DC Teacher in Teaching Hall of Fame

John F. Mahoney, a math teacher at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in the District, was the first DC teacher to be inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.

Mahoney, the first D.C. teacher in the Hall of Fame, used yesterday's presentation to blast federal and city officials for "effectively ignoring" D.C. schools and spending thousands less per student than Arlington, Alexandria or Montgomery County.

"Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, D.C. public schools are not 'separate but equal,' they are separate and unequal," he said, adding, "The government is rebuilding schools in Iraq but is ignoring the schools where its own employees send their children."

Mahoney, 57, taught at Quaker schools for 29 years, most recently at Sidwell Friends School, before taking the job at Banneker four years ago. "I felt the need to do something more important," he said. "The kids in D.C., they need good teaching. They're great kids. I have kids who are so fundamentally respectful and appreciative of teaching that you feel like you're making a real difference."

He said he suspected he had been selected when he heard about the special assembly, but he was not prepared for a special guest who greeted him on stage: a five-foot-tall robot named Alejandro 1.6 that he and his students built this year. Alejandro approached his creator and bowed before backing away.

While I can understand Mahoney's frustration with public education in the District his statistics are a little off the mark. Here's a graph of the area's public school districts and their per student spending.


(Click for higher res. picture)

As you can see DC (in 2004) spent more than Montgomery county and ranked rather well compared to all area school systems. If money (or lack thereof) was the driver for success then you would expect Fairfax county to have a worse academic record than the District, and we all know how true that statement is.

So, congratulations to Mr Mahoney for his selection to the Teaching HOF, but if you're going to use the honor to make some political hay you may want to double check the data first.

UPDATE: In the comments reader Mary Levy pointed out the availability of more current cost-per-student numbers (2005 vs. 2004):



(From the Post's D.C. Schools by the Numbers page)

along with other insights on funding.