Parents, students and government officials criticized the D.C. Public Schools budget as not clear at best — and as turning the city into a “laughingstock” at worst — at a hearing Monday. Parents from the top-performing School Without Walls Senior High School decried the $2,000-per-student cut proposed for fiscal 2012 on the heels of the U.S. Department of Education naming Walls a Blue Ribbon School for its successes, including a 100 percent graduation rate.

More community members said they were concerned about a lack of openness in the schools budget, which was released more than a month late.