Reinoso Morality
Dear Moralists:
There’s an episode of the Flash Gordon television series in which
Flash and Dale Arden battle Akim the Terrible, a dictator who rules the
planet of Karon under a topsy-turvy system of law in which violence and
theft are encouraged, and helping the weak resist stronger predators is
a crime (http://tesla.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/tuner.php?channel=248&format=tv&theme=guide).
The Flash Gordon series was filmed in West Berlin in the early 1950’s,
not long after World War II, so it’s not hard to understand where the
idea for this dystopia came from. Distorted moral systems haven’t gone
away since then. One only has to think of the moral code advocated by
our contemporary gangster rappers, to whom committing crimes is
something to brag about, but helping the police solve crimes or locate
criminals is shameful. Or one only has to contemplate the reaction —
or lack of it — to the wholesale plagiarism committed by our city’s
Deputy Mayor of Education, Victor Reinoso, in “writing” Mayor’s
Fenty’s academic plan for DC public schools (http://www.dcpswatch.com/mayor/070223.htm).
Honesty and character don’t seem to count with our politicians or
political pundits. Plagiarism is theft and cheating; it is dishonest.
But of all of our elected officials, only Councilmember Carol Schwartz
has unequivocally condemned Reinoso’s dishonesty. The reaction of all
other councilmembers and of all of the commentators seems to be that it’s
no big deal, nothing to be concerned about. Our own Akim the Terrible,
Adrian Fenty, seems to be concerned only that Reinoso got caught and
that it may reflect badly on him, not that Reinoso passed off other
people’s work and words as his own. Fenty certainly doesn’t feel
that Reinoso’s dishonesty requires any reprimand, much less the firing
that would come from an honorable administration. No daily newspaper,
not the Post, the Times, nor the Examiner, has
taken any editorial notice. And even the great majority of our own
fellow contributors to themail write in this issue that they condone
plagiarism and don’t see anything wrong with it.
There are three possible explanations for this blase and corrupt
acceptance of corruption. First is the tendency to contrarianism, to be
provocative and take whatever reaction may be opposite to that expected
by society. Second is that it is defensiveness as a purely political
tactic, to excuse one’s political allies when they are caught doing
the inexcusable. Advocates of Fenty’s takeover of the schools don’t
want it to be damaged at its very inception by acknowledging the
seriousness of this offense. The wrongdoing is so obvious that it can’t
be denied, so the defense is to try to increase the public’s cynicism
about all politicians, to claim that “everybody does it,” “it
happens all the time, whoever’s in charge,” “it’s the way of the
world.” Third, and most worrisome, is the possibility that we really
do live in a malignant planet of Karon. If plagiarism and theft is the
cheapest and most efficient way to get an academic plan written, then
what’s the problem with plagiarism? If honesty gets in the way of the
taking over the public schools, then what’s the virtue in honesty?
I can’t wait until school contractors are caught double-billing for
their repair work, or substituting cheaper materials in their
construction projects, or paying under the table (or above it) to get
contracts. I can’t wait until school administrators are caught
inflating students’ course grades, or leaking questions on
standardized tests, or altering records to make it look like the schools’
performance is improving. I can’t wait to hear the excuses of the
administration’s apologists and the silence of those who can’t bring
themselves to criticize the administration’s wrongdoing. We’ll call
it Reinoso morality in this topsy-turvy world.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Norton Misled Colleagues on School Takeover
Marc Borbely, borbely@FixOurSchools.net
Adrian Fenty’s team plagiarized. Eleanor Holmes Norton lied. Here’s
what Norton told members of the House on May 8, minutes before they
voted to strip the DC Board of Education of its control of the public
schools: “I rise to request passage of H.R. 2080. . . . H.R. 2080 is
before the Congress only because the current Home Rule Act now in the
process of being revised requires that certain changes to the District’s
charter be made by Federal legislation. . . . The necessity for a Member
of Congress to introduce a bill for a self-governing city is an
anachronism neither the Congress nor the District deserves or can afford
today. I promise the Congress I will try to make this the last time the
House or the Senate is requested to pass a charter bill of no concern
and of little interest to the Congress of the United States.” She said
the same thing in press releases on May 1 and May 8 (http://tinyurl.com/32zr55
and http://tinyurl.com/2wy3ly).
