ENSURING A QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN

VINCE GRAY’S PLAN FOR D.C. SCHOOLS

OVERVIEW
Vince Gray will make our children’s education the number one priority of his administration. He will be
an involved Mayor who takes all stakeholders seriously, who stands by his Schools Chancellor, and who
works tirelessly for well-managed, smart reform.

For Vince, this is not just an election-year promise—it comes from a lifetime of dedication to our
schools. Vince spent his entire childhood in D. C. Public Schools, he is a graduate of George Washington
University, and his late wife was an outstanding educator in the D. C. Public Schools. Vince has gained
an incredibly wide perspective on our school system and fixing it once and for all is his life’s mission.

It was those life experiences that drove Vince to make public education reform his top priority as Council
Chairman. He led Council efforts to enact mayoral takeover of the schools; Vince brought a unique
perspective to the reform process and fought to empower a strong Chancellor, eliminate bureaucracy,
strengthen accountability and place a sorely needed focus on modernizing public school facilities.

Vince not only championed K-12 school reform efforts on the Council, but also led the efforts to expand
and improve pre-K. In just over 18 months, under his leadership, the District has added just under 2,000
slots and has nearly reached its goal of free, voluntary pre-k for all children, making it among the first
states in the nation to achieve universal pre-k. Vince worked closely with the University of the District of
Columbia to launch a new Community College that will eventually ensure our citizens are able to
compete in a 21st century economy. His track record represents strong leadership and a vision that
education is a lifelong effort.

Mayor Fenty deserves tremendous credit for making education the highest priority of his administration
and our city.  Sadly, Mayor Fenty’s hands-off management style has resulted in a short-sighted, narrow,
and clandestine approach to the education reform effort. Vince Gray understands that we must take a
more holistic approach to education, and rebuild the public trust in our education system, if we’re going
to provide our children with the foundation they need to succeed. We need a mayor who will focus on
the entire birth-to-24 education process. We need a mayor who understands the value of community
buy-in. And most of all, we need a mayor who will take a more involved role in the decision making
process if mayoral control is to translate into accountability. Vince Gray has the track record and unique
perspective to be that Mayor.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will take education reform to the next level. His plan is comprehensive, inclusive,
and redefines the way city government will approach education.

The Gray education plan is based on the following core principles:

 1) We must continue smart education reform, and make it sustainable. We cannot afford to turn
back the clock on the important reforms of the last few years. Vince will work closely with a
strong Chancellor and the community in pursuit of innovative reforms based on research and
best practices. Vince will empower the Chancellor to make tough decisions while remaining
involved in the way those decisions are made. Bringing outstanding, cutting edge programs
--International Baccalaureate programs, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),
total immersion language programs into our schools, while at the same time, raising all our kids
minimally up to proficient achievement levels will not necessarily all happen during the tenure
of one chancellor or one mayor. Vince will ensure that there is a blueprint and commitment for
sustainable reform and he will provide the leadership that invites all of our civic, professional,
and educational institutions to work with our schools. He will be a true partner in this effort –
it’s not enough to have mayoral control. We must have mayoral leadership.

2) We must look at education as a lifelong endeavor. Education begins long before kindergarten
and continues after high school. Local schools are intricate parts of neighborhoods and
communities. Vince will focus on every stage of education – from birth through postsecondary
education and the world of work, so that every young person in the District has the tools to
compete.

3) We must work with our students, parents, public school employees, and community as a part
of the solution, not scapegoat them for our problems. We cannot alienate the very people
who must buy in if schools are to be thriving communities -- parents, teachers, community
leaders, and school administrators. Vince will insist on respect for all. He will bring a
collaborative approach to education reform, so that all stakeholders in our education system
have a seat at the table. He will work to ensure that good teachers are valued and empowered.
He’ll honor and empower charter schools. And he’ll make sure that every community in D.C.
gets involved in the process.

