Carol Schwartz papers

Carol Schwartz (1944- ) has devoted many years of her life to serving the citizens of the District of Columbia both as an elected and appointment official including a considerable amount of work related to the education system in D.C. First elected to the Council of the District of Columbia in 1984, she served a four-year term from 1985 to 1988, during which she helped pass key legislation that had a lasting impact on the District. She ran again for the At-Large seat in 1996 and won elections to that position in 2000 and 2004. In 1986 and again in 1994, she ran unsuccessfully as the Republican Mayoral candidate in the District of Columbia.

Schwartz was born in Greenville, Mississippi and raised in Midland, Texas and later graduated from the University of Texas, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Special and Elementary Education. Schwartz was first elected to public office as a member of the District of Columbia Board of Education in 1974 and served two terms in office. She was then appointed by President Gerald Ford to the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children in October of 1974. Ms. Schwartz was appointed as the Vice Chairperson of that council beginning in 1977 and continued serving in this capacity until 1979. Her political career continued as she became the Vice Chairperson of the District of Columbia Delegation to the 1980 Republican National Convention, and a member of the Presidential Transition Team for the Reagan Administration from 1980 to 1981. Schwartz also served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education, as a Press Secretary in the U.S. House of Representatives, and has participated in an exchange program with political leaders from various countries.

Schwartz's work with the Council of the District of Columbia has included the chairmanship of the Council's Committee on Public Works and the Environment in serving on the Council's Committee on Human Services, the Committee on Government Operations, and the Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation. She has also served as Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' (COG) Board of Directors in 2001 and as Chair of COG's Homeland Security Task Force. She was also elected Co-Chair of the Washington Area Housing Trust Fund in December of 2003, after serving as its Vice Chair.