Eric Rojo, Republican Candidate for 
Ward 3 Councilmember in the 
September 10, 2002 Primary
Statement on Educational Choice
August 9, 2002

DC Watch Home

Council Period 12

Council Period 13

Council Period 14

Council Period 15

Election 1998

Election 2000

Election 2002

themail

Search DCWatch

A quality education is a common subject among all candidates seeking election in DC, past and present, the inability to deliver a solid and permanent solution keeps the issue painfully alive. The debate goes on and the solutions and real actions are few. Most solutions are in the form of Band-Aids or pieces for political show-and-tell. In order to put the current education issues to rest we must elect individuals with management and leadership experience than know how to make tough choices and make them now. The education crisis in DC today needs an imaginative short and long-term approach. For the short term the citizens of DC must have access to as many choices as available, for the long term we need a top to bottom reform that eliminates waste, needless paperwork and anything that prevents money from reaching the schools and the teachers.

On the matter of choices in education, in a recent Op-Ed piece [Washington Post, July 7, 2002], "Let the District Choose for Itself," DC Council member Kevin Chavous appeared to present a pragmatic essay on the predicament of the D.C. Public Schools, to be followed by new options and actions. It was particularly out of the ordinary to read "…our traditional school system is capable of reform -- but incapable of reforming itself" -- a refreshing admission of failure from someone who is supposed to oversee the public education apparatus of our city. And exceptionally stimulating was to encounter "Effective reform has to be radical in nature. School choice is the only way to jump-start public education."

Unfortunately, the Council member’s discourse goes downhill thereafter. The piece makes a case for choices that are not true choices, but rather the choices of those in government who claim to know better than the citizens. The discourse is an echo of the "government knows best" argument. But, if government truly knows best, then why is that we face a failing public school system, one run by the same people who know better that the citizens, who more often than not do not send their children to their public schools?

Yes, there is need for radical change to ensure that the District’s families have access to quality education, a right of every citizen. And, while the right leaders take charge of making the needed changes, there is need to ensure that the District’s families who do not have the means can to reach out to better schools. One approach has been to institute or allow the establishment of charter schools as a form of choice for all families. Now there is an opportunity to add school vouchers as a way to allow school choices. But, according to the sages who perpetuate the failed school system, the people of DC should not have vouchers to help make choices, because our citizens are different. How are the people of DC different? Do we not believe in the American Dream of having an opportunity to be educated and escape the tyranny of ignorance? That is so convenient and necessary to perpetuate certain political elite groups. Or is it an accusation that the people of DC are so ignorant that we can’t make our own choices, that we need paternalistic "we know best" officials telling us what is best for us?

As the debate over the value of charter schools and school vouchers spirals, we must not forget that we are in this argument because of the failure of the public school system, and our inability to take on the forces and interests that are at the root of this failure. We should be focusing on the radical fixes that will make the charter schools and vouchers unnecessary.

Charter schools and vouchers are a Band Aid approach to our problems. Instead of viewing them as solutions to our public education problems, we need to admit that they are an escape -- more importantly, a perpetuation of the system’s failure. While charter schools and vouchers can help some children, what happens to the children that are left behind? Success of our educational system will be achieved the day children in the city can attend any school in DC and be assured of quality education. The day we take on the real problem, a cumbersome, wasteful, inefficient and fat administrative layer that stands between the budget and the teachers, and provide the taxpayers with public schools that educate as well as those in neighboring jurisdictions, we will have provided a real solution to our education plight.

In the upcoming elections, let’s elect a council and a Mayor that can truly do the people’s work. Let’s also make sure the parents in our city have as many educational choices as possible, now. For the immediate time being, until the schools’ systemic problems are fixed, that means vouchers and charter schools.

When given real choices, people are capable of deciding their best route for educating – and liberating -- their children. In his Op-Ed piece, Mr. Chavous acknowledges, "Should the District decide to pursue vouchers, it should only do so if that is the people's choice." Lets make vouchers available, and allow the people to choose. Don’t stand in their way.