DC Council: We Need Checks and Balances in DC Education

Contact your DC councilmembers and tell them to support checks and balances in our education system!

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Support Lewis-George OSSE Bill, Restore Checks and Balances in Education

Dear [elected official],

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I am writing to you to express my strong support for passing legislation that would finally restore some checks and balances to our education system.  While there are two bills before the council, I believe only Council Member Lewis-George's bill to make OSSE independent and under the oversight of the DC State Board of Education would solve the problem that we all acknowledge- political pressure that distorts honest education data and the need for real oversight and checks and balances in our education system.  Making OSSE independent without designated a body to oversee it, as the other bill does, would not address the problem.

We've had unchecked mayoral control of schools for 15 years, and we've seen far too little progress.  It doesn't make any sense for one person or office to have complete control of our education system in a city with so many brilliant education leaders- like our elected State Board of Education members. We've witnessed too many scandals that show DC leaders trying to cut corners instead of improving our schools and that undermine the public's trust in our education system.  At a time when we fight for statehood for DC, we continue to disenfranchise our own residents and particularly the voices of the majority of Black and Latino/a families in our public school system by taking the power away from their elected Board of Education members.

We've seen so many great ideas with wide consensus in the community go nowhere because the only place we can regularly go to testify and share our ideas- the State Board of Education- isn't empowered to do anything with what they learn.  So while I support the "DC State Education Agency Independence Amendment Act of 2021", I also think we need to do much more to truly ensure checks and balances.  We should amend the bill to grant the State Board the power to initiate policy they currently can only approve from OSSE, to allow SBOE access to any education agency data they request, to require a SBOE hearing and vote before any DC school (public or charter) is allowed to be closed, and to increase pay for SBOE members (who currently make only $15,000 a year despite working extremely hard) to make it possible for them to take on this increased role.

To be clear- I know this would not end mayoral control.  The mayor would still appoint the Chancellor who would run day to day operations for DCPS.  This wouldn't give us a school board that sets the education budget or hires principals-like in most jurisdictions. But what these ideas would do is provide us some balance and allow residents like me a way to have our voices heard and ensure our education leaders are held accountable for truly improving education in DC. This should be common sense.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, [Your information here]