February 11, 2025
Mayor Muriel Bowser
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004
Dear Mayor Bowser,
We firmly believe that Washington, D.C., can lead the nation in innovation, opportunity, and academic excellence. Thanks to the dedication of our students, educators, and families, we are beginning to see promising signs of progress this year. Recently, D.C. students demonstrated remarkable long-term gains in Math and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), outperforming national trends. Compared to similar jurisdictions, both demographically and geographically, D.C. posted the highest gains from 2022 to 2024. We appreciate your continued commitment to prioritizing public education in the District.
As you develop the fiscal year 2026 budget, we urge you to continue ensuring that our public schools have the resources necessary to accelerate academic progress for all students. Specifically, we ask that all public school funding, including educator pay, be distributed fairly to all local education agencies (LEAs) through the uniform per-student funding formula, with a focus on supporting students designated as “at-risk.” It is crucial for both sectors to be funded equally during the budget process because all students deserve a high-quality education, and all effective educators deserve a raise in compensation.
Additionally, we encourage strategic investments in evidence-based programs that drive academic achievement:
- Improve literacy rates: Build upon existing progress by fully funding the Office of the State Superintendent’s Early Literacy Education Task Force recommendations ($9M over the financial plan).
- Strengthen math instruction and supports: Invest in a comprehensive statewide strategy for math beginning this year. This investment should include:
- High-Quality Instructional Materials and Professional Development: Fund a pilot program in six DCPS and six public charter schools, each receiving a math coach ($2M total).
- High-Impact Tutoring (HIT): Support evidence-based HIT programs – small-group, intensive tutoring tailored to individual student needs – for students across 90 DCPS and public charter schools ($4.8M).
- Math Teacher Pipeline: Strengthen the pipeline of math teachers trained by local D.C. universities and sustain funding for current programs (ie. OSSE’s Apprenticeship in Teaching ($565K)).
- Parent and Caregiver Support: Implement Power My Learning math family engagement playlists for all elementary school students. (($1.5M in FY26, $700K in FY27).
- Build college and career pathways: Expand dual enrollment and early college opportunities; and fund the Education Through Employment Data System to enable the publication of essential data dashboards ($2.1M in FY26, $1.5M in FY27).
- Maintain the charter facilities allowance: Ensure public charter schools have safe and adequate learning environments by maintaining the annual public charter school facilities allowance increase of 3.1% ($17.5M over the financial plan).
- Strengthen school-based behavioral health (SBBH): Strengthen behavioral health support in schools by:
- Placing a Community-based organization (CBO) clinician in 204 schools ($18.8M).
- Fully funding B25-0759, the Child Behavioral Health Services Dashboard Act of 2024 ($485K).
- Providing a minimum of $1,500 per school year for the SBBH Coordinator role at all 254 schools ($381K per fiscal year).
Thank you for your leadership and commitment to ensuring that every D.C. student has a high-quality public education.
Sincerely,
Jessica Giles, D.C. Executive Director
Education Reform Now Advocacy