4) We must restore accountability and sound management to our schools. We cannot allow the
fiscal mismanagement of this Administration to hamper our efforts at creating a financially
viable school system. Whether it is failure to complete our educational database, to meet the
criteria for our federal Race to the Top application, or mismanaging the school budget so that
we did not know if we had a surplus or deficit, it is our students and teachers that suffer. Vince
will bring accountability and fiscal management to our education system.

COLLABORATIVE, INNOVATIVE & INVOLVED LEADERSHIP

As an early champion of school reform, Vince Gray knows that we can’t afford to go back to the old way
of doing things in our schools, when an incremental approach was failing our students. We must keep
our public schools under Mayoral control with a strong Chancellor in order to bring the kind of
innovative systemic change that’s critical to turning our schools around.

But Vince Gray will lead not by empowering a strong Chancellor and stepping back. He will lead by
empowering a strong Chancellor and getting involved. Mayoral control is not enough. We need
Mayoral leadership as well. He believes that the only way to achieve real and lasting school reform is to

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ensure that the community is a true partner in the reform, and innovation and entrepreneurship
become the norm.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Support the Chancellor to Continue Reforms within DCPS.

Vince is committed to having a strong Chancellor who is fully empowered to implement community-
driven reform. He will collaborate with the Chancellor to ensure that we keep and build on effective
people and programs already in the system.

A Vince Gray administration will put an immediate end to management by ribbon cutting and sound
bites, and give the Chancellor the support she needs to fulfill her promise to the students of the District
of Columbia. As Mayor, Vince will give the DCPS Chancellor the tools and controls to manage his or her
budget. He will continue to support the Chancellor in making hard choices with regard to staffing, hiring,
and firing decisions to get bad teachers out of the classroom and keep good teachers in the classroom.
He will work closely with the Chancellor and ensure all the resources of District government are brought
to bear in supporting kids.

Unleash the power of the community

School reform cannot be about just one person. It should be community-driven and embraced – so that
the gains we make are sustained beyond any one administration. Anything short of that will set school
reform up to fail. The federal government agrees. In its rejection of DC’s Race to the Top application,
reviewers claimed that the application lacked critical buy-in from key community stakeholders and that
the administration was more interested in making a national splash than instituting change locally. This
was an opportunity missed at a time when our school reforms and our city’s challenging budget
situation could have been bolstered by $100 million in federal aid. We can’t afford to continue to make
these costly mistakes.

While some decisions must be administered centrally, other decisions are enhanced with a “bottom up”
perspective from teachers, principals, parents and the community. As Chairman, Vince convened a
record number of hearings and even launched a special series of Saturday hearings for children and
youth to foster a culture of civic participation in education reform. Now it’s time to take Vince’s vision
for community-driven reform out of the Wilson Building and into every local school in the city:

 As Mayor, Vince and his education leadership team will hold regular town hall meetings across
the city, where the public can share their ideas on big issues like high school reform and school
modernization efforts. These town hall meetings will provide a forum for public participation
and will provide a crucial opportunity to engage residents and understand how we can move
forward together.
 As Mayor, Vince will create an electronic forum (edforum) where school and education issues
can be discussed and new ideas shared 365 days a year.
 As Mayor, Vince will require that principals ensure the Local School Restructuring Teams sign off
on a broader range of major decisions impacting the local school.

Why? Because meaningful and lasting change requires participation and buy-in from key stakeholders
throughout the system. Public engagement cannot be a one-time affair -- it must be sustained.