The truth is that when Congress passed the Home Rule Act in 1973, it
allowed the District to amend its own charter. Norton, a Constitutional
law professor at Georgetown who knows what our charter says, didn’t
tell her colleagues that the charter’s “Charter amending
procedure” says the District can amend its charter itself, without any
federal legislation — but it has to submit proposed amendments to the
voters for ratification (see http://tinyurl.com/26v7b3).
Mayor Williams used this procedure to turn the Board of Education into
an almost-half-appointed board in 2000.
Tuesday morning, Senator Lieberman will hold a hearing on the DC
“Voting Rights” bill. Fenty and Norton are scheduled to testify.
Hopefully some democracy-respecting Senator will ask them, “Why are
you asking Congress to change your charter — your version of a state
constitution — instead of putting this before your own constituents?
Citizens in 49 states must approve changes to their state constitutions.
Why are you asking us to bypass District residents on this?” Maybe
some Senators will respect the people of the District of Columbia more
than do Ms. Norton or Mr. Fenty, or the eight Councilmembers who
specifically voted against putting this to a referendum (Wells, Gray,
Catania, Barry, Evans, Cheh, Thomas, and Graham).
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On Tuesday the city council, meeting as the Committee of the Whole,
will consider and vote on the District’s FY2008 budget (the Fiscal
Year 2008 Budget Request Act of 2007, Bill 17-147) and budget support
act (Fiscal Year 2008 Budget Support Act of 2007, Bill 17-148). At
Tuesday’s meeting, however, the council will, with few exceptions,
simply publicly approve decisions that it has already made at a series
of private meetings it held last week. During recent council committee
meetings that were held on May 2 through 4 to mark up the FY2008 budget,
several councilmembers suggested that it really didn’t matter what the
individual committees decided, since the discussions that "really
counted" would occur during the council’s private deliberations
on the budget. Council Chairman Vincent Gray had already scheduled a
week of private meetings for the entire council to discuss unresolved
and unfunded spending issues that came up during the committee budget
markups. During these meetings last week, councilmembers discussed the
shortfall in the budget of the Department of Human Resources, funding
for repairs to Georgetown Library and Eastern Market, the rent
supplement program, additional funding for the University of the
District of Columbia and the Department of Employment Services, cuts to
early childhood education and youth violence prevention initiatives, tax
relief proposals, the Chief Financial Officer’s revised revenue
estimate, and the budget support act.
So, which I learned that Chairman Gray had scheduled three private
meetings to be held in Room 502 of the Wilson Building, I decided that I
would attend them. DC Code 1-305 specifically states that, “All
meetings of the Council at which official action is taken shall be open
to the public. No resolution, rule, act, or other official action shall
be effective unless taken, made, or enacted at an open meeting.”
Councilmembers have routinely evaded the open meeting requirement by
holding their detailed deliberations and discussions at private meetings
during which they reach agreement and consensus, but by reserving the
formality of taking votes for public meetings. When I crashed the first
day’s meeting, Cynthia Brock-Smith, the Secretary to the Council,
tried to bar me, but I insisted that it seemed to be a meeting of the
council because all of the councilmembers were attending, and decisions
appeared to be being made. I took a seat, and I wasn’t evicted from
that meeting or from the subsequent two days’ meetings.
Councilmembers arrived at these decisions, among others: 1) passing
tax relief legislation for individuals, property owners, and small
businesses (including up to a 5 percent property tax cap, $4,000
increase in the homestead deduction, $1,500 increase in the standard
income tax deduction, estate and inheritance tax relief, and small
business commercial property tax relief). 2) Establishing a five-member
Economic Development Authority to replace the National Capital
Revitalization Corporation and the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation. 3)
Striking from the Budget Support Act the $57 million sole source
contract that EdBuild (formerly headed by Neil Albert, the current
Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development) had negotiated with
DC Public Schools to modernize MacFarland Middle School, Rudolph
Elementary School, and Backus Middle School. 4) Funding the rebuilding
of Eastern Market and the Georgetown Library ($33.5 million in FY2007
and $6.5 million in FY2008 for both). 5) Restoring full funding for the
Office of Contracts and Procurement and the Department of Human Services
(Personnel), which had been virtually eliminated by Mayor Fenty. 6)
Transferring certain housing programs from the Department of Consumer
and Regulatory Affairs to the Department of Housing and Community
Development. 7) Making a series of grants, in excess of $15 million, to
politically connected groups such as the Greater Washington Sports
Alliance, the Friends of Kennedy Playground, the Ward 7 Business and
Professional Association, and the African American Civil War Memorial
Foundation. 8) Eliminating Mayor Fenty's proposed increase in 911 fees.
