Students Counsel DC City Council on DCPS Budget

Friday April 10, 2009

Washington, DC, April 9, 2009

Students from several DC Public Schools, deliver a powerful message to City Council yesterday- We need more Guidance Counselors.

Representatives from the Youth Education Alliance, a local youth group that organizes high school students for better high schools, testified in support of the 2010 school budget that provides students with more guidance counselors.  They say its a long time in the making.  "The Mayor promised us if he was elected, he would fund more Guidance Counselors" says Ayana  Sutton, YEA Youth Organizer.

Students state their campaign to address the lack of counselors started in 2006 when Anacostia SHS had 1 guidance counselor for the student body of 900.  Margaret Parker, a Anacostia student, remembers "it felt like no one cared, many of us felt hopeless." They believe the 2010 school budget finally begins to address what they call a counselor crisis but noted a few schools are still need more counselors.  

Wilson SHS and Ballou SHS are two of the three schools that will have a student counselor ratio higher than the 1:250 recommended by the American School Counselor Association.  City Council Chair Vincent Gray, expressed his support for the students' cause and praised their testimony.  He encouraged the students that they would find easy allies among other city council members, three of whom are Wilson graduates.  

"This is a real victory for DC public high school students." commented Anita Guzeh, Wilson SHS senior.  The group says it will continue to organize to make sure the three high schools get the additional Guidance Counselors but will begin to work on other issues that keep students from graduating.  "More Guidance Counselors is just the beginning"  says Guzeh.