Read the latest Ward 5 news in the
Councilmember’s weekly newsletter:
Read the latest Ward 5 news in the Councilmember’s weekly newsletter:
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LATEST WARD 5 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
May 17, 2024
The Council is quickly approaching the first budget vote on May 29. There are pressing questions on my mind, and a responsibility I believe my colleagues and I have to ensure our most vulnerable neighbors’ needs are met.
While we’ve answered the call in this budget to ensure WMATA can avoid drastic service cuts and downtown revenue can continue to fund our most vital social services, we must also ask—have we answered the call for the single mother of three in Trinidad who is about to be kicked out of rapid rehousing? Have we answered the call for the fixed-income senior in Fort Lincoln who struggles to put food on the table? Have we answered the call for the families newly experiencing homelessness, as the 2024 Point-in-Time Count showed a 39% increase in homelessness among families?
These are the neighbors—many of them in Wards 5, 7, and 8—that I am committed to fighting for in the remaining weeks. There is still more work to do as the budget vote approaches, and your advocacy remains critical. Thank you to the many neighbors, ANCs, Ward 5 small businesses, advocates, and more who have contacted my office and testified throughout this budget season to fight for an equitable budget. Each phone call, email, office visit, and submitted testimony is an important step in our work to build healthy communities together.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, overturning the “separate but equal” precendent of the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case and ruling school segregation illegal. This afternoon, I had the honor of speaking to Brookland Middle School students as they marked this historic day, and shared with them about DC’s own history of school desegregation in a case decided in the Supreme Court the same day as Brown vs. Board of Education—Bolling vs. Sharpe. I invited them to remember where we come from—the families who fought for their children’s right to public education—and to courageously chart where we are going as we face remaining school segregation challenges in our own time.
LATEST WARD 5 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Answering the Call
May 17, 2024
The Council is quickly approaching the first budget vote on May 29. There are pressing questions on my mind, and a responsibility I believe my colleagues and I have to ensure our most vulnerable neighbors’ needs are met.
While we’ve answered the call in this budget to ensure WMATA can avoid drastic service cuts and downtown revenue can continue to fund our most vital social services, we must also ask—have we answered the call for the single mother of three in Trinidad who is about to be kicked out of rapid rehousing? Have we answered the call for the fixed-income senior in Fort Lincoln who struggles to put food on the table? Have we answered the call for the families newly experiencing homelessness, as the 2024 Point-in-Time Count showed a 39% increase in homelessness among families?
These are the neighbors—many of them in Wards 5, 7, and 8—that I am committed to fighting for in the remaining weeks. There is still more work to do as the budget vote approaches, and your advocacy remains critical. Thank you to the many neighbors, ANCs, Ward 5 small businesses, advocates, and more who have contacted my office and testified throughout this budget season to fight for an equitable budget. Each phone call, email, office visit, and submitted testimony is an important step in our work to build healthy communities together.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, overturning the “separate but equal” precendent of the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case and ruling school segregation illegal. This afternoon, I had the honor of speaking to Brookland Middle School students as they marked this historic day, and shared with them about DC’s own history of school desegregation in a case decided in the Supreme Court the same day as Brown vs. Board of Education—Bolling vs. Sharpe. I invited them to remember where we come from—the families who fought for their children’s right to public education—and to courageously chart where we are going as we face remaining school segregation challenges in our own time.
The District faced many challenges in 2023: rising crime, Congressional interference, and looming budget pressures just to name a few. Yet in all of this, I witnessed time and again the resilience of Ward 5 neighbors and your commitment to working with my office to build healthy communities. I invite you to explore the 2023 Year in Review report to see all that we were able to accomplish together.
COUNCILMEMBER ZACHARY PARKER
Since taking office in January of 2023, Zachary has delivered for Ward 5 residents through responsive constituent services and significant budget wins. He has introduced dozens of transformative pieces of legislation, including bills to establish the District’s State Superintendent of Education’s School Support Office to improve low-performing schools, and the District Child Tax Credit which provides low-income and middle-class families fully refundable tax credits for children 17 years of age and younger.
LEGISLATION
Since taking office, Councilmember Parker has introduced more than 30 pieces of legislation, and co-introduced more than 150 additional bills. Learn about Councilmember Parker’s legislation, co-introductions, and committee assignments on the Legislation page.
COUNCILMEMBER ZACHARY PARKER
Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker is an educator and a public servant. He taught 7th-grade math in New Orleans, post-Katrina, with Teach For America, and spent nearly a decade supporting DC school administrators at Ward 5 schools like Dunbar High School and Mundo Verde PCS.
Zachary sees firsthand the human impact of a system that leaves our most vulnerable behind. He grew up watching his oldest brother struggle with a one-size-fits-all school system that did not have the resources to support him, and now sees the challenges he faces in life because of it.
And Zachary suffered alongside his middle brother through a long and exhaustive battle with a healthcare system that treated him more like a problem than a patient before he ultimately passed away at 36 from kidney failure. These shouldn’t be the experiences families have when interacting with our public institutions. Zachary has dedicated his life’s work to transforming the systems that failed his brothers and so many like them.
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