themail.gif (3487 bytes)

January 7, 2007

School Initiative

Dear Initiators:

Colbert King wrote yesterday about the fight over control of the schools (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010501737.html): “It will be a quite a show. But chances of the fight actually benefiting children are about as good as those of the Atlantic Ocean being emptied next week with a teacup. That’s because the focus is on gaining power and control, not on children. Pushing aside the school board and granting the council line-item control over the school budget, as Fenty proposes, invites lawmakers to micro-manage school spending and operations. Any wonder it was [Mayor Marion] Barry who first proposed that scheme?”

An Associated Press article on how “Mayors Seek to Take Charge of Schools,” http://www.townhall.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ContentGuid=ad8bea58-93e7-4459-b296-3d9ff26dd08a, reminds us that, “In most places, elected school boards and the superintendents they hire govern school districts. It is a structure set up about a century ago to insulate schools from political strife and corruption in city government.” It is tempting to say that the movement to dissolve, cripple, or undermine our school board is nothing more than political strife and corruption striking back, and retaking control of the schools’ money and property. That isn’t quite accurate, since many people in DC who are tempted to approve of putting control of the schools back in the hands of city hall are simply frustrated with the incompetence and failure of our school board.

But our mayor and city council have been even less competent and successful than our school board. The departments and agencies that are run by the mayor and overseen by the city council are run no better — and often much worse — than the school system. If the mayor and school board ran the schools, is there any reason to believe that schools would be rebuilt and repaired with any more speed and efficiency than the libraries? Is there any reason to believe that the school facilities would be maintained any better than our local parks and recreation facilities? Is there any reason to believe that the school bureaucracy would be any more responsive to the public than the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs? Is there any reason to believe that the Office of Procurement would manage school contracts any better and more honestly than it does other city contracts? Is there any reason to believe that vocational training would be handled any better than the vocational training done by the Department of Employment Services? Is there any reason at all to think that the mayor and city council would take better care of their wards in the schools than they take care of their wards under the supervision of the Department of Mental Health?

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

###############

The Education Debate Begins
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

This past week, Mayor Fenty released his education reform initiative. Here are some documents for you to judge this initiative for yourself. The mayor’s bill for the school takeover, the “DC Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007,” is at http://www.dcwatch.com/council17/17-001.htm. The press release touting the takeover is at http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/070104.htm. The mayor is relying for “scholarly support” for the takeover on the Parthenon Group’s “study,” “Fact-Base for DCPS Reform,” which is actually a highly biased sales pitch; its executive summary is at http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/070104exec.pdf, its full report at http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/070104rept.pdf, and its appendix at http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/070104app.pdf. The press release of Save Our Schools, which opposes the takeover, is at http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/070105.htm.

Fenty argues that his “plan would ensure rational, streamlined education policy” and “improve transparency of and accountability for public education performance.” But rather than streamlining, the initiative creates a new and complex bureaucratic maze to oversee DCPS. The legislation creates a position of Chancellor of Schools, establishes a Department of Education headed by the Deputy Mayor for Education, turns the Board of Education into the State Board of Education, continues and increases the authority of the State Education Office, establishes an Interagency Collaboration and Services Integration Commission, establishes an Office of Ombudsman for Public Education, and creates a Public Education Facilities Management and Construction Authority.

Fenty’s chief education adviser is Victor Reinoso, who will serve as his Deputy Mayor for Education. Reinoso is a former staffer of the Federal City Council, where we worked on public education issues. Reinoso, however, has no management expertise and limited knowledge of the inner workings of DCPS. Meanwhile, Fenty’s initiative is based on the New York City model in which Mayor Bloomberg, with the appointment and assistance of Joel Klein as Chancellor, took over NYC public schools. As Colby King wrote in his Saturday column, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010501737.html, “Reinoso, in experience, stature, and moxie, is no Joel Klein, the sophisticated New York City school chancellor.”

