Media Spin
Dear Spinners:
Must reading in order to understand the next few years in DC’s
school governance is Sol Stein’s article on Mayor Bloomberg’s
takeover of the New York City public schools, “Grading Mayoral
Control,” in the current issue of City Journal, http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_mayoral_control.html.
Stein details how school test results are manipulated, massaged, and
misrepresented by Bloomberg’s administration, and how the city’s
press has largely gone along with that manipulation. Stein writes that
Bloomberg’s “Department of Education routinely undermines
accountability with a public-relations juggernaut that deflects
legitimate criticism of his education policies, dominates the mainstream
press, uses the schools as campaign props, and, most ominously, distorts
student test-score data. Without transparency, real accountability doesn’t
exist.” The media spin operation is so large, Stein writes, “the
Department of Education’s communications office is 29-strong, four
times as many employees as worked in the press office under the old
Board of Ed. And that doesn’t include the city hall press operation,
which often joins in promoting new education initiatives, or the
substantial public-relations and marketing services that the
administration has received from companies, either pro bono or paid for
by third-party private contributions.”
The Fenty takeover already tracks the Bloomberg takeover in several
respects, including detailing Marafa Hobson from the mayor’s press
office to be Chancellor Rhee’s spokesman. Whether the media spin
strategy succeeds in the District as well as it has in New York depends
on whether Washington’s press corps accepts Fenty’s and Rhee’s
handouts without serious questioning. Perhaps not everyone will; Mike
DiBonis’ cover article in The Washington City Paper on Rhee’s
relationship with the Washington Teachers Union (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=2156&comments=show)
is a good example of the kind of in-depth reporting that will have to be
done to discover what will be happening in the newly enlarged and
enriched school bureaucracy.
The controversy over Jonathan Rees’ complaint about Councilmember
Mary Cheh’s campaign continues in this issue, below. I received other
messages that were not for publication that castigated me for printing
anything by Rees, but all of those messages were dedicated to
denigrating Rees himself. None of them said or attempted to prove that
the specific charges he made were unbelievable, incredible, baseless, or
frivolous; instead, they simply said I should ignore anything Rees says.
It should be obvious by now that that argument doesn’t work with me. I’m
open to being convinced that Rees’ charges are wrong, that the Ward 3
Action group was nothing like a political action committee and that the
Cheh campaign occupied only a part of its headquarters space, and for no
longer than two months. But convince me with the facts, not personal
attacks.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Altering the DC Library System’s Collections
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com
Most of you are probably unaware that the head of the DC Libraries,
Ginny Cooper, is trying to boost circulation statistics by buying
whatever books are big sellers at the supermarket’s check out line,
graphic novels, and DVDs. She hopes to lure readers into the libraries
through these methods. Once the readers set foot in the library, she
believes they’ll want to read and will check out more books. At the
same time, however, she is removing books of substance and replacing
them with junk.
There are two reasons why I think Ginny Cooper’s plan to change the
content of the libraries is a bad idea. First, the capital of the United
States deserves a first-rate collection that can stand alongside the
greatest cities in this country. Instead it has a collection of books
that at present is inferior in quality to the neighboring towns of
Alexandria and Fairfax. If Library Director Cooper has her way, the
quality of the collection will be further reduced. By quality, I mean
that many of the books in the DC system are not the ones that serious
readers with a good high school education or better will read. Second,
Cooper’s plan to lure people into the libraries won’t work because
she’s not aware of the real reason for the low circulation statistics
in this city. They stem from the fact that 33 percent of adults in
Washington, DC, are illiterate and an unknown, but probably even higher
percentage, are so handicapped by being semiliterate that they don’t
read either. Nothing will induce those nonreaders to read the system’s
books, not filling the libraries with books written at a grade-school
level, not increasing the number of graphic novels, and not replacing
books with large numbers of CDs and DVD’s.
The August issue of the Hill Rag will present an article by
Virginia Spatz on what happened at SE Library, which served as the
laboratory experiment that Cooper says proves her ideas are right. The
Rag will also contain letters responding to the changes. And on
Monday the DC Examiner will feature an article on how what
happened at SE is being planned for the entire city. I believe that the
bureaucrats in the Washington, DC, Library system are willing to settle
for a third-rate collection, and I think that’s wrong. What do you
think?
