The Phony Solution

Dear Problem Solvers:

The Council of the Great City Schools, a nationally respected group with real expertise on urban school districts, has issued two highly critical reports on the Washington, DC, school system. It is significant, therefore, that this month it has issued an even more critical analysis of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s plan to take over management of the city schools (http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/0702.htm). Colbert King summarized the findings in his column on Saturday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301673_3.html): “The analysis concluded that Fenty’s plan, rather than reducing decision-making layers, makes decision-making more top-heavy and harder to coordinate. It suggests that Fenty’s plan lacks a clear vision about the direction of the school system and that it actually relies on Janey’s master education plan and other school system special education plans. It also charges that Fenty’s proposal to give the DC council line-item authority over the budget will only worsen an already cumbersome process. Finally, the Council criticizes Fenty as not presenting a specific plan of action.”

This severe criticism explains why the city council has largely avoided inviting national education experts to testify in its series of hearings on Fenty’s school takeover bill -- it doesn’t want to hear what education experts have to say, since the purpose of the Fenty plan isn’t to improve education. Just in case some councilmembers do put the interests of the children ahead of the interests of the development, construction, and business groups behind the Fenty bill, however, here in full is the summary of findings in the Council of the Great City Schools’ report (numbering added):

“1) The fundamental problems of low student achievement and dysfunctional finance and operating systems that were identified by the Council of the Great City Schools in two previous analyses of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) are not cured or solved in the mayor’s current proposal to restructure the school system. 2) Mayor Fenty acknowledged in testimony before the DC Council that his proposed legislation does not address the basic reasons for the school district’s low and stagnant student achievement or fix weak instructional practices in the schools. 3) The mayor’s proposed legislation alters governance arrangements and the organizational structure of the school system but does not appreciably reduce multiple layers of bureaucracy overseeing the school system. To the contrary, the proposed bill may make it harder to coordinate across agencies. The complicated new structure, in fact, could require the mayor and/or deputy mayor to have to personally reconcile operational disputes that should be settled at a lower level of authority. Finally, the plan could lead to yet more turnover in school system leadership. 4) The mayor’s plan does not streamline the budget process to any measurable degree, reduce layers of budget approval or interference, or make it easier to align instructional goals with financial resources. In fact, the proposal may cost the city considerable amounts of money just to move the organizational boxes. 5) The mayor’s plan creates a separate school facilities authority to handle building renovation and repair, but the plan lacks a critical mechanism by which infrastructure decisions are coordinated with the schools or discussed with the public. 6) Similarly, the mayor’s bill is not likely to streamline or accelerate operations. Indeed, it appears that some operations may actually slow down under the proposed new structure. And the bill is silent on payroll, procurement, and human resources. 7) Finally, the mayor’s bill places more accountability in the hands of the mayor, but the bill is unclear about how the mayor actually is to be held more accountable to the public than the school board has been.”

The final city council hearing on the Fenty plan, in which the mayor will testify, will be held on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. (a half-hour earlier than previously announced) in the council chambers.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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City Council Chairman Discovers the Remedy for Elections
P. Walters, kontidy@gmail.com

Listening to Kojo’s DC Politics Hour (sans Kojo) last Friday, I was stunned to hear Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s explanation of why the Fenty “emergency” school takeover did not need to be put to the voters in a referendum (http://www.wamu.org/audio/kn/07/02/k1070223-12986.asx). According to Gray, the hearings on the plan that he orchestrated were, in themselves, a “referendum,” and no further vote was needed. Now the logic of this is, that if the Council listens to its friends’ choreographed testimony for a little while, then the peoples’ voice has been heard. By adopting this rule, we’re going to save a ton of money and grief in the future. (Hey, no more campaign poster litter!) We don’t need council or mayoral elections — just a few hours of testimony from the coalition of the willing and, abracadabra, the Council will appoint the mayor and themselves to office. They could even have that pesky District Charter testified out of existence.

