Barras: Creating a permanent underclass in D.C.

Education is supposed to be the great equalizer. That adage is losing currency as Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the closing of 15 facilities over two years — many in low-income communities.

That action and other questionable policies appear to be creating three separate and unequal systems of public education: quality traditional schools, charters and crummy institutions in low-income neighborhoods. The achievement gap between low-income students and other DCPS students illustrates the problem.