At his press conference announcing the education initiative, Fenty acknowledged that the initiative would require a charter amendment, but he said that he intended to have the city council approve the legislation but then avoid a public vote to ratify it. He plans instead to forward the legislation to Capitol Hill to have Congress impose it on the city. Since the September primary, Fenty and his staff have been lobbying key Congressional leaders (for example, Senator Mary Landrieux, Rep. Henry Waxman, and Rep. Tom Davis) to support his school takeover proposal. He has walked a precarious tightrope, posing as an advocate of statehood, home rule, and self-determination and denouncing Congressional interference in DC policy issues, all the while seeking to use Congress to bypass DC voters’ right to approve of a Charter Amendment. However, Fenty may have outsmarted himself. A careful reading of his bill indicates that Section 1002 requires that the titles of the bill that do require a Charter Amendment “shall take effect as provided in Section 303 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act,” and that section provides that the Charter “may be amended by an act passed by the Council and ratified by a majority of the registered qualified electors of the District voting in the referendum held for such ratification.”

###############

Slapping Home Rule in the Face
Marc Borbely, borbely@fixourschools.net

The council should quickly reject Mayor Fenty’s highly undemocratic proposal to go above voters’ heads with his school restructuring proposal. Fenty wants the council to ask Congress to amend our Home Rule Charter for us: to castrate our Board of Education, turn DCPS into a regular agency headed by an appointed Chancellor, and grant the council full budgetary and legislative authority over our public schools. (Note: as proposed, this is a council takeover, not a mayoral takeover. Unlike in NYC and probably all other cities, our legislature would be in full control of our local schools; Fenty would have to do what the council tells him to do.) Councilmembers who value home rule and local autonomy should refuse to cosponsor or co-introduce the legislation at least until Section 204 of the bill — which is the request to Congress to amend our Charter — is changed to refer, instead, to ratification by the voters. The Home Rule Charter’s amending procedure leaves legislative control essentially in the hands of the council, where it should be, granting ratification power to the voters and veto power to Congress. If the District bypasses this procedure, Congress will have to actively pass exactly the legislation we want; who knows what else Congress will do to us in the process. A referendum will let voters weigh in on who we want controlling our schools: a Board of Education elected solely to govern schools, or a city council with hundreds of other competing pressures and interests. Perhaps DC voters will choose the city council over the school board. But voters, not 535 visitors to the District, should make this decision.

##############

Takeover of DC Public Schools
Clyde Howard, ceohoward@hotmail.com

Recently, Mayor Fenty indicated that he has a plan to take control of the DC Public Schools because of their failure to educate the children of this city. My question is, how does he know what the educational quality of the DC Public School System entails, since he had enrolled his children in private preschools? Now that they are of the age to advance further, what private school will he place them in for their future education when he takes control of public schools?

###############

Watch Out for Snively Whiplash (and The Hat)
Ed T Barron, edtb1@mac.com

Sure he was standing behind Mayor Fenty when the new mayor was announcing his plan for taking over the DC schools. but Whiplash, alias Vincent Gray, is a great bushwhacker and opportunist, lurking in the background. He may well be working to undermine Fenty’s plan for the schools.

There’s been some controversy about our new mayor’s hat, the fedora that looks just like then one worn by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. I recognized that fedora from my trips to Italy over the past few years. While on holiday there we generally have a brew or two with dinner and order the local Peroni beer. On the label of that beer there was a sinister looking chap wearing the same fedora sported by Mayor Fenty.

###############

Convert a School to an DMV Building
Aeolian M. Jackson, ajack10970@aol.com

I do hope that the city governors will urgently consider converting a northeast surplus schools to an Department of Motor Vehicles building to replace the shameful arrangements at the Brentwood Road office. That heavily used DMV office is located in, essentially, a narrow strip mall with space tightly used. There is no place inside to form a waiting line and a long line forms outside in cold weather. Tempers flair. The employees appear to do the best they can, but their working conditions have to be stressful.

When the office finally opens at 10:00 a.m. (why bankers’ hours), seniors are let in first, ten at a time. Some wait outside up to an hour. Placement of the DMV office in this location appears to be an act of desperation, indifference, or favoritism -- it doesn’t matter which.

A vacated school with its playground could be a perfect DMV building, with its available playground and accesses already in place and the classrooms dedicated to specific DMV functions, including a space for seniors and the frail to wait in comfort and with available bathroom facilities.

###############

Kudos and Thumbs Down
Cecilia Morales, cecilia.morales@gmail.com

Kudos: I absolutely loved Paul Shapiro’s song on the police cruiser lights [themail, January 3]! Someone should send it to the DC council.