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Sports Venues
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

On Wednesday (themail, February 21), I wrote about PR 17-0117, the Verizon Center Sales Tax Revenue Approval Act of 2007, which had just been introduced in the city council by Jack Evans, Vincent Gray, and Marion Barry. It will provide $50 million in public funding to Abe Pollin to underwrite renovations at the Verizon Center. As I have already noted, the legislation is very detailed with regard to the revenue bonds the District would issue, but silent on the benefits the city would receive. According to Charles Barbera, Deputy General Counsel in the office of the Chief Financial Officer, the major thing that has been mentioned in newspapers as a benefit of this deal -- the transfer of ownership of the Center to the District in 2040 — was already provided for in the original December 1995 agreement between Pollin and the District government, which purchased the land for Pollin and leased it to him. The other two elements were promises made by Pollin, described by Wilson Building sources as “the consummate dealmaker,” in private meetings with city leaders. In his private meeting with Mayor Fenty about a month ago, Pollin proposed giving the mayor the use of a twenty-four-seat luxury suite at the Center. In his private meeting with Council Chairman Gray, Pollin added an offer to host this year’s city championship game at the Center. That means the only real long-term benefit the city will get for $50 million is that the mayor and councilmembers will be given the use of a luxury suite at the Center and won’t have to spend their own money for sports tickets.

In the February 21 edition of the Downtowner newspaper, Jack Evans wrote in a column titled “Sports Venues in DC”: “In three years, RFK Stadium will be vacant. My proposal is to tear down RFK, lease the land to Dan Snyder for $1.00 per year, and have him construct a new stadium at his cost. His financing will come from the sale of the land where Fed Ex Field now sits in Landover, MD. The new stadium could have a retractable roof to host the Super Bowl and other Bowl games or special events — in fact, make a more productive venue year round. The parking and Metro stop are already in place. Having the Redskins back in our City in a place easy to get to is a very popular idea.”

According to the daily poll of the Washington Express on Thursday, February 23, Evans’ idea of a $50 million giveaway to Abe Pollin is not so popular: 89 percent of the respondents did not believe that public funds should be spent to finance Verizon Center upgrades.

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High School Sports at Verizon, RFK, Etc.
Christopher Jerry, jerrydc@gmail.com

I’m a big high school sports fan and over the next few week I expect to be at basketball championship games in big arenas at George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Maryland’s Comcast Center. However, it’s always bothered me that the one place in the area where high school basketball supposedly matters most, the city of Washington, is relegated to having its championship title game played in George Washington’s Smith Center. It’s a nice 5,000 on-campus place to play, but its a gymnasium, not an arena.

That brings me to an article I read in the Washington Post about negotiations to play this years city basketball championship games at the Verizon Center [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101691.html]. The powers-that-be are trying to negotiate to have the game played there in two weeks, but Abe Pollin, the guy asking for a $50 million handout from DC to upgrade Verizon, instead of making an offer too good to refuse, has made an offer too bad to take. In order for the game to be at Verizon, Pollin is willing to let them play there free of charge. So far, so good. But then he wants to keep all gate receipts, and have the DCIAA (DC public schools) and WCAC (Catholic schools) pay for security. Last time it was played at Verizon (then MCI Center), in 2002, with Pollin getting a large chunk of the money, the charge for tickets was a staggering $15, more than double the cost of a ticket for Maryland’s and Virginia’s state championship games today. In addition to playing for a championship, one of the main reasons for playing this game is as a fundraiser for the respective leagues. There is no money to be made for either league in an arrangement with Pollin’s Verizon Center in which Pollin’s WSC gets all money from ticket sales and concessions, while the high school leagues pay for security.

Maybe it time to go back and play the city championship in the suburbs, at either GMU or Maryland. When I watch regional sports broadcasts of high school sports around the country on DirecTV, most cities and states, including New York City (Madison Square Garden), use one of its top of the line facilities to host its championship games. Not here in DC. It’s really remarkable that the city has invested millions in Verizon Center, RFK, and the new baseball stadium for the Nationals, and is trying to gift DC United with a soccer palace at Poplar Point, yet none of these organizations can make a charitable donation of their arenas or stadiums (including letting the schools keep the funds raised for those events) for one event a year. Perhaps that is something the city, at a minimum, should insist from the owners/operators of these stadiums financed in part by public funds. It’s done in every other city and state and there no reason basketball, baseball, football, and soccer championship games can’t be played at stadiums in the city the pro teams play in.

