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Ariel Horton received quite the surprise last week when local education officials and nonprofit leaders presented her with the 2024-2025 Milken Educator Award during an assembly at Noyes Elementary School in Northeast. 

On the morning of March 6, Horton received a $25,000 check, lifetime membership in the Milken National Educator Network, and an opportunity to participate in the Milken Educator Forum in Los Angeles next month. 

Upon accepting her award, a teary-eyed Horton, who knew nothing about her nomination, immediately recognized the teachers and administrators who helped her throughout her 13-year career. Minutes later, while speaking to The Informer, Horton called her colleagues a critical part of her professional growth.  

“I learned from really, really skilled educators how to organize, how to run an efficient classroom, how to support students and differentiate for their needs, [and] how to close the gap for students,” said Horton, who’s in her first full year as an assistant principal. 

In 2012, Horton, a two-time alumna of Howard University in Northwest, D.C., started working at Noyes Elementary in Northeast, where she honed her craft while juggling responsibilities as a wife and mother. Over time, she garnered a reputation as a kindergarten math and science teacher well versed in developing and implementing effective instructional strategies, analyzing data, and coordinating students’ academic support. 

Other feats of Horton include her service as a math coach, as well as her development of Noyes Elementary’s Comprehensive School Plan, facilitation of professional development meetings, and two years of service as president of Noyes Elementary’s Parent-Teacher Organization, during which she’s been able to organize community events and develop parent wellness sessions.  

Such experiences, Horton said, have prepared her for the next level of leadership, which now includes membership in a national club of 3,000 highly skilled and knowledgeable educators. 

“I really have grown up here as an adult and I feel like I’m a reflection of all of the people here who worked here, who have taken the time to mentor me and to walk me through leadership when I was very reluctant,” she told The Informer. 

The Struggle to Preserve Local Education Funding

As D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and the D.C. Council prepare to mold a budget marred by dismal revenue estimates, Horton counts among those stressing the need for continuous investment in programs and initiatives that foster a love for math in D.C.’s youngest learners. 

“They just get to have a financial literacy curriculum [to ensure] that we [hit] the ground running to teach our students how to plan and be able to protect and grow their money as they grow,” she said. “It’s going to be really important in starting conversations… that I certainly didn’t have when I was in kindergarten.” 

In recent weeks, Bowser has expressed a desire to continue pouring into public education, government operations and capital investments. She said just as much during a March 1 budget forum at Kennedy Recreation Center in Northwest, where she touted the post-pandemic successes of the District’s public school system, particularly those involving some of D.C.’s youngest students. 

“D.C. Public Schools are the fastest improving urban school district in the nation,” Bowser said. “Our fourth graders outpaced fourth graders around the nation last year — all the fourth graders. And it didn’t happen by accident. It happened because you allow us to invest in strategies that work.” 

It remains to be seen the degree to which education officials will be able to continue making these investments while honoring teacher salary increases and the terms of a collective bargaining agreement with Washington Teachers’ Union. In recent days, D.C.’s economic woes have intensified with a House committee’s introduction of a measure cutting more than $1 billion in fiscal year 2025 allocations, and as D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson emphasized on Monday, another $1 billion during fiscal year 2026. 

During the latter part of February, community members and advocates who attended Bowser’s budget forums shaped an imaginary financial document with 10% less money than what had been allocated during last year’s budget forum, which Bowser would later acknowledge as an allusion to the dismal revenue projections the Office of the Chief Financial Officer released earlier in the month.  

Jessica Giles, an education advocate who participated in this activity on March 1 with a group she described as Education Reform Champions, said the scenario they worked through hints at similarly tough decisions that District education officials are making.  

Despite a projected budget shortfall of at least $300 million during fiscal year 2026, Giles continues to advocate for investments in literacy and math instruction, expansion of college and career pathways, delivery of student behavioral health support, the 3.1% increase in charter school facilities allotment, and what she called a level of funding paving the way for pay parity across the public school and public charter school sectors. 

“We’re at a pivotal time where we can move forward or go back. Now is the time to double down on that progress and we’re urging the mayor and D.C. Council to protect investments and fund what works,” Giles, executive director of , told The Informer. “We’re concerned there will be cuts to education so we want to make sure it remains a top priority [so] students come first.” 