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For purposes of deed recordation and property taxes, all private
property in DC is divided into squares and each square is divided into
lots. As in the case of other buildings, rental apartment building
usually have only one lot number. But when a rental apartment building
becomes a condominium, each apartment is assigned a new lot number.
However, whenever any transaction (such as a sale, mortgage creation,
mortgage payoff, etc.) concerning that condo is registered with the
Recorder of Deeds, the new deed usually references both the original lot
number as well as the new lot number. Because of that, a new transaction
may sometimes be recorded under the old lot number and sometimes under
the new one, creating great confusion for anyone attempting to trace the
deed history of any one condominium apartment.
I learned about this problem when I attempted to find a mortgage
payoff for my condo on the Recorder of Deeds web site, and discovered
that it was listed under the obsolete (pre-condo) old lot number.
However, the other transactions pertaining to my apartment since I
bought it in 1989 were correctly listed under the new lot number. This
whole thing would be no big deal if this were a mistake involving only
one apartment (which presumably can be easily corrected). However, I
discovered that since 1980 when our 166-unit building became a condo,
nearly 1400 transactions involving dozens of apartments were recorded
under the obsolete old lot number.
This could really be a problem if someone is doing a title search
using the correct current condo lot number and is trying to prove
ownership of a property or payoff of a mortgage and also does not
realize that he or she needs to look under both the current lot number
as well as the old one. (The current lot number is always on your real
property assessment and tax bill notices; but you would have to locate
your original deed to find the old lot number, assuming that you even
realized that it may be necessary to do so.) I wonder how many other
condos there are in DC in which any transaction could be recorded under
either one of two different lot numbers.
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I Want Meters
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
I seldom take a cab in DC, preferring to use the Metro. When I have
an early flight from National Airport or, when returning late in the
evening, I take a cab from the airport to northwest DC. At least half
the times that I have taken a cab on my recent returns from the airport,
I’ve been overcharged based on the info sheet provided in the
unmetered cabs. My only defense is to insist on a metered cab as I leave
the airport from the cab stand. I would prefer that all the cabs in DC
be metered.
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Ward 5 DC Councilmember Harry Thomas. Jr., wants to form a Black
caucus of the District of Columbia council. What a great and timely
idea. Unfortunately, there are few or no Black people on the council.
The council is currently populated with what we used to describe back in
the militant 60s and 70s as “Knee-grows.” This was a derisive term
used to define Black officials who politically, economically, and
socially kneeled down to the White controlled political and business
interests that effectively decided the destiny of majority Black cities.
Some of us still play the "go along to get along" game.
The big Black elephant on the coffee table is that the District’s
Black political power and population is being designed to decline. Mr.
Thomas can’t depend on the likes of Ward 7’s new council member
Yvette Alexander, who prefers not to alienate her White fellow council
members and constituents. With six Blacks remaining on the council, she
is quoted on the issue as saying, “I need some vanilla in that
chocolate.” Moreover, the silence so far from other Black council
members and officials was like only hearing crickets on a plantation. We
actually and officially now have a cast of sleep and eat public
officials who have bamboozled us into believing they’re protecting the
socioeconomic and political interests of DC’s remaining Black low and
middle-income residents. Follow the money.
"The Plan" is in full effect. Blacks at various
socioeconomic levels are being erased from the District’s future. One-
and two-bedroom condos on top of high-end stores aren’t designed for
attracting families, Black or White. Also, fiscally irresponsible public
policies and dysfunctional governance is sucking the soul out of DC. The
irony is that powerful White controlled interests now have the right mix
of Black officials to implement the plan. Perhaps DC’s Black elected
officials will wake up before Election Day. I won’t bet a number on
that. Nevertheless, as they continue to do their sleep and eat routine,
District voters should start thinking about ways to cancel this new
millennium minstrel show. Harry Thomas needs serious backup on his
caucus plan. Additionally, I suggest we all serve strong cups of black
coffee to council member Yvette Alexander and others who prefer to sleep
on their real job.
