U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has convened a rare special grand jury to investigate rampant truancy, inflated graduation rates and altered attendance records across the district.
The investigation comes as city data reveals 58% of D.C. high schoolers were chronically absent last school year — while academic proficiency in English and math plummeted.
Education advocates say the probe is long overdue.
Jeanne Allen, founder of the Center for Education Reform, talked about this on the “Fox & Friends” program, saying unexcused absences and street safety are directly linked.
“We know that there's a connection between truancy and crime. Truancy is up, student crime is up, and scores continue to plummet,” Allen said.
With high school graduation rates hovering around 80% despite single-digit proficiency in core subjects, critics argue the district is passing unprepared students through the system.
Allen pointed back to D.C.'s previous education crisis thirty years ago, arguing the city needs to return to solutions that directly empower families and educators.
“The reason we got better schools and a safer environment is because we put parents and teachers in charge of schools like charter schools. We gave parents options, and we made the city safe again,” Allen stated.
As students head back to classrooms across the country, experts say fixing public education will require parents to push back against the status quo and demand immediate accountability.
“Unless you demand more all the time, we are not going to get what we need and what we deserve,” Allen said.
According to Fox News, the use of a special grand jury is unusual, and a judge must approve of the forming of the jury. Even if prosecutors don’t file criminal charges, the jury will be able to investigate and write a report on their findings.
D.C. school officials have not yet issued an official response to the grand jury subpoenas.