For Giles, that also includes the students attending District public charter schools. 

“We’re focused on making sure all students get the resources they need no matter what school they attend,” Giles said. “By not having those funds, public charter schools would need to make tough decisions about how they make ends meet.” 

D.C. Public Schools Central Services Office Deviates from Schools First in Budgeting Amendment Act  

Last week, District education officials revealed a fiscal year 2026 budget proposal that includes a nearly 3% increase to the universal per-pupil funding formula. 

D.C. Public Schools will receive a $75 million increase in funding while District public charter schools receive only $48 million, due to what officials described as a higher level of projected enrollment growth in the District’s public school system. 

Regardless of the amount received, many schools, if not all, will most likely face the challenge of maintaining teaching staff and extracurricular programming. Last week, DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee and Paul Kihn, D.C. deputy mayor for education, confirmed that, due to enrollment declines, at least six District public schools will receive less funding in FY 2026. 

In response to this conundrum, Ferebee and Kihn announced the launch of . The additional $24 million across-the-board funding, Ferebee said, would allow school leaders to allocate, at their discretion, dollars toward the preservation of teaching positions.  

“We’re looking at classroom teachers at each grade level, but we break down for each school how much allocation they should spend at a minimum,” Ferebee told The Informer. “Where schools have to make decisions like they have in the past is having behavioral teachers, deans, and instructional coaches. They might not have the buying power to purchase those positions, so they might have to restructure that based on what they bought last year.” 

Kihn told The Informer that, given projected revenue declines and the creation of a public charter school teacher pay equity fund, he and Ferebee want to ensure that no District public school loses programming or instructional staff, as intended by the , which the D.C. Council approved in 2023. 

“We certainly believe that our colleagues in the D.C. Council will understand deeply what important trade-offs we have to make,” Kihn said. “There will be appreciation for how we’re investing in public schools.” 

Provisions of the Schools First in Budgeting Act include budget allocations for each District public school no lower than what they received during the previous budget cycle. The legislation also requires DCPS central services to submit their budget to the council 42 days before the mayor. 

Since the legislation’s passage, Kihn and Ferebe hadn’t maintained fidelity to the law. Bowser, a critic of Schools First in Budgeting, went as far as unsuccessfully attempting to water down the legislation in the FY 2025 Budget Support Act. Despite Bowser’s notion that Schools First infringes on her rights, as outlined in the Home Rule Act, Mendelson remains steadfast in his endeavor to fully fund District public schools in this manner. 

Last week, shortly after the council wrapped up its fifth legislative meeting of Council Period 26, Mendelson didn’t deviate from this viewpoint when he questioned whether Ferebee and Kihn have gone far enough in protecting schools.  

“I know that the initial budgets that were circulated to schools last week cut the budgets for six schools,” Mendelson told The Informer. “Schools should not be seeing cuts, and creating a sustainability fund is not the same as schools getting the budget that they’re entitled to.” 

A DCPS Principal Weighs In 

Kermit Burks, principal at Noyes Elementary School, told The Informer that, despite D.C.’s precarious economic situation, he believes that the Bowser and the D.C. Council will continue to heavily invest in District public schools. 

“They do a wonderful job of funding schools — probably the best job in the entire country,” said Burks, who’s in his eighth year at Noyes Elementary School. “When you take a look at how much teachers are paid, how much we pay administrators, how much [autonomy] they give principals to adjust their budgets based on what the community needs.” 

During the pandemic, while teachers left the classroom in droves, Burks guided students, faculty, and staff through several transitions. As he explained, he was able to maintain a teacher workforce equally composed of veteran and novice instructors due to the rapport he established throughout his tenure. 

“That’s one thing about DCPS,” Burks said. “Most of the principals around have been in these buildings for a long time. We get a lot of support and it really helps us support the community.” 

On March 6, Burks beamed with pride as Mike Milken of the Milken Family Foundation called Horton’s name and Horton walked to the front of the auditorium. He echoed Horton’s sentiments, telling The Informer that her quality of her teaching pedagogy shows the support she received, and has been able to give other educators ever since. 

“Ariel came … and she stuck around for 13 years, made this her home and worked really hard,” Burks said. “There’s a lot about what we try to do in the buy-in that we get from those teachers to stay here, stick around, even though it gets hard sometimes.”