###############
Let’s Get Our Priorities Straight
Tom Monroe, tmonroe77@yahoo.com
I’m shocked that some of themail’s readers want the mayor and
city council to put the potential collapse of Greater Southeast
Community Hospital and Prince George’s Hospital Center at the top of
their agendas [themail, July 25]. There’s been only one crisis in the
city over the past five years that’s been worthy of their attention in
the form of thousands of hours of work from city officials and well-paid
consultants and hundreds of millions worth of public money: the baseball
stadium. Even now, consultants and city officials are diligently working
on such worthy projects as timing shuttle routes to the ballpark from,
of all places, RFK Stadium (which would suggest that the ballpark
probably should have been there all along).
City officials have left no stone unturned in rushing that shrine to
public excess to completion. The amazing level of dedication from them
to a project driven by private business concerns and politicos obsessed
with having the best suites in the house is a crime when compared with
the abysmal way that the city has addressed the DC General fiasco and
the current hospital crisis, which would never have gotten this bad had
top city officials given it a tenth of the money and human-hours that
they’d given to the troubled ballpark project. All that being said, I’m
betting that the mayor and city council will dedicate more attention and
funding to the DC United stadium "crisis" than the hospital
crisis, unless Herb Miller or Victor MacFarlane figures out a way to add
condos to the hospital parking garages.
###############
More Blackmail from DC United
Ed Delaney, profeddel@yahoo.com
From http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1196718:
“‘In order to make the 2010 season, we need to be moving forward at
the end of this month,’ MacFarlane tells WTOP. ‘We have been
approached by others which we have fended off, but at the end of the day
we have to be responsible to our investors.’” The city has to be
responsible to its backers, as it were, as well, which does not include
being bullied into even more reckless spending of public money on
stadiums designed for private use and benefit by an out-of-town
developer who wants in on several more public-private development
opportunities with the city. While MacFarlane’s talking about
responsibility, he needs to ask Kevin Chavous, Sandy Allen, Harold
Brazil, Kathy Patterson, Vincent Orange, and Linda Cropp (along with
Jack Evans, whose mayoral dreams went up in smoke with every
stadium-related rant) how well their ballpark support turned out for
them politically, since their lack of responsibility on that issue
appears to be the main reason they are no longer serving as public
officials. Current officials aren’t going to put themselves in harm’s
way for you, MacFarlane, and will likely view your blackmail tactics and
threats as ample reason to prevent you from participating from the other
development partnerships you crave with the city. Who’s feeling the
heat now, Victor!
Speaking of responsibility, Major League Soccer is going to have to
be responsible to its investors at the end of the day by maintaining a
presence in arguably their most successful market in terms of fan
support. If they’ve got any business sense whatsoever, they’re not
going to let MacFarlane remove the team from this market, but would
likely have him sell back to the league in the same way his predecessor
did when it couldn’t strike a stadium deal with the city.
“Team President Kevin Payne tells WTOP Radio the proverbial ball is
now in the city’s court. ‘We really have been bad negotiators. We’ve
said we don’t want to leave. This is where we want to be. This isn’t
about greedy team owners. Of course we need a stadium. We can’t
continue to function as a business at RFK stadium. End of story.’”
Beggars can’t be choosers, Kevin. The marginal success of MLS further
undermines DC United and its desire for hundreds of millions of dollars
of public money for a badly conceived stadium design with almost no
practical uses due to its open-air design and minuscule capacity that
won’t even allow for the city to host major tournament matches as RFK
Stadium currently does. All of this likely leaves the team the option of
negotiating a better deal at RFK Stadium or striking a deal with a local
government in Virginia or Maryland. Given the amount of money desired by
DC United and MacFarlane in particular, other local governments are
almost certain to balk, leaving the city with the upper hand. So
basically, DC United is going to have to hammer out a more team-friendly
lease agreement, which is fine with me if it’s based not on straight
subsidy but with a higher percentage of gate, concession, and parking
revenue that gives the team the incentive to pack the stadium in order
to succeed. Make it work at the refurbished RFK Stadium or join
MacFarlane on your way out of the door, since I’m sure there are
plenty of businessmen who could make a go of it with the use of an
updated stadium with better parking and access than any other stadium or
arena in the city!
