For Immediate Release
May 14, 2015

Contact: Dionne Johnson Calhoun
(202) 724-8105

Grosso’s FY16 Budget Unanimously Passed by Committee on Education

Washington, D.C.—Today, the D.C. Council Committee on Education unanimously passed the budget formulated by Committee Chairperson David Grosso. The $2.4 billion budget for the city’s public education system, including public schools, charter schools, and libraries, next goes to the full Council for a vote. The budget includes a historic investment in renovating the District’s central library, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, funding for a new early childhood literacy project to promote 3rd grade reading success, and a new approach to capital funding for D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) based on data not politics.

“This budget represents an important next step in placing every student in the best position to learn and achieve,” said Grosso. “The Mayor’s proposed budget reduced funding overall for the education sector, requiring the Committee to make some difficult choices. We made every effort to base those decisions on data and equity for the benefit of our entire city.”

The Committee’s budget fixes the at-risk funding for schools mandated by the “Fair Student Funding and School Based Budgeting Act of 2013,” allocating funds proportionally to schools based on their at-risk student population. The Committee also makes a number of important policy recommendations regarding discipline, truancy, Empowering Males of Color Initiative, per-pupil funding minimum increases, and more. The budget includes the following enhancements:

  • $1,600,000 for early childhood literacy interventions to improve 3rd grade reading outcomes
  • $266,000 for expansion and evaluation of the Community Schools Program
  • $450,000 for OSSE to offer SAT & ACT prep classes
  • $40,806 for school athletics programs
  • $693,970 for projected enrollment increases at DCPS
  • $2,000,000 to increase the facility allotment for public charter schools
  • $1,000,000 for D.C. Public Library (DCPL) libraries’ collections
  • $300,000 for DCPL digital literacy programs
  • $451,000 for implementation of the Books from Birth Act
  • $3,322,000 to continue implementation of the Healthy Tots Act
  • $324,634 for an environmental literacy pilot program under OSSE

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