I'm going to order this hearing.

This is a public hearing of the Committee of the Whole of the Council of the District of Columbia.

I'm Phil Mendelssohn, Chair of the Council, Chair of the Committee of the Whole.

Today is Thursday, May 7, 2026.

The time is 9.57 in the morning.

We are in room 412 of the Johnny Wilson building.

This is another one of I think nine hearings that the committee of the whole is having on aspects of the mayor's proposed budget for fiscal year 2027.

There may also be testimony today with regard to her proposed changes to the current fiscal year 2026 budget.

Today's subject is the Office of State Superintendent of Education.

It's our practice to re generally usually we'll hear from public witnesses before we hear from the agency.

So the agency will be testifying at the end of today's hearing.

We have 251 individuals who signed up to testify.

And so I'm going to try to adhere to the clock and ask that witnesses adhere to the clock.

There are clocks everywhere, so nobody can like not see it if they look.

And I probably will not be asking a lot of questions of witnesses.

I suspect the reason why we have so many witnesses is because there are several proposals in the mayor's budget that are unpopular.

And if I had to guess what they are, I would say they're unpopular with council members as well.

The um uh committee of the whole will have a hearing next Wednesday, May 13th, which will be uh the last hearing that we have on the budget, and next week's hearing will be on the overall budget legislation.

So that would be the revised budget proposed for the current fiscal year 2026, the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, the budget support act, and the federal portion budget request act.

Uh, all the issues, whatever they are, um, if folks want to testify, that'll be next Wednesday.

I expect that that will be a long hearing just as today is.

Uh sometimes we start that hearing uh hearing first from the government, first from the government, but um it's not the kind of hearing where we get a lot of detailed testimony from the government regarding the mayor's proposed budget.

It's primarily to hear from the public.

The council is scheduled to vote first reading on June 9th on the budget.

We have to act within 70 days on the budget according to the Home Rule Act.

If we act on June 9th, the second reading will be on June 23rd.

That would be on the budget and the revised budget on June 23rd.

The Budget Support Act, the second vote will probably be a week or two after that.

The mayor transmitted the budget on April 14th, and uh the committees are wrapping up this week uh the hearings that they're having on the agencies under their purview.

Uh with that, uh, my practice is to call witnesses.

Uh there are some who are online.

Um there are many who are in person, which I always appreciate.

So I will either call witnesses until we fill up the table, or I feel like we've had enough folks to go through for that panel.

So let me begin with uh Danielle Robinet, senior policy attorney with the Children's Law Center, Scott Goldstein, executive director in Power Head, whom I'm guessing is online, uh Ann Gunderson, who is senior policy analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.

Audrey Kesselman.

Lauren Johnson.

All right, so we'll stop there.

If you don't see a clock, I will question how you can read your testimony because there are clocks all over the place.

Ms.

Robert Nett, when you're ready.

Good morning, Chairman Mendelssohn and staff.

My name is Danielle Robinett.

I'm a senior policy attorney at Children's Law Center.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the mayor's proposed FY27 budget for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

My testimony today will focus on the budget for special education transportation.

Children's Law Center has repeatedly testified about the experiences of our clients who have suffered unreliable service from Aussie DOT for more than a decade.

Alongside co-counsel, we represent parents and guardians of DC students with disabilities who have filed a class action lawsuit against Aussie for failure to provide safe, reliable, and effective transportation to and from school.

While the proposed operating budget for Aussie DOT is flat funded, it includes significant movement of funds between programs and activities.

However, the public-facing budget documents provide only limited insight into how these changes will affect the provision of transportation for DC students.

For example, the Aussie dot tables show an $11.5 million cut from the communications line and a $17.6 million cut from the performance and strategic management line in the agency management program.

Within terminal operations, cuts are made to three of four terminals while a new fleet activity is created and funded at 17.6 million.

We urge the committee to use today's hearing to seek clarity about how these changes will ensure eligible students receive safe and reliable school transportation.

At Aussie's budget hearing last year, I testified that the special education transportation budget seemed to indicate that Aussie DOT was not seeking to improve their service delivery or address their staffing concerns, but instead plan to rely on private transportation vendors and paying parents to self-transport.

The same can be said for the proposed FY27 budget.

This year, Aussie DOT's proposed budget would eliminate 190 presumably vacant FTEs from terminal operations while investing 13.7 million to fund private bus routes, four million to support the parent stipend program, and another four million to cover projected overtime costs.

Yet again, these allocations seem to indicate that Aussie plans to continue relying on private vendors and parents to fill the gaps in their own service provision.

If Aussie's intention is to gradually privatize DC's provision of special education transportation, it should be clear about their planning so that this committee can provide appropriate oversight and budget allocations.

If privatization is not the long-term plan, then we remain concerned that the agency is continuing to make significant investments in stopgap measures that do not address the underlying systemic issues that have long plagued Aussie DOT.

We appreciate the committee's recent oversight of Aussie DOT, particularly as it relates to the long-awaited contract for a GPS app that would allow families to monitor their students' bus.

We urge you to continue this valuable oversight and follow up on the progress of that project today.