Despite its imposing presence, Cardozo High School, like many of the District's iconic public schools, has long been in disrepair. That will soon change. more ›

Sure, Harriette Walters might have stolen upwards of $44 million from the District's coffers, but at least she wasn't stealing directly from low-income school children. According to a WTOP report this morning, District officials have arrested and charged a city official with submitting false expense reports totaling $11,385 for big bills at local restaurants and strip clubs. Emerson Crawley, a program manager at After School for All at Shaw Junior High School, allegedly spent the... more ›

Good morning, Washington. Getting going on a Monday is normally difficult enough, but we were having a few technological difficulties this morning as well, so thanks for your patience and bear with this truncated Morning Roundup while we get up to speed. Tax Scandal Triggers Reviews in Counties: Neighboring jurisdictions are apparently taking D.C.'s tax office scandal to heart and initiating big reviews of their agencies. Property tax revenues are slated to be scrutinized in... more ›

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso announced their plans to "right-size" D.C. public school system today that will include the simultaneous closure of 24 schools. School closures have been high on the to-do list for several years now as student enrollment has dropped from 55,000 to an estimated 49,600 students this school year. The new school closure plan differs from a previous one offered by former Superintendent... more ›

Via the Examiner, someone has posted a video of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to YouTube where she openly discusses the obstacles she’s come across in trying to overhaul our troubled public school system. The 12-minute clip shows Rhee speaking to the Democrats for Education Reform about a week ago. She describes the school system as running “counter to the way any good organization operates,” and insists that "the only way" to get to... more ›

Jonetta Rose Barras: "The District government is spending millions to send children to a controversial special education residential facility in Massachusetts that uses electric shock to discipline students." Wow. Talk about an opening sentence. Rose Barras dedicated her column this week to the 10 District students who have been sent to the facility -- the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Ma. -- arguing that its unorthodox methods of treatment are reason enough to bring... more ›

Mayor Adrian Fenty will continue to send his children to a private school in the District this year, reports the Examiner. Unlike Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso, who have both enrolled their children at one of the District's best public elementary schools, the Mayor and his wife have chosen to send their seven year-old twins to another year at the private school they have attended since preschool. The mayor... more ›

Registered voters in Wards 1 and 2 received a postcard in the mail a few weeks back announcing the special election scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 21 -- but in the off chance you quickly tossed in the garbage, allow us to fill you in: In April, D.C. Board of Education member Jeff Smith resigned his seat in protest immediately after the D.C. Council gave preliminary approval to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s school takeover plan, so now... more ›

Yesterday we threw together a list of the people in the District we considered influential, taking after a similar annual list put together by GQ that compiles the movers and shakers on the federal side of the city. One of our nominees was Dorothy Brizill, a well-known civic activist and political gadfly who runs DC Watch, the closest thing we have to a citizens' inspector general. And as we expected, last night she offered us... more ›

In case you missed the news yesterday, the Washington Post has devoted an extraordinary amount of front page column inches to the record breaking temperatures D.C. saw yesterday. At 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday, the temperature hit 102 degrees at Reagan National Airport, according to the National Weather Service, breaking the previous all time high record for Aug. 8, of 101 degrees, set in 1930. The oppressive heat also had a number of other newsworthy... more ›

>> "District of Columbia Public School students already had been warned that they might not have air conditioning when they return to class Aug. 27. Now school leaders say there might not be enough textbooks to go around immediately, either." [Examiner] >> The Ballston and Virginia Square Metro stations have reopened after an Orange Line train struck and killed a woman earlier this morning. Police are still investigating what happened. [WTOP] >> Can you... more ›

As we mentioned in the Roundup this morning, Mayor Adrian Fenty has fired D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, and announced this morning at a press conference that he would be replaced by Michelle Rhee, in a new position as D.C. Schools Chancellor. The Post has a good story up already with some details of Rhee's background: she's the the founder of New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group based in New York that trains mid-career... more ›

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics changed its tune yesterday and reversed an earlier decision by stating that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's school takeover plan cannot be the subject of a referendum. Once again, it comes down to the Home Rule Charter: attorneys for the election board said in papers filed yesterday that because Congress and President Bush have approved an amendment to the city's Home Rule Charter that gives the mayor direct control... more ›

Hey, Washington, how are ya? If you like hot weather and uninterrupted sunshine (and who doesn't) you're sure to enjoy this fine Tuesday. If instead you're not savoring the thought of arriving at work covered in a fine sheen of sweat, think twice about cutting out your walk by hopping in the car. Gas prices hit a new high yesterday, with the cost of a gallon over $3.00. Are there any good deals at... more ›

Happy Friday, D.C. It's sunny out, this weekend is apparently going to be gorgeous (72 degrees!), and on Thursday, the D.C. Voting Rights Act passed the House of Representatives. In order to avoid a repeat of last time, Democrats broke the voting rights measure into two bills -- one that would add the extra seats in the house and the other a PAY-GO bill to fund them. They were both written so narrowly that Republicans... more ›