Thumbs down: some idiot thinks it’s very cute to spam anyone whose E-mail address has appeared in themail with messages that come with multimegabyte attachments of lengthy pseudo-legal, probably defamatory documents that I have not requested. I completely refuse to even consider this jerk’s political opinions because of his absolutely unspeakably rude approach to making them known. Let’s stop jerks like this by complaining to his Internet service provider, as I have done.

###############

The DMV and SSNs
Ralph Blessing, rblessin88@hotmail.com

Just last month I renewed my driver’s license. I tried doing it online, but the Department of Motor Vehicles site indicated that because my old license number was my Social Security Number, I’d have to apply in person and get a new number.

According to the site, federal law now prohibits use of one’s SSN as a driver’s license ID. While I still question why a random number can’t be assigned online just as easily as in person, I found the experience at the main DMV office to be reasonably fast and painless.

###############

Social Security Numbers
Tolu Tolu, tolu2books@aol.com

When are the federal powers-that-be going to remove Social Security Numbers from the Medicare Insurance Cards?

###############

CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

CityVision Final Presentation, January 12
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org

Friday, January 12, 6:00-8:00 p.m., CityVision Final Presentation: Young Designers Envision Future DC Monuments and Memorials. The Museum’s CityVision program teaches participants how to initiate and promote change in their communities. Through the processes and products of design, students learn problem solving, teamwork, and advocacy. During the fall 2006 semester of CityVision, participants from Paul Public Charter School, Browne Junior High School, and MacFarland Middle School worked with the National Capital Planning Commission to enhance areas surrounding the National Mall. Students will present their "monumental" ideas for improving East Potomac Park, Banneker Overlook, and the RFK stadium site. Free. At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line. Refreshments will be served. RSVP by January 5 to Sarah Smith at 272-2448, ext. 3413 or cityvision@nbm.org.

###############

DC Public Library Events, January 12
India Young, india.young@dc.gov

Friday, January 12, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Dr. Ronald Walters, professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and director of the African American Leadership Institute will lecture on The Dream: Has America Made Substantive Progress Toward Racial Equality? For more information, call 727-1261.

Friday, January 12, 3:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Sopranos Lee-Folia Brunt and Valerie Harris Gregory will perform a concert in honor of the civil rights movement, with narrations and songs. For more information, call 727-1285.

###############

Oral Arguments in Tax Assessment Class Action Suit, January 12
Peter S. Craig, swedecraig@aol.com

The District Government’s appeal from Judge Eugene Hamilton’s decision ordering refunds of increased taxes paid in 2002 will be the subject of an oral argument before a three-judge panel of the DC Court of Appeals on Friday morning, January 12. The case is the third of three one-hour arguments scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in the sixth floor courtroom of the Court of Appeals at 500 Indiana Avenue, NW. The panel assigned to the case include Chief Judge Eric T. Washington, Associate Judge Phyllis D. Thompson, and Senior Judge John M. Steadman.

The class action case, captioned Peter S. Craig, et al., vs. District of Columbia, et al., was filed in the Superior Court in September 2002, after four named defendants (Henry Riley, Herbert Huff, Natwar Gandhi, and Mayor Anthony Williams) refused to vacate across-the-board increases in assessments that exacerbated preexisting discrimination among homeowners. On cross motions for summary judgment, Judge Eugene Hamilton found in September 2005 that the increased assessments on residential property in Triennial Group 1 neighborhoods were in violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection guarantees of the US Constitution and were otherwise also in violation of DC law. In January 2006, he ordered that increases in taxes resulting from these assessments should be refunded to the taxpayers. The District estimates these refunds would total $15 million, plus 6 percent annual interest.

Since the case was filed in 2002, the District’s lawyers have attempted every stratagem to delay and frustrate the homeowners’ attempts to seek relief from the Office of Tax and Revenue’s actions, which Judge Hamilton found to be unlawful and unconstitutional. It took the District’s lawyers over two hundred days to submit their brief to the Court of Appeals and over two months to file their reply brief. Briefs in support of Judge Hamilton’s decision were filed by the Craig case petitioners represented by four Cleveland Park lawyers, by two intervenors represented by Gilbert J. Hahn and by the DC Federation of Citizens Associations, represented by John M. Goodman, who filed an amicus brief. For the oral argument, the court has allotted thirty minutes to each side. The crux of the District’s argument before the Court of Appeals is the claim that the D.C. courts lack the power to review the lawfulness of the city’s assessment methods and that, in any case, they may not be challenged by a class action lawsuit, despite the fact that Congress has specifically authorized suits in the District of Columbia to remedy the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution, 42 US Code §1983, and despite the fact that Congress has specifically authorized class action suits “regarding any matter relating to real property taxes.” DC Code §47-827.