###############
The Cause for Fair Assessments Suffers Major
Setback
Peter S. Craig, swedecraig@aol.com
The legal rights of DC homeowners for fair assessments were sharply
curtailed by a DC Court of Appeals decision on July 19 reversing the
decision of Judge Eugene Hamilton in the class action suit initiated by
Cleveland Park residents in 2002. Acting under the Civil Rights Act, 42
U.S.C. 1983, which was amended by Congress in 1979 to permit any
District resident to sue DC government officials for redress against any
violation of Constitutional rights done under color of local DC law,
Judge Hamilton issued a decision on September 26, 2005, ruling that the
use of across-the-board multipliers by the Office of Tax and Revenue for
tax year 2002 assessments was unconstitutional and in violation of the
DC assessment laws and therefore void. On January 13, 2006, he awarded
refunds for the class of 35,000 D.C. homeowners adversely affected by
these across-the-board increases. The refunds were limited to any
increase in their 2002 taxes plus 6 percent annual interest. The city
estimated that such refunds would come to $15 million.
The Williams administration appealed this decision. On brief and at
the oral argument, the District’s lawyers argued that the city could
secretly adopt any methodology for assessment that it wished (despite
the requirements of DC law), even using a dart board if OTR so desired,
and that DC residents were barred from contesting assessments on the
basis of discrimination or lack of notice as to how the assessments were
made. Despite the Congressional directive to permit class actions on
“any matter” involving assessments, the city argued that such class
actions could not be brought.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals (Chief Judge
Washington, Associate Judge Thompson and Senior Judge Kern) has now
agreed with the Williams administration’s position. It has ruled that
local DC law supersedes the 1979 Congressional amendment to the Civil
Rights Act, that the District assessors may use any method they want to
assess properties without regard to the requirements in the DC Code that
each property must be assessed on the basis of its own characteristics,
and that DC taxpayers may only challenge the fairness of their own
assessments and are not entitled to any redress if others are given
preferential treatment. Although Congress amended the DC assessment law
to permit class actions in the Tax Division of the Superior Court as to
"any matter" involving personal and property taxes, the
decision effectively rules out any class action by insisting that the
class be limited to persons who appealed their assessments to BRPAA
(although BRPAA panels are powerless to correct discriminatory
assessments). Mysteriously, the panel relies on the District’s
Anti-Injunction Act for most of its discussion, although no injunction
was sought or granted in the present case. A full copy of the forty-page
decision may be read at the D.C. court web site, http://www.dcappeals.gov/dccourts/appeals/pdf/06-TX-177+.PDF.
At a meeting held Sunday evening, the five DC lawyers who have been
tirelessly working on behalf of the DC taxpayers since this controversy
began in 2001 met and agreed that it was essential to seek
reconsideration before the full panel of the DC Court of Appeals. If the
full panel fails to take corrective action, the burden will fall upon
the DC Council to restore fairness to the assessment process. So far,
Councilman Jack Evans has been a full supporter of OTR’s desire to do
whatever it pleases in any way it pleases, without regard for
traditional statutory and constitutional requirements. In 2002, he
introduced and supported “emergency legislation” that the court now
finds eliminated any requirement that OTR inform the public of the
methodology used in revising assessments.
The present controversy began when OTR, under the leadership of
Williams’ new appointee, Henry Riley, decided that it would be “more
efficient” to assess residential properties in groups, rather than on
a property-by-property basis. Riley reintroduced a system that he called
“trending,” by which all properties in a group would be increased or
decreased in their assessments by the same percentage, as determined by
secret studies. That system had been declared illegal under DC law in Levy
v. District of Columbia in 1990 and was condemned by the Montana
Supreme Court as an unconstitutional denial of equal protection in the
same year. Likewise, in District of Columbia v. Green, a class
action suit decided in 1973, the DC Court of Appeals had ruled out
across-the-board increases in assessments as in violation of the Equal
Protection clause, insisting that under DC law assessments had to be
made on a property-by-property basis, not a neighborhood-by-neighborhood
basis. In reintroducing this so-called “trending,” Mr. Riley claimed
it was consistent with the standards of the International Association of
Assessment Officers. However, in the trial in this case, it was shown
that the practice violated IAAO standards, and the IAAO’a chief
expert, Dr. Robert Gloudemans, prepared a study showing that the
practice reintroduced by Mr. Riley resulted in discriminatory
assessments far worse than were acceptable by IAAO standards and in
general they favored owners of more expensive properties, resulting in
regressive taxation.
