Washington, D. C., formally the District of Columbia

Sister cities

Washington, D.C., has fourteen official sister city agreements. Listed in the order each agreement was first established, they are: Bangkok, Thailand (1962, renewed 2002); Dakar, Senegal (1980, renewed 2006); Beijing, China (1984, renewed 2004); Brussels, Belgium (1985, renewed 2002); Athens, Greece (2000);Paris, France (2000, renewed 2005); Pretoria, South Africa (2002, renewed 2008); Seoul, South Korea (2006); Accra, Ghana (2006); Sunderland, United Kingdom (2006); Rome, Italy (2011); Ankara, Turkey (2011); Brasília, Brazil (2013); and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2013).^[182] Each of the listed cities is a national capital except for Sunderland, which includes the town of Washington, the ancestral home of George Washington's family.^[183] Paris and Rome are each formally recognized as a "partner city" due to their special one sister city policy.^[184]

Education

See also: List of colleges and universities in Washington, D.C. and List of parochial and private schools in Washington, D.C.

Founders Library at Howard University, a historically black university
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) operates the city's 123 public schools.^[185] The number of students in DCPS steadily decreased for 39 years until 2009. In the 2010–11 school year, 46,191 students were enrolled in the public school system.^[186] DCPS has one of the highest-cost yet lowest-performing school systems in the country, both in terms of infrastructure and student achievement.^[187] Mayor Adrian Fenty's administration made sweeping changes to the system by closing schools, replacing teachers, firing principals, and using private education firms to aid curriculum development.^[188]
The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board monitors the 52 public charter schools in the city.^[189] Due to the perceived problems with the traditional public school system, enrollment in public charter schools has steadily increased.^[190]As of fall 2010, D.C. charter schools had a total enrollment of about 32,000, a 9% increase from the prior year.^[186] The District is also home to 92 private schools, which enrolled approximately 18,000 students in 2008.^[191] The District of Columbia Public Library operates 25 neighborhood locations including the landmark Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.^[192]
Private universities include American University (AU), the Catholic University of America (CUA), Gallaudet University, George Washington University (GW),Georgetown University (GU), Howard University, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The Corcoran College of Art and Design provides specialized arts instruction and other higher-education institutions offer continuing, distance and adult education. The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public university providing undergraduate and graduate education. D.C. residents may also be eligible for a grant of up to $10,000 per year to offset the cost of tuition at any public university in the country.^[193]
The District is known for its medical research institutions such as Washington Hospital Center and the Children's National Medical Center, as well as the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition, the city is home to three medical schools and associated teaching hospitals at George Washington, Georgetown, and Howard universities.^[194]