We have a hunger of the mind
which asks for knowledge of all around us,
and the more we gain, the more is our desire;
the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.
maria mitchell
astronomer and educator
This year marks the first time that the Catalogue has devoted a special section to education.
The decision is a timely one: Mayor Fenty has taken control of DCPS and new studies
reveal that it is one of the most costly, and most dysfunctional, school systems in the
country. According to the Washington Post, students score "at the bottom among 11 major
city school systems, even when poor children are compared only with other poor children."
Nationally a third of poor fourth-graders lack basic skills in math; the figure is nearly
double in DC (62%) – and this despite “the third highest per-pupil expenditure of the
nation’s 100 largest systems.” The challenges are daunting: out-of-date facilities, a bureaucracy
that would make Charles Dickens sit up and take notice, too many poorly qualified
teachers (only Alaska’s are worse), dangerous poverty, dangerous neighborhoods, a huge
immigrant population for whom English is not a first language. The schools and programs
in this year’s Catalogue will not reform the system, but they are certainly a response to it:
three schools that deal with populations ill-served by the system; in-school and afterschool
programs that provide arts, civic engagement, academic enrichment; college access programs
for those who defy the norm; and literacy programs for pre-schoolers, families, and adults.
Once again you will find several 2003 organizations re-featured here (  ). Despite the
staggering problems, they all show us what is possible when donors and high-performing
nonprofits join hands.
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