Mr. Riley’s brainchild touched off the class action lawsuit
contesting 2002 assessments. A similar class action lawsuit has been
filed contesting 2003 assessments. That second case has been stayed by
agreement until the first case is resolved. In the interim, Mr. Riley
has been relieved of his job and the city has abandoned the use of
so-called “trending.” However, the decision of the three-judge
panel, unless overruled by the full court or the DC Council, threatens
once more to cause havoc in the city’s assessment practices, where the
dart board and secretly derived across-the-board multipliers will
replace the constitutional requirements of equality and fairness in
assessment practices. After all, as Mr. Riley knew, it was far easier to
assess by playing computer games in an office rather than assessing each
property based upon its own characteristics.
###############
Georgetown News
Now Available
Jerry A. McCoy, sshistory@yahoo.com
I am pleased to announce that the weekly neighborhood newspaper, The
Georgetown News, is now available on microfilm at the Washingtoniana
Division, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. Original copies of
this newspaper had been housed in the Georgetown Branch Library’s
Peabody Room and had been sent out for microfilming before the
devastating fire that took place on April 30, 2007. The microfilm
holdings for this newspaper is October 1932-March 1942.
Not all of the weekly issues are available. If anyone has information
on the existence of any additional holdings of this newspaper title,
please let me know.
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Property Manager Faces Child Porn Charges
Frank Winstead, frank.winstead@gmail.com
Tuesday’s print edition of the DC Examiner reported
(complete with name and address) that a Washington man was arrested and
charged with receipt of child pornography. He admitted to possession of
more than one hundred photos and videos of child porn on his computer.
In the fourth and final paragraph his employment was listed as real
estate property manager. I can find no other references on the Internet
to this arrest. Here is a link to the page 4, column 1, story from July
24: http://dcpaper.examiner.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2007-07-24&page=04&pub=2.
The Examiner did a fine job of reporting what they did report.
But, I and maybe you would like to know where this individual works and
whether he has master keys to apartment buildings.
###############
Bill Coe gave the impression in Wednesday’s themail that Jonathan
Rees did not show up for any of the candidate debates when he ran last
year for the council. I can certify that Mr. Rees participated in the
public safety forum last September, at the Sibley auditorium. All the
Ward 3 candidates were at the debate but one — Mary Cheh.
I’ve read the OCF report that Wednesday’s DCWatch links to. It
does seem to give Councilmember Cheh a clean bill of health, but there
is a troublesome omission. The OCF concluded that the Cheh campaign
began its occupancy of PN Hoffman’s Wisconsin Avenue location in
August 2006, when the campaign began paying market rate rent. The OCF
report, though, also summarizes testimony from workers at the next-door
tenant, the Christian Science Reading Room, that the Cheh campaign began
its occupancy at about the same time Bill Rice became a candidate.
Surprisingly, the OCF report does not mention when Bill Rice became a
candidate, even though it is in OCF’s own records: April 2006. By not
addressing head-on this inconsistency in testimony as to when the Cheh
campaign actually started occupying the PN Hoffman space, the OCF
certainly gives the impression that there might be some whitewash in its
report.
Mr. Coe expressed concern that the time it takes a public official to
answer baseless charges takes away from the official’s public works.
Councilmember Cheh has advanced some substantial initiatives since she
came on the council. For instance, all of Ward 3 can support her crusade
to rid DC of invasive weeds that damage indigenous plants. Although we
all have suffered if answering the charges took time away from
Councilmember Cheh’s weeding, it is still important that citizens
retain the right to bring complaints regarding possible campaign finance
irregularities.
###############
Many compliance complaints against campaigns originate with the
opposition. This is a free watchdog service that helps to keep the
process honest, since committees are aware that opposition research will
be poring over their reports and practices, searching for imperfections.