(Postscript: I was glad to read in Saturday’s Post that a deal was crafted that now gives the first $15,000 of ticket receipts to the schools of the DCIAA and WCAC, the next $30,000 to Pollin, and splits anything after that, after security charges, between the schools and leagues. If I am going to get fired up enough to write to themail as well as all councilmembers to complain, the least I can do is give credit when the right thing is done. Though, with all the money Pollin’s Verizon Center is going to take in on concessions, he still could have let all the money for tickets to the schools, but in this case, I’ll not hit a ugly gift horse in the mouth.)

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Refusing the Refuse
Paul Penniman, paul@mathteachingtoday.com

Anyone else having garbage woes? Ours wasn’t picked up last week, despite one call midweek and another at the end of the week. The second time, they had no record of the previous call or the reference number. This week, the garbage finally got picked up, but the recycling is in its third week of sitting out there. Is anyone getting satisfaction from making on-line reports instead of calling in problems? I’ve always gotten bupkis from those automated E-mail query programs.

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Crime Wave in Southeast DC
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com

From the Patrol Service Area 105 meeting on February 24: “Today’s PSA105 meeting was devoted exclusively to the recent rash of robberies around Fifth Street, SE, between East Capitol Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. The meeting was attended by over thirty local residents, six Business Improvement District (BID) ambassadors, and ten MPD officers, including our 1D1 Lieutenant. To recap, the home burglaries in question occurred in late January and early February. The suspect is described as an African-American male in his mid-30s with a round face, about 5’8" to 5’10". He sometimes wears glasses and has usually been seen in dark clothes and a knit cap. He has carried either a duffel bag or book bag. His M.O. is to use a chisel or other tool to chip away the wood around the front door lock and then kick the door in. He tends to steal mostly laptops and jewelry, although he has been known to leave expensive jewelry and overlook cash. This appears not to be an especially professional thief, but he has been unusually prolific. He rings doorbells or otherwise checks homes for occupants and leaves quickly when confronted. He has not been reported to be seen carrying or using a weapon.

“Since the first week of February, it appears that the burglar may have moved across East Capitol Street to the NE side. All neighbors are asked to be extra-vigilant for this suspect, who is likely responsible for a one-man crime wave. If you see anyone resembling the suspect, please call 311 or the 1D1 substation at 698-0068 immediately. The police are on high alert for this individual and will respond rapidly. He has been observed by others checking doors up and down blocks. If you see anyone engaged in this type of suspicious behavior, again, please call 311 or the 1D1 substation as quickly as possible.”

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MPD Seeks Your Thoughts with New Community Survey
Kevin Palmer, kevin.palmer@dc.gov

The Metropolitan Police Department is conducting a community survey designed to identify ways to improve services to all community members. Information from the survey will be used to help understand the specific needs of the community and determine which programs have been successful and those that may need additional attention.

District residents and business owners, commuters, and visitors are welcome to participate in the survey. Members of the community may complete the surveys online at http://www.mpdc.dc.gov/communitysurvey or via a paper form. Collection boxes for the hard copies of the survey are available in every police district station and substation, as well as in all twenty-two DC public libraries. To find the MPD facility closest to you, visit http://www.mpdc.dc.gov/districts. A list of public library locations is available at http://www.dclibrary.org/branches.

Additionally, hard copies may be completed and mailed to MPDC Headquarters. Survey respondents are asked to complete the survey by March 14, whether they do so electronically or via a printed form. Your answers are confidential and will be used only to help the Department understand community issues. MPD plans to track its progress over time through additional surveys just like this. For more information about the survey, please contact Annie Russell, Director of the Policing for Prevention Division, at 727-1585 or E-mail her at annie.russell@dc.gov.

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Why So Many Candidates?
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom

Just read in today’s Post that there are thirty-nine candidates who have filed for the Council seats in Wards 4 and 7. Must be a lot of basketball fans in those Wards.

