What other factors have stymied an innovative business and government environment in D.C.?
It all comes down to human capital. We could have a short-term strategy, but the problem with just getting companies into the District is that if you want something sustainable, your K-12 education system and university system have to be in sync. You’ve got to have people here 10, 20, 30 years from today saying, how do I get my ideas incubated? How do I line up the funding to this great problem we’re trying to solve? Just having a company move in won’t solve it. That’s the biggest thing that was missing from Washington, D.C. — making sure we have the right work force, the right people being developed to be able to complete and not jut across the river, but globally. What role has your office taken to develop competitive human capital? We have one of the worst-performing public education systems. With Michelle Rhee as a chancellor, the two of us are working very closely to fundamentally rethink the way education is being delivered in the classroom. You had a school system from a technol
