A familiar face on D.C.’s State Board of Education has launched a bid to join the D.C. Council.
Zachary Parker, who has represented Ward 5 on the board since 2018 and serves as its president, announced his candidacy Tuesday for the Ward 5 seat currently held by Kenyan McDuffie.
“My time on the State Board has made clear to me how the struggles of Ward 5 schools are not limited to education policy,” the Democrat wrote in a letter announcing his candidacy, which was posted on social media.
“Families are struggling to connect to government resources, protect their loved ones and meet their basic needs.”
Parker, a native of Chicago’s South Side, “has dedicated his life’s work to transforming the systems that failed his brothers and so many like them,” per the campaign’s website.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master’s from Columbia University. Parker’s career also includes time teaching seventh-grade math in post-Katrina New Orleans.
He will face Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Gordon-Andrew Fletcher, also a Democrat, and possibly the incumbent in next year’s primary.
McDuffie has yet to file for re-election.