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DC’s Transportation Infrastructure Crisis
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

While attention remains locked on DC’s real or imagined public education crisis, the city’s transportation crisis is unfolding largely unnoticed. It is well on its way to a ‘breaking point’ because the lead times to add urban infrastructure are so long, the decisions so difficult, and the necessary vision so scarce. DC’s growing, predictable transportation problems are apparently staying under the purview of the Council’s Public Works and Environmental (and Alcohol Regulation?) Committee. That committee is now chaired by Ward 1’s Jim Graham, who has had a singularly unremarkable stint as DC’s rep on WMATA’s Board. His first act as chair (on February 27) will be to approve the appointment of Emeka Moneme as Director of DDoT. Moneme has had a short and relatively undistinguished career as a “management consultant”; as a Department of Public Works staffer who helped Tangherlini create a separate DDoT; and then as chief of staff to Tangherlini in his own short, undistinguished career at Metro.

Moneme’s first big splash at DDoT has been to kick off a “master plan” for DC pedestrians (“now that we are becoming a walking city...”). Graham’s first big splash in his new role is to replay his predecessor’s locally-focused mid-November roundtable hearings on the future of the Whitehurst Freeway, a key regional arterial. Neither has demonstrated any particular technical, analytical, or planning expertise. Meanwhile, there are extensive plans to redecorate DC’s surface transportation infrastructure, but no plans for improving vehicular traffic flow in and around the city; no plans to increase the availability of, or revenues from, municipal parking; no plans to extend Metrorail’s coverage to DC’s underserved, still impoverished, areas; or to increase its capacity and redundancy in and around the vulnerable downtown area. If you like our national capital’s indifference to its current mobility problems and the need for major decision-making, stick around for another ten years of inattention and watch it choke off its own economic future and regional leadership.

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Why the Metrobuses Are Badly Driven
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com

Bus drivers tell me two problems are the cause of the bad bus driving we’ve all seen. First, the labor pool. Once you’ve eliminated drug users, alcoholics, criminals, illiterates, and sociopaths, you’ve got graduating classes of five out of thirty.

Second, because of the shortage of good people, Metro is short of personnel — and, just like the police did in 1989, they’re hiring a lot of people and training them too quickly.

The drivers know that many of the bus drivers aren’t trained properly, but they’ve been threatened with firing if they expose what Metro is currently doing.

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Blaming the Victims
Ken Katz, kskatz at toad dot net

In response to Nancee Lyons’ post (themail, February 21): of course there are dangerous pedestrian, cyclists, and drivers, all of whom ought to repent. However such a general point is totally irrelevant to the specific case of the two women struck down at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, at least so far as the public facts remain. They were within the cross walk and had the walk signal (at least when they started across, which is appropriate). In July 2006, while crossing Connecticut Avenue at Fessenden Street, NW, I was also within the crosswalk (already about a third across the street) with the cross signal when a school bus driver making a left turn onto Connecticut Avenue ran me down. Having lived in our neighborhood 8.5 years, crossing Connecticut on average four times a day, I can only say I am surprised it took so long before I was injured in such a fashion. I watch vehicles drive through both the stop sign where 36th Street meets Fessenden and the red light at the Fessenden/Connecticut intersection every single morning and most afternoons during the rush hours. The astonishingly naive assumption that traffic cameras mitigate such behavior at intersections other than the one where the cameras are situated is easily shown to be wishful thinking, as one watches the very same vehicles stopping one block north of Connecticut at Nebraska Avenue when there is a red light and a camera, and not even slowing down before going through the red light at Fessenden Street.

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Bullpens and the School Takeover
Paul Wilson, dcmcrider-at-gmail-dot-com

I read with interest the long Post piece on the new Fenty (and staff) digs in the Wilson Building [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900984.html]. While the comparison may seem superficial, I think there’s a connection between this new office environment and the hasty and ill-conceived schools takeover. Both appear to make ceaseless movement and youthful energy substitutes for thoughtful and sober decision-making. Both seem to display little patience for traditions, or the kinds of detail-oriented tasks, retail politics, and stakeholder buy-in that comprise effective and long-lasting public policy.

