Councilmember Grosso applauds Superintendent Kang’s service to the District of Columbia

For Immediate Release
September 16, 2020

Contact
Matthew Nocella, mnocella@dccouncil.us, 202.286.1987

Councilmember Grosso applauds Superintendent Kang’s service to the District of Columbia

Washington, D.C. – The following is a statement from Councilmember David Grosso regarding State Superintendent Hanseul Kang’s decision to step down from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education next month:

“In my time as chairperson of the Committee on Education, I have had the pleasure of working closely with Superintendent Kang and I have appreciated her depth of knowledge and candor. She has provided steady leadership at OSSE for the last five and a half years and brought the agency into a new era, improving its responsiveness, results, and reputation. The departure of Superintendent Kang is a significant loss for the District of Columbia’s education sector.

“I appreciate her service to the District and wish her luck in her new endeavor. Her commitment and her experience will be invaluable to those that hope to improve education for countless students across the United States.”

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Councilmember Grosso's FY2021 Budget Victories

On July 28th, the Council finalized a budget that was crafted in the face of devastating economic impacts brought on by a global pandemic.

As chairperson of the Committee on Education for nearly six years, Councilmember Grosso’s number one priority has always been to ensure that our schools have the resources they need to improve learning for all residents across the District of Columbia. 

Below are the budget highlights for fiscal year 2021, which represents the fourth straight budget of increased investments in our schools and a continuation of Grosso’s work to replace the school-to-prison pipeline with school environments that make our students feel safe, loved, and valued.
 
Education Investments

1. Maintains the 3 percent increase in per student funding marking the fourth straight budget cycle of growing education investments, with additional funding students at risk of academic failure.

2. Ends Metropolitan Police Department’s management of the security services contract for D.C. Public Schools in favor of DCPS managing it directly, and reinvests costs savings into our students’ social-emotional learning.

3. Enacts and fully funds Grosso’s School Expenditure Transparency Amendment Act which provides the public a clearer understanding of how both traditional public and public charter schools expend public dollars, as well as require greater transparency from charter schools by making them subject to the Open Meetings Act.

4. Provides $3.2 million to offer students the school-based mental health resources they need to achieve academic success.

5. Supports the social, emotional, and positive behavioral health of our students with additional investments in grants from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to support positive school climate and trauma-informed emotional services.

6. Ensures more students are reading at grade level by third grade with an additional $900,000 at OSSE for the successful early literacy intervention grant programs, continuing Grosso’s steadfast support for the program.

7. Additional $5 million in child care center subsidies.

8. Improves D.C. libraries with $4.2 million to D.C. Public Library for collections in advance of the grand re-opening of the renovated Martin Luther King, Jr. Central Library and to maintain staff and hours at neighborhood branch libraries. $1 million for general improvements across the D.C. Public Library system, including moving up the planning for the Chevy Chase Library modernization and preserving the funding that Grosso requested for the Parklands-Turner standalone branch library.

Community Investments

1. Invests $5 million in community-based mental health service organizations allowing them to support our residents behavioral health needs while expanding school-based mental health work.

2. Fully funds the Strengthening Reproductive Rights Amendment Act to add protections for reproductive health freedom and abortion rights to the D.C. Human Rights Act.

3. Redirects over $500,000 to the Office of Human Rights for additional staff to clear the years-long backlog of discrimination and hate crimes investigations at the Office of Human Rights and restore the Bullying Prevention Coordinator.

4. Supports LGBTQ young adults experiencing homeslessness with $600,000 for transitional housing

5. Creates a study of D.C. government practices in hiring, retaining, and promoting transgender people, co-authored with Councilmember Robert White, including recommendations for how to improve and be a model for other employers.

6. Supports Councilmember Allen’s amendment continuing combined reporting for corporate income which raises $7.4 million for increased investments in school-based mental health, violence interruption, funding for excluded and undocumented workers,local rent supplement vouchers, and emergency rental assistance.

7. Approves Councilmember Trayon White’s amendment to lower the threshold for the estate tax raising $1.8 million to invest in violence interruption, school based mental health, and mentoring grants for at-risk middle school youth.

8. Approves Councilmember Nadeau’s amendment to end high tech incentives and raise $17 million for greater investments in school-based mental health, health care access, permanent and temporary housing supports, early childhood center grants, and homeless outreach.

 
Other Budget Highlights

1. Funds the complete implementation of the Universal Paid Leave Amendment Act–introduced by Councilmembers Grosso and Silverman–by investing in enforcement at the Office of Human Rights  to hold employers accountable and investing in navigators to help both employers and employees understand the tapestry of leave laws in the District of Columbia.

