Eric Waldo

Opinion: If D.C. can’t clear all roads, it shouldn’t send students to class Kids deserve consideration in school reopening plans, writes a Jackson-Reed High School student.

"I understand that it’s very hard for parents to have their kids home for extended periods of time, especially parents of young children...But conditions were not safe for many students asked to attend class that day," writes ninth-grader Rayna Leibowitz Hampton.

This moment reflects years of dedicated advocacy.

Deep gratitude to Tom Davis, Pat Butler, and Ted Leonsis for their leadership and persistence in pushing this effort forward, and to Don Graham and Argelia Rodriguez, who were key architects of this work.

Applause.

It’s a major, long-overdue win for DC residents.

For decades, DCTAG has been one of the most powerful tools available to DC students seeking access to colleges and universities nationwide. Increasing the grant provides greater financial stability as students face rising tuition costs.

BIG NEWS for DC students and families.

Yesterday, the President signed the FY26 appropriations bill, which includes a 50% increase in the DC Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG)—raising the annual award from $10,000 to $15,000 per student.

This is the first increase since DCTAG was established in 1999

Catherine O’Hara Could Do Anything And she pretty much did everything. The only tragedy is that it feels like she was just beginning to get the recognition her decades-long career always deserved.

For The Ringer, I wrote about how amazing it was that the brilliant Catherine O'Hara finally became a superstar in her 60s, and how sad it is that she was taken from us just when we had all finally begun to appreciate her:

Great to speak at the UERU Association National Conference today about the power and importance of first-gen student success.

Proud to share some lessons learned from my time at the White House and my time leading DC CAP Scholars

¡Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!

NEWS:
DC CAP Scholars is proud to be a recipient of a generous gift from MacKenzie Scott and her team at Yield Giving.

So proud of this team.

This recognition is as good as it gets from the most trusted name in philanthropy.

We will keep pushing for ALL DC students to get to and through college

Remembering Rob Reiner, who made movies for people who love them The movies Reiner directed, from A Few Good Men to The Princess Bride, weren't just good — they were people's favorites, the types of films people come back to again and again.

I said roughly ten percent of the things I could have said about Rob Reiner.

Rosie on her own picked out a Brown shirt for me today. Just heartbroken for our community.

Please help, friends!

My panel for SXSWEDU is up and if you vote for it, we’ll get to share how DC CAP Scholars has closed college achievement gaps where national fixes have stalled.

Voting is open until Aug 24.

Please create an account, & tap the heart. 🙏🙏🙏
t.co/6rBkJYv4Iz

Most Parents Still Want Their Kids to Go to College A new survey from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation shows that the majority of parents, no matter their party affiliation, prefer that their children’s plans after high school include some form of high...

Survey: Most Parents Still Want Their Kids to Go to College

A new survey from @gallup.com and the Lumina Foundation shows that the majority of parents prefer that their children’s plans after high school include some form of higher ed. bit.ly/4lB7BSF

#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

There are ways to reduce #dementia risk:
🦻get hearing checked
🚶‍♂️exercise
👭stay social

But beware of #pseudoscience. A family member was sold “light therapy for the brain.”

If it cured dementia, it’d be the first.

Physicians aren’t hiding cures—we’re trying to protect from harm.
#BrainHealth #NIH

By level-funding the FY 2024 appropriation, the Request would set a maximum award of $5,710 for award year 2026-2027, a decrease of $1,685 over the 2024-2025 award year The maximum award will continue to cover the average published in-state tuition and fees for mmunity college students. The President is committed to fulfilling his promise to preserve the Pell Grant program; however, the growing funding shortfall created by past congressional decisions makes it necessary to decrease the maximum award. The Administration looks forward to working with Congress to develop a long-term, sustainable solution.

wow, the trump budget request to congress (this is NOT the medicaid/snap/tax cuts bill) calls to cut the maximum pell grant award by $1,685

Proud husband alert!

Katie Waldo was named by The Washingtonian as one of DC’s 500 Most Influential People Shaping Policy of 2025.

Since she helped found We The Action in 2017, she has been activating pro-bono lawyers to support nonprofits. Even more important today!

🎉 IT’S TIME! DC’s biggest celebration for students is BACK!

📅 April 11, 2025 | 📍 @CapitalOneArena

For #CollegeSigningDay 2025, we are doubling down in our celebration of DC students' commitment to their post-secondary education.

Stay tuned for more details! 🎓

MacArthur Foundation to increase giving for two years in response to 'crisis' The John D

Every single philanthropic institution needs to do this rather than retracting right now.

abcnews-go-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/abcnews....

We’re in the middle of the worst flu outbreak in 15 years. 😷

But, we’re canceling the meeting to plan for this years’ flu vaccine.

And we’re about to cut #Medicaid for 72 Million poor and disabled Americans.

What could go wrong?

The Times identified more than 30 frozen studies that had volunteers already in the care of researchers, including trials of: malaria treatment in children under age 5 in Mozambique treatment for cholera in Bangladesh a screen-and-treat method for cervical cancer in Malawi tuberculosis treatment for children and teenagers in Peru and South Africa nutritional support for children in Ethiopia early-childhood-development interventions in Cambodia ways to support pregnant and breastfeeding women to reduce malnutrition in Jordan an mRNA vaccine technology for H.I.V. in South Africa

Trials abandoned due to the stop-work order on USAID-funded research:

Not great.

True story: I once hosted a meeting at ED with Peter Yarrow and @alexdsanchez.bsky.social and he brought his guitar and told us stories and of course advocated for music in schools.

Crazy thing is he was in my dad’s fraternity at Cornell and just a few years below him. They were friends. RIP

I loved the finale and in some ways I think it could/should be the series finale. If this was an AMC show and not an Apple+ show from the creators of Ted Lasso, J would have pushed B.

Noooooooooooo

Donate | DC-CAP Your donations help us make the college and career dreams of DC students come true. We thank you for your support.

🎓 2024 was a landmark year for DC-CAP.

This year, we celebrated:
✅ College Signing Day, honoring 2,500+ DC students
✅ Launch of our 2050 Moonshot Goal to raise DC’s college graduation rate to 80%
✅ A streamlined application, making aid more accessible than ever

Help here: dccap.org/donate

Happy Thanksgiving! I love my family, my friends, and the work I get to do. Feeling grateful for all it.

Thank you to Nic Jafarieh, Jen Byers, and the entire team at the Sallie Mae Fund for their generous $75K check to DCCAP Scholars.

A real treat to have a check presentation ceremony at the Caps game tonight.

Threads never made sense. It tried to push stuff I didn’t follow and completely out of sequence.

I was here back when you had to get on a wait-list for an invite code!

It’s Prince’s birthday
This is my favourite story about him by a country mile