Opinion

“Anybody can choose to operate a rental business in the shadows. That’s just a reality,” Ernest Chrappah, director of the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), recently told The Washington Post. His comment came after a…

As another school year in the District gets underway, one topic seems to be far from everyone’s mind amid discussions about academics, extracurricular activities, after-school care and bus routes. Our school discipline system is broken.…

As unions enjoy approval ratings unseen for more than 50 years, Democratic presidential candidates are unveiling ambitious plans to rebuild the nation’s labor movement that may sound like pie in the sky to some. Yet the 10,000 janitors in…

I’m a full-time local journalist — and, until my news organization gains enough subscribers to provide me a full salary, I am walking three to four dogs every weekday to cover my bills. I love dogs and feel rejuvenated by the daily…

Earlier this year, Mayor Muriel Bowser snatched money from the city’s contingency reserve fund. By June 30, the account was down from $279.7 million to $194.7 million, according to a report released by the Office of the Chief Financial…

The 2019-20 school year will mark the 12th enrollment increase in a row for DC’s traditional public and public charter schools. This year, the city’s schools are expected to add 2,800 students to classes from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. …

I've studied and worked around transportation and infrastructure for 10 years. I'm an expert. But the more I investigate our infrastructure as a daily reporter, the more I realize how much I don't know about the systems that get people…

A few years before Stormiyah Denson-Jackson took her own life in her dormitory at SEED Public Charter School, Scott Pearson told the leader of FOCUS, a charter lobbying group, to ignore the mandates of the South Capitol Street Memorial…

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced last week that the District’s 2018-19 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) results showed that our schools improved students’ English language arts (ELA) and mathematics…

I grew up in Anacostia, the heartbeat of Southeast. Every day of my childhood, I lived the life my students now live.  Over the past year, we experienced incredible heartbreak with the loss of Gerald Watson and other students who have…

Around the city, you always hear parents talk about the lack of access to high-quality middle schools. By that, they usually mean middle schools with a rigorous curriculum, high test scores and reports of engaged, passionate…

Some Americans hold the misconception that monolingualism is equated with patriotism. Some see speaking Spanish, Arabic, Amharic or Vietnamese at their local grocery store as “offensive” or even “dangerous.” This sentiment is not shared…

A few weeks after the DC Council voted, with enthusiastic guidance from Chairman Phil Mendelson, to disapprove the DC Public Education Master Facilities Plan 2018, Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter indicating her “disappointment” with the…

I had gone downtown mostly to run errands. As I was about to head back to my Brightwood neighborhood, I discovered the two signs just inside the overhang between the escalator to the Metro Center subway station and the exterior side wall…

The DC Council is considering important legislation that would strengthen the 2016 Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (“IRAA”), which allows people who committed crimes when they were young to petition the court for a reduced sentence…

"You want to be comfortable and our conditions are uncomfortable. And when you're uncomfortable, you make bad decisions. These streets are vicious; they soak your ass up." ~ Smurf, 17 Blocks 17 Blocks — a new documentary set in DC —…

Across the city, six outdoor public pools closed for the season on Sunday at 6 p.m. as part of a staggered shutdown that continues through Labor Day. Just 78 days earlier, the city officially welcomed summer with a splash, when DC…

The high cost of a self-cleaning public restroom at a Virginia Metrorail station recently garnered headlines as an example of wasteful spending, but its removal earlier this year need not disrupt the District’s own plans to pilot two…

So, there I was watching CNN, experiencing the news loop that can be mind-numbing, invigorating or depressing — sometimes all three simultaneously. What’s a news junkie to do when the DC Council is on recess? Watching the local government…

On July 19, Ahkii Washington-Scruggs, a 17-year-old high school football player about to enter his senior year at Dunbar High School, was found shot and killed alongside his father in their apartment in Northeast DC. Their deaths were two…