2. Permanently ends the celebration of Columbus Day in the District of Columbia in favor of honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

3. Reverses Mayor’s cuts to violence interruption and increased the grants as well as the Pathways Program created by the NEAR Act, while reducing the MPD budget.

4. Reverses Mayor’s cuts to homeless outreach and prevention programs and added 50 units of permanent supportive housing for individuals.

5. Maintains Mayor’s investments in TANF, Medicaid local match, and D.C. Healthcare Alliance to cover expected increased reliance on safety net programs as a result of the pandemic and economic downturn.

6. Reverses Mayor’s cuts to Emergency Rental Assistance Program and increased it by over $5 million.

7. Creates a new $9 million fund for excluded workers.

Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights Amendment Act of 2020

Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights Act of 2020

Introduced: March 3, 2020

Co-introducers: Councilmembers Anita Bonds, Robert White, Elissa Silverman, Brianne Nadeau and Mary Cheh

BILL TEXT | PRESS RELEASE

Summary: To amend the Department of Insurance and Securities Regulation Establishment Act of 1996 to prevent abusive acts or practices on the part of student loan servicers, to clarify that student loan servicers under contract with the United States Department of Education shall automatically be issued a limited student loan servicing license upon meeting certain criteria; to clarify denials of applications for approval; to proscribe prohibited conduct on the part of student loan servicers; to assign affirmative duties to student loan servicers; to assign the Attorney General of the District of Columbia the power to enforce the Act; to transfer the Student Loan Ombudsperson from the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking to the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia; and require the creation of a Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights by October 1, 2021.

Councilmember Grosso's Introduction Statement:

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Today, along with Councilmembers Bonds, Cheh, Nadeau, and Silverman, I am introducing the Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights Amendment Act of 2020.

As we all know, having a college education is an important requirement for entry into many jobs and professions with students and their families assuming a financial burden in exchange for a successful future.

To ease the burden, student loans make college accessible to students coming from all income levels, allowing them to pursue their educational endeavors—but at a cost.

On average, repayment rates often negatively affect first-generation college students, along with Black and Latinx students who are more likely to fall behind on loan payments and are less likely to pay off their student loans over time.

Student loan debt is at a crisis level with an estimated 1.5 trillion dollars owed in student loan debt nationally.

In the District of Columbia, the average student loan balance is approximately $56,000 while the national rate for the average student loan balance is approximately $37,000.

The Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights Amendment Act of 2020 will ensure that student loan borrowers in the District of Columbia are protected from abusive acts or practices on the part of lenders.

This bill establishes protections including a Student Loans Bill of Rights and providing borrowers with affirmative protections when submitting written inquiries to their servicers, when splitting single payments across multiple loans, and when their loans are sold or transferred to another servicer.

D.C. Law already prohibits debt collectors, auto lenders, and other loan-based companies from misleading or causing harm to borrowers, and with this bill in place, student loans lenders would be no different.

The proposed bill would also move the Student Loan Ombudsperson from the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking to the Office of the Attorney General to streamline the complaint referral process when enforcement action is needed while also capitalizing on the existing subject matter expertise of OAG staff.

The Student Loan Ombudsperson assists with the regulation of student loan services, conducts important outreach to assist D.C. residents who are preparing for college and who have already acquired student loan debt.

Finally, this bill provides for a private right of action when borrowers believe they have been victims of abusive acts and violations of the law on the part of student loan servicers.

Pursuing an education using the financial help of a loan provider should not be coupled with the fear that one will not be able to pay or be disadvantaged in the payment process.

I would like to thank the Student Borrower Protection Center for their continued advocacy and partnership with my office on this and many other initiatives to protect D.C.’s student loan borrowers.

Thank you, and I welcome any co-sponsors. 

FY2019 Performance Oversight Questions and Responses

Councilmember Grosso, as chairperson of the Committee on Education, has received responses from the following agencies under the committee’s purview as part of the annual performance oversight process:

• State Board of Education

• Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education

• Office of the Student Advocate

• Public Charter School Board

• Deputy Mayor for Education

• D.C. Public Schools

• Office of the State Superintendent of Education

You can find the Committee's questions and agencies’ responses here.

This post will be updated as outstanding agencies submit their pre-hearing responses, including D.C. Public Library and D.C. State Athletic Association.

The Committee will hold performance oversight hearings from late January until early March. A full schedule and form for public witnesses to sign-up to testify can be found here.

D.C. Public Schools Report for the FY2018 Budget Support Act of 2017

Below is the report required for submission to the Committee on Education on matters related to the DC Public Schools (DCPS) budget.

DCPS Reports for the 2018 Budget Support Act of 2017 by Team_Grosso on Scribd