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Ensure parity for public charter schools.
Current law requires uniform funding for all public schools, whether DCPS or charter, yet this
Administration has attempted to undermine charter schools at every turn. It has given DCPS millions of
dollars outside the Uniform Formula to cover over-spending. Facilities maintenance, crossing guards, and
legal services are provided to DCPS schools at the government’s expense, while charter schools have
been left to fend for themselves. While public schools undergo a multi-billion dollar renovation, charter
schools are forced to obtain private facilities at market rates, diverting precious resources away from
programs to cover the cost. For two years in a row, the Administration made drastic cuts to the facilities
allotment for charter schools and continues to refuse to establish a transparent process where charters
are allowed the first right of refusal for vacant public school property. As Chairman, Vince Gray has been
a champion of the charter school movement – defeating each of the Administration’s attempts to cut
charter school funding, and forcing the Administration to begin working with charters to transition vacant
public school property. Vince Gray will bring an end to the days in which charters are pitted against
traditional public schools for precious city resources. As Mayor, he will convene a Blue Ribbon Panel of
national and local experts that will deliver, within three months of taking office, a blueprint for bringing
parity to the way in which per pupil funding and DC agency services are delivered to DCPS and charter
school students and recommend a clear and transparent process for the transition of vacant public school
facilities to charter schools.

A HOLISTIC, BIRTH-TO-24 APPROACH TO EDUCATION

Decades of research indicate that intensive, high-quality early education can close the achievement gap
and ensure better outcomes for all children. Indeed, these programs have proven to greatly reduce the
likelihood that kids will end up in the juvenile justice system or need special education services down the
line. The logic is simple - when we invest early, the better our children will achieve, and the more tax
dollars we will save. Vince Gray understands this. As Council Chairman, he began to implement this
solution – by enacting a bold initiative to create universal pre-k for every three- and four-year-old. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will institute a comprehensive ‘Success By Five’ initiative whose goal will be to ensure
that children are prepared for school and life success by the time they reach the first grade.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Make prenatal, infant, and toddler care affordable and accessible to all children.
Scientific research shows that high-quality prenatal, infant, and toddler care can prevent life-long
learning delays and mitigate developmental disparities among children from varying socio-economic
backgrounds. High-quality care for infants and toddlers is also a critical life support for working families
and can help enable parents on welfare to go back to work or acquire critical job training. Yet, accessing
affordable, high-quality care in the District is a major challenge for families across the city – regardless of
income level or background. Currently, over 6,000 families are on infant/toddler care waiting lists
across the city, and the cost of care for just one toddler can range between $10,000 and $20,000 a year.
As a result, our city’s infant/toddler care crisis forces parents to choose between their job or their
children, and means that, in many cases, young children are left in tenuous childcare situations. Vince
will take several steps towards making early-childhood education more affordable:
 Vince will make sure that we offer comprehensive, pre-natal to toddler programs with strong
family involvement components to serve families with special needs children and children who
are most at risk of developmental delays and eventual failure in school.

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  Vince will launch a local supplement to the Federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
Program and broaden eligibility requirements to include more working and middle class
families.
 Vince will then incentivize child development centers to expand infant/toddler care in high-
demand areas by opening up access to small business tax credits and increasing the child care
subsidy rate for infants and toddlers.

Continue to champion voluntary pre-k for all children.

In 2008, Vince Gray led the Council’s efforts to enact the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Act. With
almost 2,000 slots opened in just two years, we are nearing our goal of offering free, voluntary pre-k to
every three- and four-year-old in the District of Columbia. As Mayor, Vince Gray will finish the job he
began as Chairman in three critical ways:
 Finish ensuring universal access for all children;
 Ensure all new and existing pre-k classrooms meet the highest possible, research-based quality
standards;
 Ensure all children successfully transition from infant/toddler programs to pre-k programs and
then onto Kindergarten.

COMMON-SENSE STEPS TOWARDS CITYWIDE HIGH-QUALITY K-12 EDUCATION

Vince Gray is proud of the efforts made by our students, teachers, families, and schools, which have led
to steady improvement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests since the late
1990s. While improved standardized test scores are a step in the right direction, Vince Gray knows that
this cannot be the sole measure of success for D.C. public schools. In the end, we’re not looking for our
children to learn to take standardized tests. We want them to learn the skills they need to thrive in the
real world.

