The following is taken from the first edition of the Citizen Reader, a newsletter published by Grassroots DC Education Contributor Sarah Livingston. The article explains the governing history of District of Columbia Public Schools–how we went from a system segregated by race and controlled by an appointed board of trustees, to a system segregated by traditional public schools and charters, controlled by the mayor. 
An Act of Congress, passed December 5, 1804 authorized the District of Columbia “to establish and endow a permanent institution for the education of youth in the city of Washington.” President Thomas Jefferson personally contributed $200 towards the endowment of the schools and was rewarded by being named the first president of the thirteen-member Board of Trustees. Under Jefferson’s chairmanship, the Board aspired to create a primary and secondary school system, as well as a university.
Photo of Charles Sumner School opened in 1872
for black children, now a museum and archives.
The idealist intent of the governing body was to provide for the education of children whose parents were unable to pay for the tuition at private schools. This was to be accomplished with a meager $1,500, procured through the proceeds of taxes laid on dogs, licenses from carriages and hacks, ordinaries and taverns, “spirituous” liquors and the like. In 1806, the first two schools— Eastern Free School (east of the Capitol) and Western School (one-half mile from the President’sHouse)—were opened. Due to this limited budget and to the stigma of being regarded as“charity” schools, however, the public system grew slowly and developed little. Indeed, in its first century of existence, the schools, despite opening up to more affluent “paying” students, were still poorly regarded and housed in makeshift quarters such as old market houses, fraternal halls, church basements and other structures. The conditions were so inferior that the members of the Board of Trustees were mortified to show their counterparts from other cities.
Schools for African Americans were founded almost simultaneously, in 1807, but under the sponsorship of private citizens and religious groups. The earliest black schools were generally quartered in church basements and other black institutional buildings. In 1835, in response to the Nat Turner uprisings and the related “Snow Riots,” the education of African Americans suffered a serious setback as their educational facilities were attacked and destroyed. Many of these schools were later revived. In 1851, Myrtilla Miner, a white pioneer in the education of African Americans, established one of the city’s first high schools for black women.
Over the years, Congress established, reorganized and abolished many forms of local governing. Through them all the Board of Trustees operated continuously. In 1967, after more than ninety years of District governing by an appointed three member Commission, President Lyndon Johnson established a Mayor-Commissioner and Council government, all appointed. One year later, in 1968, Congress made the Board of Trustees into an elected body. This resulted in a government with an appointed Mayor and Council members while the Board of Education was elected. That continued until the Home Rule Charter was passed in 1973 establishing the present form of local government.
The Home Rule Charter, among other things, made the Mayor and the Council elected offices, defined their powers and included the Board of Education along with four other “independent” agencies. As pointed out in an American University Law School Journal analysis of 1975, how the Mayor, Council and Board were to relate to each other was left ‘ambiguous’ in some specifics during the somewhat hurried writing of the Charter in Congress.
In 1995, with input from a group of DC residents, Congress passed the School Reform Act in the Appropriations Bill. It established a plan for reform of DCPS and for the creation of chartered schools in DC, how they are authorized and the establishment of the Per Pupil Funding Formula, among other details.
In response to the city’s near bankruptcy in 1996, Congress established the Financial Responsibility and
Management Assistance Authority, also known as the “control board,” which suspended much of the local government’s powers. It included establishment of a Board of Trustees to act in place of, with some consultation, the Board of Education.
In 2000, then Mayor Anthony Williams was given authority, through a Referendum, to appoint four of the nine members of the Board of Education.
In 2007, DC became the ninth of about a dozen cities that have instituted “mayoral control” of their public school districts since 1992. This occurred with the passage of the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007, but without a Referendum. The act was introduced by then Mayor Adrian Fenty in the first few days of his administration, with support of nine of the eleven Councilmembers, and by that June, it was the law. The Board of Education that had existed from 1804 until then was abolished and the Mayor was given all its powers and authorities.
One of the many provisions of PERAA is that it be evaluated by a third party and “A determination as to whether sufficient progress in public education has been achieved to warrant continuation of the provisions and requirements of this act or whether a new law, and a new system of education, should be enacted by the District government.”
In June this year, the National Research Council, the independent party chosen by the DC Council to conduct the evaluation, funded for $325,000, released its report, An Evaluation of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia: Reform in a Changing Landscape. It is available to read or download at no cost at: www.nap.edu
