DC PS Officials Secretly Support School Choice

At least on a personal level. “The top public school administrator in Washington, D.C., resigned his position Tuesday, four days after it was revealed that he had conspired with another official to place his daughter in the district’s highest-performing public high school,” Alex Ward writes on Reason.com. “In the process, Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson bypassed the rules governing placement of district students in schools outside their own neighborhoods.”

“The other official, Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles, was forced to resign last week. Wilson is the second consecutive chancellor to be embroiled in a school placement scandal. Last May, The Washington Post obtained a report from the city’s inspector general revealing that his predecessor, Kaya Henderson, had helped influential D.C. officials get their children directly into the most desirable schools by bypassing the lottery system with so-called ‘discretionary placements.’ By the time the report became public, Henderson had already left the school system following a five-year stint in the top job.”

For decades, politicians and public officials have derided school choice, promoted traditional public schools and sent their own children to private ones. They did so, largely, without consequence, until now.

Related Topics