Both are also connected in that they represent the apotheosis of a management fad and novelty for novelty’s sake. The bullpen arises from the heady days of the late-90s dot-com bubble and, prior to that, Carville/Clinton-era “war rooms.” City school takeovers are of similar vintage. Of course, it bears mentioning that as fads go, the schools takeover is a bit out of date and Washington has showed up at the party very late. Going out of date quickly is the nature of fads, after all, as the gaudy circus parade moves on to the next new thing. What happens when the mayor, just like his predecessor, tires of “school reform” and moves on to something more interesting and perhaps a little easier? If he tires of the bullpen or finds it unworkable, it’s a matter of moving a few partitions and some wiring. The collateral damage of a failed mayoral schools takeover will be a bit more severe.

On the other hand, the conference rooms in the mayor’s bullpen have large windows, as symbols of openness and citizen access. Perhaps the council’s “executive session” and “breakfast” meetings could be held in similar surroundings, in the absence of effective open meetings laws. The press could take crash courses in lip reading.

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Schools Takeover
Clyde Howard, ceohoward@hotmail.com

We all talk against the takeover of the public schools by Fenty’s Marauders, but what each of us must understand is that it is not about the education of the children, as we are led to believe. It is about the greed of the developer friends of the Heralds (councilmembers) and Marauders (developers and want-to-be’s) who are in lockstep in the belief that they can bamboozle the residents of this city into siding with them in their quest to once more shake the money tree without anyone suspecting what they are up to. When you look at the amount of money budgeted for school building construction/maintenance and the number of vacant school buildings and the property they sit on, it becomes very clear why the business community is so enamored of the prospects of getting their little grubby hands on that much profit-making business. Once they can extend their influence upon the Congress to invoke their will on the residents of this city, entitling them to proceed with the takeover, the education of the children will become a low priority in the vast money grubbing scheme. Ask yourselves, if this so called plan of theirs doesn’t work, what will become of the education of the children? Will they blame themselves or will they give back to a school board the remnants of a failed effort to have their cake and eat it too? Just think what they could do with Cardozo High School property if they could close it. It would be the largest development project in the whole city, with condos, apartments, and an enclosed mini shopping mall with underground parking. What a deal this would be. Developers have long had their eyes on that property. My advice to all is to stop focusing on the hole in the donut, but keep your eyes on the whole donut.

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School Board’s “Plan” — Not
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom

Today’s Post headlines that the school board’s plan for reforming the District’s schools is unveiled. It’s not a plan. It’s a vision and not even a mission at this point, much less a plan. A real plan has specific, time oriented, measurable goals with a back up set of objectives for each goal. Then, showing who is responsible and accountable for each of the goals, the plan has some real meat. When all of the goals are met, then the mission is accomplished. I’m still waiting for the opposing forces, who want to control the schools, to show us the beef.

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Lead in DCPS Water: School Sampling Reports
Erich Martel, Wilson High School, ehmartel at starpower dot net

Recent testimony before Councilmember Jim Graham’s Committee on Public Works and the Environment disclosed that several DCPS schools still showed levels of lead in some fountains and sinks that exceeded EPA standards.

The following links were provided by Prof. Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech civil engineering professor and specialist on EPA standards for lead in drinking water. 1) Link to pdf files on the following schools: Bowen, Deal, Ferebee-Hope, Hamilton, Hearst, Janney, Kenilworth, Mann, Marie-Reed, Sharpe Health, Shepherd, Simon, Stuart-Hobston, Taft, Watkins, Wilkinson: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/edwardsm/. 2) Link to evidence that a child was poisoned by lead from drinking water at Wilkinson elementary in 2004: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/27/lead/index_np.html, http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/nov/policy/rr_dcwater.html. 3) WAMU story about another child who was lead-poisoned: http://wamu.org/news/06/09/lead_questions.php. 4) Story about the sampling process used in DCPS a year ago that did not follow EPA lead sampling protocols: http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/may/science/rr_mislead.html. Prof. Edwards wrote, “That is why we have a national EPA standard protocol, which unfortunately, never has been followed at DCPS. If you read the ES+T article from last May, you can read exactly why the lead looked low back in DCPS in 2004 when it really was not. Some of the things they did in 2004 to make the lead look low have now been banned explicitly.” 5) For background read here: http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/456206.html, http://www.reflector.com/local/content/news/stories/2007/01/19/1_19_07_lead_in_water.html, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060630095556.htm.

