November 1, 2009 1:31PM # The Eternal Battle to Reform the D.C. Schools By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE “When Kathy Patterson learned about [Thursday’s D.C. Council hearing](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102901889.html), during which Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee pelted each other with accusations of law-breaking and secret meetings, she had one immediate reaction,” [reports the Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/31/AR2009103102357.html). > “Here we go again,” said Patterson, a former council member and chairwoman of its education committee. It looked as if another attempt at public school reform was disintegrating in a hail of recriminations and rhetoric. Casey Lartigue wrote about the decades-long efforts to [improve the D.C. schools](https://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-461es.html) for Cato back in 2002. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).