But if we expect to give our children the tools they need to succeed, we need to give our schools and
teachers the tools they need to help them get there. With Vince Gray as Mayor, he will set ambitious
citywide transformative goals that are more than five point gains on the NAEP scores and focus the
entire energy of the government on making sure that our schools succeed, and that our children excel.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Hold public school teachers accountable, while giving them the resources and respect they deserve.
Our teachers are on the front-line every day, making sure that our children are prepared for life after
school. We need to both respect our teachers and hold them accountable. It’s time that they are held
accountable for their work in the classroom, and treated with the respect they deserve. The new
teachers’ contract provides an excellent opportunity to instill a new era of accountability, meritocracy,
and collaboration. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:
 Recognize and reward high-performing teachers; remove low-performing teachers from the
system. He will work with our chancellor and teachers to ensure that the pay for performance
negotiated in the new teachers’ contract is developed and implemented in a way that results in
success for our students.
 Move swiftly to implement the independent evaluation of the current IMPACT evaluation system
as required in the new teachers’ contract.

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  Ensure that we have a fair and research-based evaluation system that holds our teachers
accountable but also provides multiple strategies for assessing student growth (e.g., teacher
portfolios) and teacher effectiveness.
 Use student achievement as a component of teacher evaluation in a way that holds all
stakeholders accountable.
 Ensure that all schools have equity in resources based on fully developing the certified classroom
effort referenced in the new teachers’ contract.
 Provide high quality and job-embedded professional development to ensure that our children
are being taught by highly trained and effective teachers.
 Work with our chancellor and the union to fully implement the new teacher induction program,
referred to in the new teachers’ contract, to ensure our new teachers have the support they
need to be effective, and want to remain as teachers in our school system.

Improve our low-performing schools.

A key goal of a Gray Administration will be to help ensure that every public school is living up to its
potential. Under his leadership, DCPS will provide resources to those schools that have not yet
benefited from school reform. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

 Conduct a school-by-school assessment of the impact of reform strategies that have already
been implemented in an effort to turn around our low performing schools and see what has
worked and what hasn’t.
 Work to ensure that strategies that we implement to improve our low performing schools are
innovative and research-based to increase the probability of success for our students.
 Fully implement the language in the new teachers’ contract that addresses low performing
schools.

Give our public schools the same flexibility and freedom that have made charter schools successful.
The recipe for the success of the charter school movement is that autonomy provides great latitude to
implement creative new strategies for academic success.  As Mayor, Vince Gray will empower DCPS and
the Public Charter School Board with increased collaboration and resources to ensure that high
standards for academic achievement are maintained, successful practices are shared, and struggling
schools are afforded the support they need to improve.  He will work with his school leadership team to
promote greater autonomy for public schools to implement creative turn-around strategies and make
decisions that are responsive to community and parent needs – in exchange for rapid school
improvement. Finally, competitive grants will be offered as incentives for top performing schools to
provide technical assistance, develop ways to replicate successful models and assist struggling schools in
improving their performance. 

Work to ensure all children are reading by the time they reach third grade.
The primary driver of school success is a child’s ability to read. As Mayor, Vince Gray will call for a
renewed focus on reading in the early grades and work with schools to align standards, curriculum,
instruction and assessments into a best practice Pre-K to Third Grade continuum with a focus on the
prevention of reading and math problems, to ensure that by the time children enter third grade, all
children will be on grade level or above in both reading and math.

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Offer robust, comprehensive middle and high school options in every segment of the city.
We have allowed a massive gap to emerge between our specialized selective high schools and our
comprehensive middle and high schools. It is no surprise then that our city’s graduation rates have
stagnated – showing only mild two to three percent fluctuations in the past decade. The current
administration has chosen a typical photo-op approach to the problem, using fuzzy math to quickly claim
victory over a three percent “jump” in the graduation rate. Meanwhile, they perpetuate the two-city
tale for secondary education by proposing a new arts and magnet middle school while whole segments
of the city lack a middle school at all, and the current middle schools languish.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

 Ensure that the secondary school funding provided by the Uniform Formula reaches all the
students for whom it is intended.
 Leverage the social and human capital in our local community to create rich school partnerships
with the District’s great universities, teaching hospitals, museums, and government institutions.
 Partner with private industry and foundations to bring innovative programs to our middle and
high schools in all segments of the city – with guidance and commitment from neighborhood
and ward communities.
 Mandate that DCPS work with each local school community to offer advanced academic and
other special programs in every middle and high school. At the end of his first term, we will see
comprehensive middle and high schools in every segment of the city – no local community will
lack robust public school secondary options.

