Mayor Vincent Gray (D)
Date of Speech: Mar. 11
Longer school days for low-performing schools is one of the new education initiatives offered by Mayor Gray in his address to city leaders. He said he was seeking an increase of $116 million for education, to about $851 million, in his proposed fiscal 2015 budget, part of which would be used to pay for a longer school day and more enrichment at 21 elementary schools and all of the city’s 19 middle schools. The school system has faced complaints from parents that some of the city’s middle schools with lower enrollment are not offering the same complement of classes and extracurricular activities as schools in more-wealthy parts of the city with higher enrollment.
“Regardless of enrollment numbers, every [District] middle-schooler will be able to take algebra, a foreign language, art, music, and physical education” under the proposal, Mr. Gray said.