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The Education Crisis in the Nation’s Capital
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

Gary’s ability to raise creative, if sometimes contentious, issues twice a week deserves the admiration of all themail’s readers. Surely Wednesday’s redefining of the word “crisis” (themail, February 21) and reframing of DC’s public education problems will bring a variety of responses. Arguing that the city’s most basic long-range problems should be addressed objectively and within the framework of our democratic processes is unassailable. Arguing that if problems are not abrupt emergencies they are not crises is not semantically correct. The word’s Greek roots suggest decision-making: a turning point stimulated by the future consequences of accumulated unresolved problems (viz., Webster’s examples of midlife crisis and environmental crisis) and afforded by current opportunity. DC’s energetic new city administration provides new opportunity. Continued overproduction of underachieving residents presents real risks to our national capital stature. Foreseeing an approaching breaking point beyond which the likely outcome is unacceptable can surely qualify as a crisis. The real crux of the decision to act is a valid understanding of the core problems and practical remedies.

Continued operation of a crumbling school physical infrastructure which is double its needed size; aging beyond the point of sensible repair; and being maintained by inept personnel below any acceptable American occupancy standard, surely constitutes a short-term problem qualifying for immediate, autocratic, bull-pen-type action. On the other hand, the consequences of an endemic social infrastructure that destroys the ability of many DC kids to learn is a cumulative long-term problem requiring very different citywide, if not regional solutions. It is an unacceptable fact that the dismal fate of the DCPS Class of 2020 is already pretty well assured, even if the plumbing is fixed. That is a truly real crisis, but one that cannot be resolved by a school board, frenetic bullpen activity, or even a romantic democratic process.

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The Fenty Plan
Tom Whitley, tom9754@verizon.net

Thank you for writing about this misguided abuse of our meager political rights as DC residents. As you said [themail, February 21], there is no hysterical, needed rush. The citizens should vote and while the issue is being vetted before voted on we can learn and get real commitments. Giving Councilpersons a line-item veto is a bad sop to get them to support the plan. However, the biggest issue is the fact that the mayor will be constantly confronted with balancing claims from public works, housing, transportation, etc., against the needs of the students/schools.

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Implementing High Achievement School System
Naomi J. Monk, nmonk10501@aol.com

I thank councilmembers, our mayor, DC public school officials, and others for all the wonderful works they partake towards improving the lives of thousands of diverse constituents, in DC. It is good to have hearings and other communications to sort out and decide whether to support or vote yea or nay in regard to whether the councilmembers should wait for another month to place the school concerns on the ballot as a referendum or wait until two councilmembers are elected and sworn into office? Should the DC public school board or our mayor control the DC public schools?

It is my view, however, that it is not about whether our mayor or the school board should control the DC public schools, but rather about the vital and serious business of immediately integrating and implementing in our schools at some level according to resources available, a system that has shown high achievements from its students in DC for DC is unique. It is a the capital of USA and a territory and not a state. Its governance is unique in regard to funding, infrastructure and other concerns across the country and elsewhere.

One example of a school that has students with high achievement standards is St.. John College High School (SJCHS), which has 99 percent of its students who graduate from the twelfth grade complete their BA or BS degree. SJCHS has a web site that has software that holds the teacher, student, and parent or guardian accountable daily for school assignments, grades, student behavior guidelines, and so forth. Stated written data is readily available daily so that the teacher, students, parents or guardians, and wrap-around service partnership individuals can know what areas that they need to work amicably together on for the best possible achievement for students.