Integrate career and technology curricula into all DC High Schools.

Vince Gray understands that we need to prepare our students for success in today’s ever-changing,
global economy, whether they choose to go straight to work or pursue higher education. As Mayor,
Vince Gray will work with the business community to build rigorous, high quality career and technical
education (CTE) programs that will help all students. The new CTE will give all students the strong
academic foundation they need, while pairing it with technical and occupational skills that will help them
find jobs. Unlike the traditional model, wherein “vocational” programs are merely segregated into
separate schools, and sometimes unfairly stigmatized, the new CTE programs will also be integrated
within our typical “academic” schools, enabling college-bound and technical career-bound students to
benefit from both types of curricula. Students will have the opportunity to learn employable skills such as
CAD/CAM design, network administration, computer security, computer systems programming, health
and medical sciences, and much sought after construction skills.

Balance school modernization efforts in all quarters of the city.

In some areas of the city, school modernization projects have been spared no expense. In other, more
underserved areas, modernization efforts have yet to come to fruition. As Mayor, Vince Gray will not
only complete modernization efforts that are planned and in-progress, but he will ensure that school
modernization is envisioned more comprehensively, inclusive of all schools and communities, and meets
the immediate and long-term needs of school communities.

Reform special education. Finally.

Special education in the District remains a national travesty, and the current Mayor has failed to lead.
Costs have risen $60 million in the last three years alone, and we waste tens of millions of dollars paying

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for legal fees, transportation, and private education for our special-needs kids outside District
boundaries. Instead, we should serve their needs successfully inside our own system. Vince will:
 Work to build capacity to meet special education needs in local schools
 Invest in early intervention services to target and address these needs early, while they are less
severe and less expensive to treat.
 Serve children with developmental delays in mainstream pre-k and infant and toddler programs
in order to mitigate the consequences of these delays.
 Work to foster a climate of trust and avoid the need for expensive, often contentious, litigation.
 Work to establish fixed rates for special education providers to regulate costs and produce
immediate savings.
 Reinvest the dramatic savings that can be achieved by providing special education within the
city.

Provide a safe learning environment for our students.

Our students cannot enjoy a quality learning environment if our schools are constantly plagued with
safety issues, and teachers spend 25% or more of their time addressing disciplinary issues in the
classroom. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:
 Work with the chancellor and teachers to fully implement the Behavior Management and
Disciplinary programs that are contained in the new teachers’ contract.
 Provide those students with chronic behavior issues, which interrupt teaching and learning, the
kind of intervention and support they require to address their needs and become successful
learners.

ENSURE EVERY DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE IS COLLEGE BOUND AND JOB
READY

Only one in ten graduates of District high schools complete college. To attend and complete college, our
young people often have to go out-of-state or pay exorbitant tuition rates at private universities because
our city’s public university lacked the resources to support their needs.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will make it easier for District high school graduates to go to college. He will
mobilize the District’s entire higher education community, including private institutions and UDC, to offer
the support District high school graduates need, and he will work with the public university system to
ensure robust options are available throughout the city.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Place a college degree and/or career opportunity within reach for every District resident.

 Vince will double the number of guidance counselors across all high schools, and mandate that
they work with every, single high school senior and their family to develop a “College Bound and
Job Ready” personal action plan.

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  Vince will charge the Deputy Mayor for Education with developing and offering citywide senior
summer and first year college preparation programs to high school seniors, at low-cost, to
bridge the gap between a high school diploma and what is required at the first year of college.
 Vince will work with private institutions and the business community to launch a “College Bound
and Job Ready” Financial Aid and Support Program. In exchange for years of community service
during or after high school or financial need, hard-working high school graduates will be
rewarded with on-going support, loans and scholarships through their job training or college
experience.