9) Eliminating $850,000 in funding for the baseball stadium art project,
arguing that it would take the stadium project over the cap on
construction costs.
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Public Art for the New Baseball Stadium
Mike Licht, mikelicht@yahoo.com
Submission for DC Creates, public art for the new baseball stadium, a
suspended installation, are due on Monday, June 18, at 5:00 p.m. The
total budget is $200,000. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities,
in collaboration with the Washington Nationals, the DC Sports and
Entertainment Commission, and Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum, PC, seeks an
artist or artist team to design and create a suspended public art
installation along the main concourse of the new Washington Nationals
baseball stadium. The goal of this public art project is to provide an
exciting arts enhancement to the interior of the ballpark while
celebrating the spirit of our national pastime. The work will be visible
along the main concourse, across the field from Baseball Plaza, and from
street level on the south side of the ballpark. The total budget for the
project is $200,000.
Download the new baseball stadium suspended installation call for
artists from http://dcarts.dc.gov/dcarts/frames.asp?doc=/dcarts/lib/dcarts/baseball_suspended_installation5.8.07_newlogo.pdf.
For more information, contact Emily Blumenfeld or Meridith McKinley at art@viapartnership.com
or call 314-664-5902.
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WTU Election Ballots Mailed Today
Erich Martel, ehmartel at starpower dot net
Washington Teachers’ Union members are reminded to mail their
ballots early this week. They must be received by the Department of
Labor by May 19 at 8:45 a.m. Be sure to put 41 cents postage on the
envelope -- that’s the new postage rate, effective May 14.
If you are a member and did not receive a ballot, you can request a
duplicate ballot by calling, faxing, E-mailing or mailing the Department
of Labor Election Supervisors: Jennifer Pallotta, 513-7314, 513-7301
fax, pallotta.jennifer@dol.gov;
Erneka Gray, 513-7308, 513-7301 fax, gray.erneka@dol.gov;
mail 800 N. Capitol Street, NW, Suite 120, 20002-4244.
The deadline for duplicate ballot requests is May 18, which may be a
bit too late, since the ballots must be received by May 19 at 8:45 a.m.
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DC Voting Rights: Wait Until 2009?
Ed Davis, edavis@commoncause.org
Ed Barron’s post calling the current fight for DC voting
representation a waste of time and energy [themail, May 9] was way off
the mark. He says wait until Dems control Congress and the White House.
Wait? That’s what DC’s been doing for over two hundred years. Wait
for Dems to win the presidency? That’s not a strategy, that’s giving
up and expecting someone else to help us win the fight. The current
effort will succeed, but even if it does not the history of all civil
rights legislation is that you have to be in the fight for the long
haul. You build on the success and momentum from the previous Congress.
That’s what’s happening with the DC Voting Rights Act, which started
in the 108th Congress. No way advocates are going to sit down now and
wait. We’ve waited long enough.
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[Re: themail’s comment May 9 that “If [Deputy Mayor for Education
Victor] Reinoso were a student in DC public schools and turned in this
work product in a course, he would get an F on the assignment, an F for
the course, and he would be subject to suspension.”] Don’t be so
sure. About a decade or so ago, I was twice asked by one of my sons’
history teachers, Ms. Mostoller, to serve as a volunteer judge of papers
for the History Fair at Alice Deal Junior High, right off Nebraska
Avenue, NW. Both times I was assigned to judge papers from classes other
than those of my son, of course. The first time I was surprised just how
much Web plagiarism there was, and I gave zero ratings to a number of
them, telling them to ask their teacher to explain plagiarism.
The second time, however, there was an egregious case of
parent-as-author. A boy submitted as his a paper whose style in its body
was that of a university graduate, but whose bibliography notes suddenly
reverted to the more clumsy language of junior highschoolers, similar to
the other papers. I reported my grave doubts about authorship to Ms.
Mostoller, who said other judges had expressed similar doubts. When I
went to the awards ceremony (my son won in another category, in an
altogether different grade) I discovered that the plagiarist won a prize
and had been chosen to represent his grade for DC in a national contest.
