Hail, New Columbia?

D.C. statehood, again

FEW people outside the Beltway noticed it, but the District of Columbia went out of the red and into the black in January. Just five years ago, the D.C. government ran a deficit of more than a half-billion dollars and its bonds were rated junk. Congress created a federal control board to oversee the city, which seemed chronically unable to manage itself. Record keeping was so lousy that nobody knew exactly how much money the city took in, or how it was spent. Schools were shut down for fire-code violations. And then there was Mayor Marion Barry, a national joke.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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D.C. statehood, again

FEW people outside the Beltway noticed it, but the District of Columbia went out of the red and into the black in January. Just five years ago, the D.C. government ran a deficit of more than a half-billion dollars and its bonds were rated junk. Congress created a federal control board to oversee the city, which seemed chronically unable to manage itself. Record keeping was so lousy that nobody knew exactly how much money the city took in, or how it was spent. Schools were shut down for fire-code violations. And then there was Mayor Marion Barry, a national joke.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.