Grosso Quoted On DC School Reforms as Mayoral Race Highlights Policy Divide

David said that the recent good news has largely calmed the criticism of education reform enacted by former Mayors Fenty and Rhee.

David, who chaired the District’s Education Committee from 2015 to 2020, said that “people were clamoring for success right off the bat. After five years of reform, they were asking, ‘Why aren’t our schools all better? …the challenge was to explain to people that when you have 100 years of bad schools, you can’t turn it around in five years.”

David highlighted a long set of issues that the incoming mayor and city council will confront through the end of the decade, including the likely need for schools to tighten their belts and the immediate task of finding a replacement for outgoing Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, who announced his resignation in May. 

David cautioned against pursuing “reform for reform’s sake,” noting that major policy changes should be carefully evaluated prior to implementation.

“If I didn’t learn anything else in all the years I was making education policy, at least I learned this: If you make massive changes… and you don’t have a real understanding of what the outcome will be, then you shouldn’t make the change,” he said. 

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