Our councilmembers, mayor, school board, parents, guardians, and other public individuals need to visit St. John College High School or similar schools today and begin to integrate the implementation of high-achievement programs with firm bench marks that will start working within thirty to ninety days. I understand that some public schools at least have E-mail addresses at which parents, guardians, and teachers, wrap-around service partnership individuals, and others can E-mail one another about students, and so on. All can build structure around achievement programs that work, using realistic, respectful to all, but firm benchmarks with constant feedback to ensure sound footing.

Students and guardians and others can use the computers in schools, at libraries, at Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) offices, Kinko’s, and so on. This is the capitol of the USA, and should be the educational role model for others all over the world to follow in regard to our youths receiving the best education possible.

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DC Should Focus on Core Competencies
Kathryn A. Pearson-West, wkpw3@aol.com

Does the nation’s capital always have to lead by crisis management? Rather than operating in crisis mode as a way to govern and legislate or branching out with yet another new high priority agency or cabinet official and begin to mark one’s legacy, DC leaders should take time to examine its core competencies — providing quality basic services to DC residents, businesses, the faith community, Federal government, tourists, commuters, and nonprofits — and master that before branching out too quickly into other areas.

What does DC do best already and what should it be doing well that it is not? What has become the role of government and how big does it need to be to accomplish its mission? How many priorities can it effectively champion at once and how do priorities get classified as such? How many special interest groups, special constituent groups, maladies, or problems will find a new high salaried cabinet level champion for that cause? How many agencies have been created or split in half or thirds within the last decade? How many new departments, independent authorities, and receiverships have been created or imposed in the last few years and how many are anticipated (e.g., construction authority for the schools or dividing or collapsing the health or housing responsibilities) during this four year term? What’s on the table for these four years? What is the role of the business, faith community, labor, and general citizenry when it comes to government as a major service provider or broker or advocate of services? Should government act as a bully pulpit to garner support and generate interest on a common agenda, or should it toss out pet proposals that turn neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, and so forth rather than bringing people together to move an agenda efficiently? A new administration needs to bring people together so that it can govern well and not alienate the people with proposals that effectively dilute their rights and usurp the power of some leaders without voter approval. The school takeover is a prime example of this.

During the first month of this new DC administration, a good thing was done. The discussion about education was elevated to an all-time high and positive values toward education were reinforced. In the same breath of new hope and energy, this same administration managed to alienate and antagonize half the city’s stakeholders instead of bringing them together. It essentially started a war with other elected leaders, stakeholders, and with those that hold the right to vote as sacred. One could only hope that this administration could manage to antagonize and engage in war with the criminals and drug lords that seem to have gotten a new grip on the city in short time. In the first two months, criminals have sought their share of the attention in the limelight by increasing their risk taking behavior with more crime.

Instead, the new DC administration -- mayor and council members -- choose to take on the schools before demonstrating that it can handle such things, like snow removal, public safety, affordable housing development, healthcare, economic development, Add to that feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, providing for foster children and underprivileged youth in and out of jail, reducing unemployment and training the unskilled, and proving hope to the hopeless. DC has already expanded into sports management and facility development. It appeared to be warring with independent economic development independent authorities and decided to run at least one itself. What one previous administration giveth, another administration taketh away. To prove itself early in the new tenure, this administration seems to be trying to take on as much as possible as quickly as possible to prove to the voters that their expectations are justified and to take control before citizens learn that they shouldn’t be the ones to do so. The city is taking on everything, exacerbating an already full plate and perhaps not doing any one thing well. DC government should take a minute to develop a brand identify that says it is able and is doing well, instead of that it is responsible and accountable yet does little well but screams for more responsibility. DC can take some time to improve its procurement process since the General Accounting Office has said that it bears watching. At least it could do that well.

The school system is one of those independent agencies with its own governing board that should stay that way, away from the political fray and priorities of mainstream DC government. The school system is its own 24/7 priority that needs daily attention by an independent authority not further encumbered by an unyielding, top-heavy bureaucracy. There is an eighteen-month proposal on the table by the Board of Education. It should be tweaked a little and milestones/benchmarks made clear and realistic to stakeholders. The school system under the superintendent and school board should address the issue of boredom in schools that lead to young people losing in interest in school or not grasping the concepts they need to excel. Education must be viewed as the ticket to the American dream and the ticket out of poverty. Those that achieve a quality education in the nation’s capital must be seen getting some of the quality jobs there. Too many of the suburbanites get the jobs when many of our young people are qualified and have gotten a good college education. Global competitiveness must be on the table as should the ability to speak in other key foreign languages and to speak well grammatically and creatively in the English language.