I protested loudly to Ms. Mostoller right then and there, and she
expressed only worry that the mother would hear. Later I wrote a letter
to the principal, Mr. Moss, for the record. To my knowledge nothing
whatsoever was done.
This is one of the dirty little secrets of the DC Public Schools. The
desperation to look good in the face of an abysmal reputation is so
great that neither teachers nor administrators can face up to plagiarism
even when it is pointed out. The DC Public Schools do get a bad rap,
insofar as I am concerned. Both my sons got into college and were able
to keep up with the work at Fordham and Harvard universities. Yet, zero
tolerance on plagiarism? Not my experience.
###############
Hooray for Plagiarism
Henry Townsend, henrytow@gmail.com
We all know that one of the inefficiencies of the DC school system
has been the hugely too large overhead staff, the masses of people who
neither teach nor maintain the physical plant nor supervise those who
do. People who more or less reinvent the wheel, such as developing
curricula for inner-city schools — or plans for the future.
Therefore, we should all be glad that for once we adopted plans from
other school systems rather than pretending that hundreds of DC staff
were needed to do the job ab initio. Admittedly, the sources of
the academic plan should have been more carefully credited rather than
plagiarized, if only as a matter of example to the students.
Two cheers, then, for “plagiarist Victor Reinoso,” who not only
adopted best practices from other school systems for the new school plan
but also did not ask the expensive, incompetent DC overhead staff to do
so.
###############
If the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school plan worked, what’s the big
deal with modeling the DC school plan after it? Plagiarism? It’s not
like this is an academic paper that’s being submitted for credit. The
important issue is whether or not the Charlotte-Mecklenburg plan was a
good one, whether it worked for Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and whether it
can be applied effectively to the situation with DC schools such that it
would likely lead to improvements. Why is no one asking these important
questions? If the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system plan works, why
not use it for DC’s schools? Who cares if it’s been copied? I don’t
get what all the fuss about so-called "plagiarism" is about.
At the very least, references to locations, personal names, and titles
much have been changed to reflect that fact the plan would be applied to
DC’s school system. If not, then that’s called stupidity, not
plagiarism.
###############
Stupid?, Yes. Smart?, Yes
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Ah, those holier-than-thou folks decrying plagiarism when Fenty’s
minions copy a successful educational process. Wake up folks. It’s not
necessary, nor good business practice, to reinvent the wheel. In my team
building practice with businesses and universities I have always
encouraged teams to do their homework to find other organizations that
are successfully employing processes that work. These successful
practices are written up in business and educational journals for all
the world to see. Teams make contact with the organization that is using
a successful process and, with their blessing, you see that process
being implemented. This is not called plagiarism, it is called
benchmarking. It is an accepted practice in business and in the world of
academia. To copy the words exactly from someone else’s tome is
stupid. To use a proven process and not try to reinvent the wheel is
smart benchmarking.
###############
Okay, let’s address this issue and get on with it, shall we. As I
see it there are three options on the table, mostly for the mayor and
Mr. Reinoso, but more broadly for the citizens of this city. 1) Fenty
can withdraw his takeover proposal. An anonymous senator [since
identified as Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)] has placed a hold on Senate action
to approve the takeover anyway. So, theoretically, the city leadership
could use this opportunity to withdraw the takeover proposal, submit it
to referendum and see if the citizens of this City still think this
somewhat radical solution is worth pursuing.
2) Fenty can try to mend fences with those in the city who think that
this incident alone, for the most part, so damages his credibility that
the entire concept of mayoral control of DC Public Schools is now either
problematic or invalid. Just how he’d do that, short of doing another
one of his door-to-door tours of this town, escapes me at the moment.
But, in this era of YouTube and MySpace and Internet TV, he and his
senior staff surely can come up with a PR campaign that balances
embarrassment and apologies for this inexcusable gaffe with a reminder
of why a radical restructuring of school governance here is needed in
the first place. 3) Reinoso can fall on his sword. This is probably the
cleanest and quickest, although least dispositive, way to resolve the
current controversy. And, again, it wouldn’t necessarily quiet the
anxieties of those who were always unsure whether this approach to
reforming DCPS was the way to go in the first place.
