D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser went back to school on Thursday. She headed to the gym at Coolidge High School in Northwest to make an announcement that could make college more affordable for eligible D.C. high school students.

Standing at the podium in front of a vibrant mural in the gymnasium, Bowser told the students, “A few weeks ago we got some good news from the United States Congress!”

“Even they can get it right sometimes!” she added.

The news from Capitol Hill was that funding for the 25-year-old D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program, or DCTAG, has been increased, something Bowser said she’s been working toward for 10 years.

Starting in the 2026-27 academic year, the maximum annual award for students who apply and qualify for the grants will go from $10,000 a year to as much as $15,000, and the overall cap increases from $50,000 to $75,000.

“These are real dollars guys, a real $15,000!” Bowser told the students. “This year alone, 4,500 students were approved for DCTAG, and that’s the highest number that we’ve had in the last five years.”

Since DCTAG was established, Bowser said nearly 40,000 D.C. high school students were serviced through the program, attaining degrees at more than 400 colleges across the country.

Among those who benefited from the DCTAG program was Arturo Evans, a local business owner who grew up in Ward 7 and graduated from D.C.’s Cesar Chavez Public Charter School.

Speaking to the Coolidge students, Evans explained that as a high school student, he didn’t know if his dreams would ever come true.

“Do your homework, go to class, be on time, listen to your teachers,” he said. “Do not let your current situation determine who you can be tomorrow.”

Evans said without the grant money available in the DCTAG program his college prospects would have been “very limited.”

“I probably would have stayed local, probably would have had to go to a community college,” he said.

But he told WTOP, since he applied for and received grant money through the program, “TAG was able to pave the way for me to go ahead and achieve my dreams and go to my dream school,” at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

While he was at UNLV, Evans said his mother’s illness meant he had to return to the District to help care for her. But thanks to help from his DCTAG adviser, he was able to complete his degree before becoming the CEO of his own D.C.-based business.

Among the Coolidge students attending the event was senior Victoria Evans (no relation to the speaker Arturo Evans), who also was in the DCTAG program and serves as the Command Sergeant Major of the Coolidge Junior Army ROTC.

Victoria Evans said she hopes to study medicine, and explained, “I found out about DCTAG through my school counselors and my college and career coordinators.”

Asked about the application process, she said, “It’s not hard at all. I would definitely say go and get the money they’re providing.”

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton pushed to establish the funding when she introduced the D.C. College Access Act, which passed Congress in 1999. It was designed to address the fact that, since D.C. doesn’t have a state university system, D.C. students had limited access to in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

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WASHINGTON (7News) — More than six months into the federal law enforcement surge in the District, questions remain about how the Metropolitan Police Department’s level of involvement in joint operations and what information the department tracks to ensure accountability.

Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D – Ward 2), chairwoman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, held an oversight hearing of three public safety agencies on Wednesday, including MPD.

The bulk of the 10.5-hour meeting focused on testimony from concerned residents and Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll about the police department.

“Interim Chief Carroll’s testimony provided a clearer sense of how the federal surge of officers is managed overall; however, many questions still remain regarding the ongoing investigations into the three federal agency involved shootings and how and where deployment decisions are being made and which agencies are handling arrests,” Pinto said in a statement to 7News.

At the same time, more residents are raising alarms about federal agencies responding to 911 calls. Carroll said it is not new for agencies such as the U.S. Park Police and the U.S. Secret Service to respond to those calls, but residents are concerned that other agencies are reportedly starting to show up as well.

SEE ALSO | DC Council committee holds oversight hearing on MPD

“When we say law enforcement in DC in 2026, who are we talking about, who’s there, what are they doing, what limits and regulations and oversight are they beholden to, and what recourse do residents have?” Bethany Young, director of policy at DC Justice Lab, told 7News.

“If you call 911, MPD is showing up,” Carroll testified Wednesday. “Can other agencies hear those calls that have those radio channels? Absolutely, they can. But MPD is being dispatched a call and MPD is responding.”

“You see now the uneasiness of some people calling for help,” Councilmember Christina Henderson (I – At-Large), responded to Carroll. “No, I definitely understand,” Carroll replied. “I’m not saying it’s a situation that we want to be in or where we want to be, but I want to make sure that we’re transparent and clear on what the state is right now. That’s what the state is.”

Requests for comment were sent to the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office and the mayor’s office about Carroll’s testimony. The mayor did not make herself available for questions at a public event on Thursday.

Nonlawyers who receive training will now be able to help with civil matters in D.C., as part of a new order issued by D.C. Courts earlier this month that expands access to legal assistance for people without an attorney.

The rule, scheduled to take effect in April, creates a framework for Community Justice Workers, or nonlawyers who are supervised and trained to offer limited legal assistance through a partnership with legal services organizations.

The step comes after a yearslong assessment into the possible role for nonlawyers in offering certain types of legal help to D.C. residents.

As of 2017, 97% of plaintiffs in paternity and child support cases, and in small estate matters, represent themselves in D.C. Superior Court, according to a 2025 report from the District of Columbia Courts Civil Legal Regulatory Reform Task Force.

“We are facing an extraordinary need,” said Nancy Drane, executive director of D.C.’s Access to Justice Commission. “There are thousands of District residents who are not getting the legal help they need.”

The Community Justice Worker model could be compared to seeing a nurse practitioner in a doctor’s office. Ariel Levinson-Waldman, director of nonprofit Tzedek D.C., said someone who goes through a supervised program would be able to provide help, “just like your nurse practitioner does.”

Tzedek D.C. offers pro bono legal help and financial counseling. But, Levinson-Waldman said, there are thousands of people who are eligible for their services and the work of similar providers, and only a select few are available to help.

“Many of the court’s high-volume dockets are cases where the individual D.C. resident is not getting any help,” he said. “This effort, we saw that as a way to change that, to bring more people into opportunities for access to justice, to bring more resources to the problem.”

Whether it be divorce, custody cases, small claims or child support cases, the stakes are high.

Without an attorney or someone who can help in some way, cases often go “less well than it would have. It impacts their family, their future, their finances, sometimes access to the custody of their children,” Levinson-Waldman said.

In some instances, Drane said people experiencing issues such as eviction or family conflict navigate cases without help from a lawyer because legal help is expensive. Free legal service groups have limited capacities and budgets.

Under the Community Justice Worker model, organizations could either train their own staffs to help or partner with community nonprofits.

“What this would mean, practically, is that we will have more helpers in the community who are trained and authorized to provide certain types of legal help,” Drane said. “The real beauty of Community Justice Workers is that they receive what I would call ‘bite-sized training for bite-sized tasks.’”

Karen Dale, market president and CEO of AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia, said people “need assistance, they need support. Having someone by your side to help you navigate with a level of specificity, get you to the right resources in a timely way, should be able to help less lives and families and communities get derailed.”

The approach, Levinson-Waldman said, will provide a formal way for “public spirited” volunteers to help their neighbors.

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