Yeah... tell all this to those elites who send their kids to the finest D.C. has to offer.
Just for the record, the finest DC has to offer is pretty good. The current mayor is a throwback, but Anthony Williams and Adrian Fenty were serious about reform, as was Michelle Rhee. Which of course is why she was fired; union retribution at the hands of a union tool mayor.
The biggest factor, of course, is gentrification. This isn’t the same city it was 20, or even 10, years ago. Perceptions lag.
But you are correct that the DC system as a whole is still bad. The problem is demographics, not money. And that’s where the Slate article is simply incompetent. DCPS is now spending $29,000 per student, the highest in the country and much higher than the private school average. DC is an extreme case, but nationally, public schools are on average more expensive than private schools. The Slate author does not have a clue that real funding equalization (easily done with vouchers) would move dollars in exactly the reverse direction from what she imagines.