Ready our workforce for the jobs of the future.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will work with DC’s higher education and business communities to become the first
line of training for students preparing for careers in Green Energy, Health Informatics, Biotech, and
Nanotech industries. Through technology incubation and a strategic, 21 st century economic
development programs, we can help our young people attain these jobs in proven, emerging industries.
And he’ll continue to be a leader in ensuring that residents have access to higher education and
workforce development, including leading the charge to make the former Backus Middle School an
integral part of the community college and a place where residents can get the workforce training they
need to compete.

Provide post-secondary opportunities for residents no matter where they live.

Vince Gray believes that people need to have education options in their neighborhoods. Vince worked
closely with the University of the District of Columbia to launch a new Community College that will
eventually ensure our citizens are able to compete in a 21 st century economy. Vince has challenged
CCDC to have a presence in each ward. Vince envisions CCDC partnering with local businesses,
community organizations and District government in providing specialized workforce training and
continuing education that enhance people’s lives. Cities like San Francisco, London and Tokyo are on the
cutting edge of innovation and workforce development. The District can transform itself into a city that
leads in developing ideas and in providing workers to create a 21 st century city of innovation. As Mayor,
Vince Gray will convene a Community of Learning Conference which brings together local, regional and
national leaders to examine how the District can transform itself into a community of learning where
lifelong education is sustained, is located where residents live and will provide people with the education
they need to adapt to workforce needs.

TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND SOUND MANAGEMENT

Education reform can be successful only if managed effectively. That has sadly not been the case under
the current Administration. We’ve seen too many cases of inefficiency, budget mismanagement,
taxpayer dollars squandered on failed projects, and missed opportunities at receiving federal dollars.
Vince Gray will bring sound management and accountability to education reform.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Bring sound, financial stewardship to the education system.

Annually, the District invests billions of dollars in the education of its children and young people through
early childhood education, DC public schools, public charter schools, the University of the District of
Columbia, and the modernization of school facilities. Despite what’s at stake, the decisions over how
public education dollars are invested increasingly have been made with no feedback from the broader

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community and (in many cases) even the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. We now see the folly of
this backroom budgeting. Hundreds of millions in cost overruns for facilities modernization, tens of
millions taken from local school budgets to pay for central office costs, and general confusion, even at a
local school level, about where dollars are really spent. Three years after mayoral control was
implemented, the system is still fragmented, and confusion still reigns. Vince believes the best financial
reform is an open, transparent process -- one that will force public officials to become accountable for
their actions. As Mayor, Vince Gray will transform the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education into the
lead agency responsible for managing the city’s “educational investment portfolio.” Vince will mandate
that the Deputy Mayor lead a comprehensive forensic audit of the entire education system to identify
clear budget controls to protect taxpayers and cut waste.

Stop raiding local school budgets to fund over-spending elsewhere in the budget.
Last year (FY 2009), the administration froze local school spending and took $32 million out of local
school budgets to cover over-spending on other functions. This year local school budgets are among the
functions to be cut in order to fund teacher raises. As Mayor, Vince Gray will protect local school
budgets, and oppose any attempt to use local schools to pay for over-spending in other areas of the
budget.

Finally get our education data systems working: “SLED”.

The District has got to know where its students are physically—where and when they are in school, or
not in school—in real time.  We must know how they are doing academically and how well specific
programs and teachers are performing.  We need to track their performance daily and not wait for the
test scores in the Spring, after an entire school year has passed, before we take action to correct under-
performing classrooms.  Our solution is to successfully develop the State Longitudinal Education Data
Warehouse (SLED), a computerized system that shows where students are, alerting our administrators
that a student left one school, but is not now enrolled in another.  SLED will enable educators to
measure growth of a student within a school, classroom or program and will support instructional
decision-making. It will also enable systematic evaluation of teacher performance.  Yet, almost four
years into our reform, the current administration has spent $6.9 million of federal and local monies, and
still we have no data system.  As Mayor, Vince Gray will turn around this failing project.   He understands
the importance of SLED in monitoring student, school and teacher performance and in meeting federal
requirements. He will employ capable professionals who will meet the deadlines and standards needed
to get the system up and running ASAP.

