entire DC Council — led by at-large member Anita Bonds, chair of the Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization — either co-introduced or co-sponsored the Rental Housing Act Extension…

A decade and a half ago, the District of Columbia lagged far behind the rest of the country in education. Our results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) consistently ranked us at the bottom in reading and math…

The most difficult part of having to scrape together money for the bills is finding the time, energy and emotional resilience to do the things you know you should do — once you’ve done the things you have to do. The working poor, the…

DC Council’s handling over the past year of allegations of ethics violations by Jack Evans has been a wholly messy affair. Legislators engaged in rash behavior, twice punishing the Ward 2 representative before conducting their own…