College For All—Or Else: For better or worse, a college degree is becoming an essential credential if you want to get the kind of job that can provide a middle class standard of living (before it's eventually outsourced somewhere else and/or your employer goes out of business). So when D.C. Council Chairman Kwame "Fully Loaded" [...]

It seemed like a simple enough plan for the venerable public relations firm Ogilvy: Design a few ads for the D.C. Public Schools' new teacher recruitment initiative, place them in local media markets, get good corporate karma for doing the work pro bono, and bill the District for any expenses incurred.
Except if they don't reimburse [...]

On April 8, 1994, D.C. officials shuttered the cafeteria at Garnet-Patterson Middle School, declaring the dining hall "unfit for human habitation."
Complaints over the school's physical condition had begun a month earlier, when Darren Jones, then president of the Pleasant Plains Civic Association, had filed complaints about the building's upkeep after he toured the facility the [...]

We Need Some Money: Turns out having large numbers of people out of work is bad for municipal finances. (Who would have guessed?) District officials say sales and income taxes will bring in about $100 million less than expected. On top of that, D.C. Public Schools spent $25 million more than budgeted, and Congress cut [...]

Good morning, Washington. Looks like there'll be no rest for the sweaty today, with forecasters saying this could be the hottest day of the year thus far and predicting temperatures in the triple digit range. The recent heat hasn't been kind to local train systems, which have been experiencing a number of heat-related delays.
The D.C. [...]

The end is near for George Parker’s term as Washington Teachers’ Union President – but he doesn’t seem to think so. The WTU Elections Committee has accused Parker of withholding documents that would allow the committee to conduct new elections. These documents include nominating petitions, union membership lists, and union dues reports. Under the WTU’s [...]

Washington Teachers' Union President George Parker is urging union members to treat last year's teacher layoff and a breakthrough contract proposal as "distinct issues" after the budgeting revelations earlier this month.
In a letter being sent to WTU members, Parker writes that while he was "surprised and angered" by Chancellor Michelle Rhee's recent claim of a [...]

Yet another 180-degree twist in the teacher contract saga.
Two days after Chancellor Michelle Rhee told D.C. Council members that she would pay for a groundbreaking teacher contract, in part, with $34 million in surplus funds, Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi today posted a letter to Rhee telling her there is in fact no such [...]

UPDATED 6:05 P.M.
A week after a new D.C. Public Schools teacher contract proposal was rolled out with great fanfare, fiscal revelations aired today leave its ultimate implementation very much in doubt.
Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Washington Teachers' Union head George Parker appeared at a D.C. Council administrative meeting earlier today to brief councilmembers on the agreement. [...]

UPDATED 5:55 P.M.
Smoke billowed this afternoon from the roof of Eastern Senior High School, which is nearing the end of a $76 million renovation.
According to D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, firefighters responded to reports of heavy black smoke coming from the building's roof shortly before 4:30 p.m. By 4:45, a second alarm had been [...]

UPDATED 7 P.M.
The D.C. Public Schools and the Washington Teachers' Union are set to unveil their long-awaited contract proposal, bringing to a close negotiations that have dragged on for the duration of Chancellor Michelle Rhee's tenure.
An announcement could come as soon as tomorrow, debuting an agreement that would offer city teachers significant raises plus [...]

LL was doing some multitasking on Monday evening, listening to a D.C. Public Schools oversight hearing with one ear while finishing up some other work. Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, on the dais that night, started into one of his usual tirades about Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and LL's ears perked up when he started on [...]

Fresh from the White House press office:
On June 11th, Mrs. Obama will address the Anacostia Senior High School Commencement, a DC public school that Mrs. Obama visited in the spring of 2009 in conjunction with her Women of Excellence event and her early mentoring activities as First Lady.
Last year, FLOTUS spoke at the commencement for [...]

If the PR and political fallout from Chancellor Michelle Rhee's inflammatory comments to Fast Company magazine weren't distracting enough, turns out there's some legal ramifications as well: City lawyers will now have to expend time and money swatting away a lawsuit.
Ronnie Jones, one of the 229 teachers laid off in last September's "reduction in force," [...]

The D.C. Public Schools have decided how students will make up the four-and-a-half days in the classroom they lost due to Snowpocalypse 2010.
As LL noted earlier this month, students will be expected on June 21 and 22—the built-in make-up days scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday after school was originally slated to end. In addition: [...]