If it took Hurricane Katrina to improve New Orleans’ failing public school system, one shudders to think what it will take to improve Washington’s. A recent study by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute underscores this grim reality.

Between 2008 and 2012, while the District was spending record amounts of money on its traditional public school system under former Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s widely heralded “reforms,” a third of the city’s schools “saw a notable decline in proficiency” in reading and math as measured by the DC Comprehensive Assessment System test. The declines were concentrated east of the Anacostia River, which were already far below basic proficiency levels.