Good Morning, Washington. It looks like we survived the full moon, a night of Georgetown-less championship basketball and visit by Yoko Ono. It was worth it to enjoy another day of idyllic weather before it all goes to hell. By Friday the region will be back in the 40's with cloudy skies. As the National Park Service pleads with visitors not to touch, climb or even taunt the Cherry Blossoms, let's hope the expensive... more ›

Better late than never, right? That seems to be the philosophy guiding D.C. Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey and School Board President Robert Bobb, who this week kick off a $75 million repair blitz in 70 of the city's 142 schools. Writes the Examiner on the campaign: Systems to be repaired include bathrooms, water fountains and lighting — all issues that have been identified as having the greatest impact on the students’ and teachers’ quality of... more ›

A cheery morning to you all, D.C.; it may still hover in the low 30's today, but it'll be nice and sunny outside your window, making your daydreams of warm afternoons that much easier. That heater you have blasting probably helps, and that's a lot more than some D.C. area schoolchildren can say. Four schools remain closed entirely while many others struggle to heat more than just a few classrooms with dilapidated systems. WTOP reports... more ›

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into... more ›

We're running just a tad behind this morning, D.C., not necessarily because we opted to walk the several miles in to the office this morning after reading a headline in the Washington Post that WE MIGHT NOT BE SAFE on public transportation. Of course, the full article reveals that Metrorail has similar safety records to any other major city's subway system of comparable size, and that it's perfectly safe. Damn, if only we had bothered... more ›

Finally. After what has been weeks apart, BFFs Adrian Fenty and Michael Bloomberg will once again be together. Today the New York City mayor is paying a visit to our fair city, stopping in to see Fenty's new bullpen (which was modeled on one developed by Bloomberg) and to visit with the D.C. Council. Fenty traveled north a couple times last year, taking both aides and council members up to have Bloomberg tell them how... more ›

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend... more ›

You may have heard the rumor that there's one or two problems with the D.C. public school system. Tonight, School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey plans to explain why and how he's proposing to fix them. In a rare State of the Schools address, Janey is expected to reassure residents that administrative overhauls are under way and that his ideas to close failing schools and modernizing others is still the right thing to do. The speech... more ›

Presumptive Mayor-to-be Adrian Fenty is in New York City today, reports the Post, in order to pow wow with Mayor Michael Bloomberg about how he went all authoritarian on New York's public school system. Many aspects of what Bloomberg has done in an effort to turn things around for the city's failing schools are intriguing, if not without controversy: What Bloomberg and Klein will describe to Fenty is a massive overhaul in which they rolled... more ›

Public agencies are not generally known for their efficiency and oversight. Whether it's the D.C. police, the public school system, or Congress itself, this kind of criticism has dogged just about every agency out there. While Metro has not been an exception to this trend, it seems they have things covered when it comes to potty privileges. DCist Tom snapped this picture of the rules and regulations governing use of Metro's various johns, posted in... more ›

Not twelve hours after the Redskins got the smack-down in Texas, the U.S. Capitol was placed in an all-too-familiar lockdown. Early this morning an unidentified man with obviously stellar driving skills crashed through a barricade (no, it wasn't Rep. Patrick Kennedy as we initially assumed) before taking out a fountain in what we are hoping was just a botched doughnut delivery. He then ran into the Capitol and was apprehended without incident. At least this... more ›

Via D.C. Education Blog, a story by NBC4 we missed last week concerning the allegations of grade fraud made by AP U.S. History teacher Erich Martel, who contends that perhaps as many as 1/3 of this year's graduation class at Woodrow Wilson High School may not have earned the grades they needed to get their diplomas. Erich Martel has been teaching at Wilson since 1987. He said that since that time he's become increasingly concerned... more ›

There's a lot of fear being sold these days in D.C. Yesterday District residents were treated to fear from both local and national leaders. President George W. Bush again played the terrorism card in a speech downtown, slyly insinuating that a Democratic victory in November's midterm elections would find Al Qaeda terrorists freely walking the streets of American cities. More locally, mayoral hopeful Linda Cropp doled out some fear of her own, warning of the... more ›

With the start of new school year upon us, the education debate is largely revolving around the fate of the District's charter schools. It's an appropriate time for reflection and analysis of the city's 51 publicly-funded charter schools: it has been exactly 10 years since Congress pushed the charter school program on the city, and earlier this summer the Charter School Board stirred up controversy by shutting down two if its schools, Sasha Bruce and... more ›

Washington chefs fell to 1-2 in Iron Chef America competitions, as Bobby Flay defeated the uni-monikered Morou in Battle Frozen Peas last night on the Food Network show -- two months after Galileo's Roberto Donna avenged his own loss to Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Morou -- the former Signatures chef who had earned the right to take on an Iron Chef when he topped former 1789 chef Ris Lacoste and Tosca's Cesare Lanfranconi in the... more ›