One thing is clear: Fenty has effectively two academic years, AY
2007-2008 and 2008-2009, to make significant — and I mean significant
— progress toward the goals that he says only this restructuring can
accomplish. After that he is vulnerable to an I-told-you-so candidate in
the 2010 elections. Two school years isn’t a lot of time to turn
around a school system as troubled as DCPS is. The bottom line here,
though, should be the children. When the Book says "suffer the
children," subjecting them to a school system like we have here is
not what the Original Reformer meant.
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This is to advise that the May 2007 on-line edition has been uploaded
and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com. Included are the lead
stories, community news items and crime reports, editorials (including
prior months’ archived), restaurant reviews (prior months’ also
archived), and the text from the ever-popular “Scenes from the Past”
feature (the accompanying images can be seen in the archived PDF
version). Also included are all current classified ads. The complete
issue (along with prior issues back to August 2003) also is available in
PDF file format directly from our home page at no charge simply by
clicking the link in the Current & Back Issues Archive. Here you
will be able to view the entire issue as it appears in print, including
all photos and advertisements. The next issue will publish on June 8
(the second Friday of the month, as always). The complete PDF version
will be posted by the preceding night or early that Friday morning at
the latest, following which the text of the lead stories, community
news, and selected features will be uploaded shortly thereafter.
To read this month’s lead stories, simply click the link on the
home page to the following headlines: 1) “Proposed ‘Dog Park’ Regs
Announced by DPR Upset Dog and Non-Dog Owning Neighbors — Ward 1
Councilmember Graham Weighs In”; 2) “Long-Delayed H.D. Cooke School
Rehab Project Finally Underway — Pressure By Many Credited”; 3)
“Former Danzansky Funeral Home Designated Historic Landmark Over
Strong Objections?”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, May 15-17
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov
Tuesday, May 15, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101 24th
Street, NW. Book club discussion, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
For more information, call 724-8707.
Tuesday, May 15, 7:00 p.m., Palisades Neighborhood Library, 4901 V
Street, NW. Palisades Stamp Club. For more information, call 282-3139.
Wednesday, May 16, 6:00 p.m., Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library, 5625
Connecticut Avenue, NW. Rosemary E. Reed-Miller, author and owner of
Toast and Strawberries, will discuss her book, The Threads of Time,
The Fabric of History: Profiles of African American Dressmakers and
Designers, 1850 to the Present. For more information, call 282-0021.
Wednesday, May 16, 7:00 p.m., Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood
Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE. American Red Cross CPR. Certified
instructor Officer Arthur Lawson will teach beginners to administer CPR.
This program is supported by the Elizabeth Holden Bequest. For more
information, call 645-4297.
Thursday, May 17, 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Ladino songs collector Elena
Tscherny presents an evening of Sephardic music, including sing-a longs,
in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month. For more information,
call 727-1183.
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Pas-de-Dirt Dance Performance, May 20
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org
Sunday, May 20, 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 p.m., at the National Building
Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line.
“Pas-de-Dirt” is a site-specific dance performance that examines the
relationship between movement, architecture, and the tools we use to
build our environment. Choreographed by Takoma Park-based Liz Lerman
Dance Exchange and set to music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, the
performance involves a cast including propane-powered back hoes and
their licensed operators, professional dance artists, and ballet
students. Families can enjoy the performances that are the fourth event
in Street Scenes: Projects for DC, a series of citywide public art
events that aim to bring contemporary art into the public domain and
insert art experiences into unexpected places. The project has been made
possible through the support of the DC Commission on the Arts and
Humanities, the Montgomery County Public Art Trust, and additional
individual and corporate donors. Free. Registration not required.
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Ward 4 Democrats Notice of Elections, July 10
Erwin C. Miller, ecm.jazz@comcast.net
In keeping with our bylaws, at our July 10 meeting the Ward 4
Democrats will elect the following officers for two-year terms:
president, first vice president, second vice president, recording
secretary, corresponding secretary, treasurer, financial secretary. The
meeting will be held at the Fourth District Police Precinct, 6001
Georgia Avenue, NW.
Anyone who is interested in running for any of these positions may
request a declaration of candidacy form by contacting Erwin C. Miller,
the Ward 4 Democrats chair of the nominating committee. You can reach
him by phone on 829-0274 or by E-mail at ecm.jazz@comcast.net.
Application deadline is Friday, June 8, at 7:00 p.m.
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