###############

Night Stargazing, January 20
Tim Siegel, timsiegel@earthlink.net

The Friends Wilderness Center near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, will host An Evening Under the Stars: Night Skygazing, with a professional astronomer and his telescope and celestial maps on January 20. This is a great opportunity to visit this Quaker-affiliated center (accessible only by car) and its nature preserve, enjoy early supper, and even to opt to camp or cabin over for the night. Details at http://www.friendswilderness.org. Registration required.

###############

CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED

After School Program Coordinator
Chitra Subramanian, chitra@momiestlc.org

M.O.M.I.E`s T.L.C (Mentors of Minorities in Education`s Total Learning Cis-tem) is a dynamic child development organization that offers creative and culturally relevant after school enrichment and academic support for youth, ages 5 through 10. M.O.M.I.E’s mission is to “nurture the genius” of children by creating a transformative educational experience. M.O.M.I.E’s provides comprehensive, holistic support for our children, so that each child’s “gift” is nurtured and developed. The After School Program offers a variety of components, including guided meditation and self-reflection; individualized academic support; the arts; recreation; and the Great Persons Series, a humanities-based series that teaches children about great heroes and sheroes of color.

We are seeking a highly organized and creative After School Program Coordinator to support Program activities. The position is part-time, with a commitment of 25-30 hours per week. We are looking for someone who is passionate about community development and social justice work, and who has a love for working with children. To view the entire job description, click on http://www.idealist.org/en/job/203944-321. If interested, please send a cover letter highlighting relevant work experience, resume, and three references to info@momiestlc.com.

###############

CLASSIFIEDS — FREE

Free Home Radon Testing Kits
Candace McCrae, candace.mccrae@dc.gov

The District Department of the Environment (DDOE) is offering free Radon testing kits to help DC residents maintain safe and healthy homes. According to the EPA and the District Department of the Environment, you can’t see Radon, you can’t smell it or taste it, but it may be a problem in your home. Radon is a pollutant that comes from the natural radioactive breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water and can enter the air we breathe. Radon has been found in homes all over the United States, including the District of Columbia.

The kit is easy to use by placing it in the home for two days and then sending it to a lab for analysis in the kit’s prepaid postage package. If the results are positive, a list of abatement companies can be provided. The severity of radon contamination will determine how much it will cost to get rid of the problem. This time of year is especially sensitive to Radon pollution because people keep windows and doors closed to keep in the heat. If the home is contaminated, it usually registers at a higher level during the cold months. January is Radon Awareness Month, and DDOE is starting now to alert DC residents to know that Radon is a serious health risk. The National Academy of Sciences reports that Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US that causes about 15,000 deaths a year.

DDOE will be holding three Radon information workshops in January. The times and locations will be advertised and listed on the DDOE web site at http://ddoe.dc.gov. For more information and to get a free Radon test kit, DC residents should call the Radon hotline at 535-2302.

###############

CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS

A New Journal of Architectural Criticism on the District
Julian Hunt, AIA, jhunt at huntlaudistudio dot com

“The whale has no famous author.” — Herman Melville. Dcenter, our new journal, contains new writing on our “leviathan,” the District of Columbia, and architectural criticism as a lens with which to view the construct of the nation. Irreverent, difficult, sometimes wrong, and definitely irritating, the journal is available for purchase through our web site, http://www.dcenter.net or through Amazon.

###############

themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every Wednesday and Sunday. To subscribe, to change E-mail addresses, or to switch between HTML and plain text versions of themail, use the subscription form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm. To unsubscribe, send an E-mail message to themail@dcwatch.com with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Archives of past messages are available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.

All postings should also be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com, and should be about life, government, or politics in the District of Columbia in one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to be printed, and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief paragraphs would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can be put into each mailing.


Send mail with questions or comments to webmaster@dcwatch.com
Web site copyright ©DCWatch (ISSN 1546-4296)