The new school board must show its responsiveness to the people by putting the superintendent on the fast track to what our school system needs. If he is the problem with execution of ideas and management of resources, and he may or may not be as the jury is still out, then get someone else to do the job. But then he could be great while there may be are other stumbling blocks in his way that elected leaders can help eliminate without changing the governance structure. The city shouldn’t try to shelve the whole democratic process and governance structure to get at one school administrator or possibly to get at capable leaders that threaten the competition. While this new re-energized school board tackles education in a new light, the city can shore up its core competencies and make us proud that our city is moving forward. Many voters and citizens in general are looking for a partnership and collaboration between the school system and the general DC government, not a war between them or takeover in the first quarter of new leadership.

Unfortunately we are in an era where blaming, criticizing, and pointing the finger is the mode of operation instead of facilitating a climate where all leaders can work together and voters can rely on government to protect their rights while making needed changes. DC citizens are ready any day to talk education, uplifting our school system and children and families, and empowering our leaders to do more, not rushing to judgment and a takeover before new leadership gets a chance to prove itself and ignoring the citizens’ right to say yea or nay or any proposals to change the home rule. And by the way, citizens that defend process and rights are not guardians or champions of the status quo. We want change but want it done right and not at the expense of our rights based on political rhetoric and game playing. Education is serious business and so is the right to vote at any level. During this discourse, one trusts that city leaders will learn that they work for all the taxpayers and voters, and not for themselves or the special few special interests. DC citizens matter.

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Correction
Wendy Maiorana, wendymaiorana@rcn.com

I erred in my letter to themail last Sunday [themail, February 18]. It should have read that Jenifer Street and Wisconsin Avenue has been deemed one of the most dangerous intersections outside the Central Business District, rather than the most dangerous intersection in the city.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Ward 5 Dems Meeting, February 26
Hazel B. Thomas, thomashazelb@aol.com

The Ward 5 Democrats will meet on Monday, February 26, at 7:00 p.m., at the Michigan Park Christian Church, Taylor Street at South Dakota Avenue, NE. The meeting will continue the discussion on school governance reform with a presentation by Robert Bobb, president of the DC Board of Education.

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The Cabinet of Curiosities, February 27
India Young, india.young@dc.gov

February 27, 7:00 p.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416 Cedar Street, NW. Takoma Park Branch Book Club. Enjoy a lively book discussion of The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. For more information, call 576-7252.

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Save Public Property for Public Use, March 10
Parisa Norouza, parisa@empowerdc.org

Help save public property for public use, not private profit. Attend the Public Property Action Summit and come to build a strong coalition. Saturday, March 10, 1-4 p.m., Reeves Center, 14th and U Streets, NW. For more information, contact Parisa Norouzi, Empower DC, 234-9119, parisa@empowerdc.org.

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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE

Original Hopkins Maps of DC from 1887
Paul Williams, DCHouseHistory@aol.com

I have thirty-three duplicate Hopkins Maps printed and hand colored in 1887 that I’m selling on eBay this week! These are the large (approximately 3 by 2 feet) maps that highly document Washington and show each and every house, carriage house, fuel shed, post box, and sewer line. They are quite fascinating, and were hand colored to show the type of building material (wood, brick, stone), as well as type of street paving, etc. I’m selling them one at a time so you can either complete your collection, or buy the map where your house or office is located today. They would look great framed, and each needs a good, new home. They give a great indication of how Washington looked in 1887; K Street was then lined with mansions and townhouses, for example, and the National Mall was mostly underwater. I’ve never seen Hopkins maps on eBay in the fifteen or so years I’ve been buying, so its easy to find them: just put in a search at eBay.com for “Hopkins Map” and you’ll find all thirty-three listed!

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