And yet, it's stated by the author to be one of the most intrusive examples of Congressional overreach in DC affairs.

Sure, it may not be Congress fucking with budgets and stuff today, but it's clearly laid out that this was Congress using it's unilateral authority in the only region it has it to test their own ideological education platforms (in this case Republicans and charter schools) at a high cost to the District and public education within it and with zero regard for results (because we're still here 28 years later talking about just how shitty DC schools are and Rs are still single-mindedly focused on charter schools as the fix it wasn't in DC).

It isn't the intent of the article that matters here, because Congressional interference to the detriment of DC public education is still the backdrop and even within two paragraphs is well established.