Tell the public where DCPS’ money goes.

For years, the D.C. Code has required that the public be informed in how DCPS is spending its money.
Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened. Likewise, budget submission resolutions have required much
more specificity than DCPS provides. Current submissions are scanty, inconsistent from year to year,
and sometimes misleading. Financial reports are no longer posted on the internet and changes in the
budget are not announced, despite a mandate to do so under the DC Freedom of Information Act. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will mandate that DCPS publish for the public an accounting of how it spends its
money – how much to schools and direct services to children, how much to central bureaucracy, how
much for programs such as career and technical education, special education, early childhood education,
etc. Vince will also require DCPS to post its local school budgets, budget changes, and financial reports
on the Internet.

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Re-open DCPS budget formulation process to parents and community.
In most school districts, budget formulation is an open process. The Superintendent, often after
preliminary public hearings, prepares a proposed budget made public in late fall or early winter. The
public has opportunities to comment and advocate for changes. The school board then votes on the
budget. If the District is fiscally dependent, the budget goes to a city or county council, which again has
hearings and other opportunities for public input. After the budget is adopted, it is reconciled, if
necessary, to the amount actually appropriated. The budget is published “as adopted.” DC suburbs
follow this schedule and process, and DC used to. As Mayor, Vince Gray will re-open the DCPS budget
process to parents and the community, with dialogue beginning in the preceding fall and continuing
through mayoral decision-making.

From FY 2000 through FY 2008, local school budget allocations were determined by a formula based on
the recommendations of a group of principals, teachers, central administrators, and parents, and it was
clear why each school received the amount it did. As Mayor, Vince Gray will re-establish the parent-
community working group that participated in setting the basis for local school budget allocations, and
make the basis for these budgets clear again. Since the Board of Education is no longer involved in these
decisions, it is increasingly important that those in the school community be given opportunities to be
involved.

CONCLUSION
Vince Gray’s plan for quality education is comprehensive. It will continue aggressive education reform,
focus on education at all life stages, engage the community, and restore accountability and sound
management practices.

It is an education plan that will redefine success and provide greater opportunities for our students.

And it is a plan that the people of D.C. can trust on a number of measures:

 D.C. residents can trust Vince Gray to move the reform forward, and continue to reject the
incremental approach of the past – just as he has as a member of the D.C. Council.

 D.C. public school parents can trust that Vince Gray will partner with a strong, aggressive
chancellor, to keep us moving in the right direction.

 Charter school parents can trust that Vince Gray will support high performing charter schools
and work toward parity, just as he has in the past.

 Parents of young children can trust that Vince Gray will continue to build the early childhood
education programs he has championed all his professional life.

 Parents of DC teenagers and young adults can trust that Vince Gray will ensure there are strong
middle and high school options in every segment of the city.

Ensuring a Quality Education for All Children

Education Plan, Page 11
 High School graduates and their families can trust Vince Gray to make college and career and
technical training affordable and accessible to all students so that they can compete for jobs in a
21st century economy.

 D.C. residents can trust that Vince Gray will appoint a strong Board of Trustees for our public
university system to generate desperately needed additional support for public higher
education.

 Parents of special needs children can trust Vince Gray to give their children opportunities for
learning in their own communities.

 D.C. Taxpayers can trust Vince Gray to work to bring maximum return on their education
investment through smart budgeting, research-based programs, maximum use of federal
monies, efficient planning for facilities, and restoring accountability for reform.

 People across the District can trust that Vince Gray will focus on education reform benefiting
every community, not just a few.

Ensuring a Quality Education for All Children

Education Plan, Page 12