While complaints must always have a reasonable basis before being
investigated, Ms. Cheh’s proposal that Mr. Rees should have to repay
the city for the cost of the investigation would have a chilling effect
on the rights of citizens to ensure that campaigns abide by the rules.
In addition, the complainant cannot be held accountable for the cost of
the investigation — that is a function of investigation risk and
scope, investigation staff, the condition of committee records, and the
cost of gathering any outside documentation. If the right of citizens to
file complaints and to have reasonable complaints investigated is
imperiled in this way, then I would propose that the committees of all
candidates appearing on a ballot be reviewed after an election as a
matter of course. If evidence of compliance discrepancies is found, then
the review could be expanded to an investigation and corrective/punitive
action taken as deemed necessary.
###############
Who Is Jonathan Rees
John Henry Wheeler, Tenleytown, wheels-dc@att.net
Jonathan was one of nine Democrat candidates for Ward 3 Council. He
ran a very odd campaign using only the Internet. Apparently he created
many Yahoo IDs and used them to post messages on Ward 3 listservs saying
what a great person Jonathan Rees was. Pretty soon, most people saw
through this, and most listservs banned him and his aliases from
posting. On the Tenleytown listserv, a message was posted by
"stewart2007." The style of the message suggested Rees to me,
and I suggested the readers of the listserv ignore it. I got an
indignant reply from “stewart2007,” who claimed not to be Jonathan
Rees. However, if you Google stewart2007’s address, what do you get?
Jonathan Rees.
Mr. Rees received only several hundred votes in the election. That
reflects that DC voters are generally very well informed. Now through
themail, he’s found a way to continue spreading his words of hate. I
personally think allowing postings by Mr. Rees in themail lessens the
credibility of the publication.
###############
I goofed. I left off my last name on my soccer stadium post [themail,
July 25]. Not sure if it merits a correction, but I’ve already had one
person ask if I was using an alias. Not sure how stupid I would have to
be to choose “Danilo Pelleti” as a pseudonym but I’d hate to have
people think I wasn’t standing behind my words.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
National Building Museum Events, July 30,
August 1
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org
Monday, July 30, 12:30-1:30 p.m., How to Win with Smart Growth.
Greater Ohio has been advancing smart growth issues for only three years
yet has produced a candidate briefing book that has redefined how
political leaders address planning issues. State Director Gene Krebs
will use humor, polling data, statistics, and real examples of how to
communicate, in order to demonstrate how campaign managers, speech
writers, and candidates, in that order, can frame smart growth issues in
a compelling way. Free. Registration not required.
Wednesday, August 1, 7:30-9:45 p.m., Films: Visionary Architecture:
The Process and the Product. The process of creating architecture varies
from one designer to the next. Join us for an evening as we discover the
process behind the great visions of two internationally renowned
architects, Shigeru Ban and Renzo Piano. The documentary Shigeru Ban: An
Architect for Emergencies (52 min., 2000) features interviews with this
innovative architect who explains the practical, philosophical, and
aesthetic aspects of his work. The documentary Renzo Piano: Work in
Progress (52 min., 1999) follows three projects at different stages,
examining the artistic philosophy of Piano and the working methods of
his Renzo Piano Building Workshop. $5 Museum members and students; $10
nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Both events at the National
Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red
Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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DC Public Library Events, August 2
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov
Thursday, August 2, 10:00 a.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW. The Business Planning Process. Learn the
steps you need to take to start a business in DC. This class is free and
cosponsored by DC’s Small Business Development Center. Enhanced
Business Information Center (e-BIC), A-level, e-BIC Conference Center.
For more information, call 727-2241.
Thursday, August 2, 1:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Enhanced Business Information Center (e-BIC),
1st Floor. Local, Small, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (LSDBE)
Office Hours. Are you eligible for LSDBE certification? Come to the
Library during LSDBE office hours if you are a small business owner in
the District, plan to become one, or currently sell to the District
Government. Please call 727-2241 to sign up for this session.
Thursday, August 2, 2:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 221. Let’s Talk About Books. We’ll
will discuss Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard
to Find.” Call 727-1264 for more information.
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DC Education Citizen Academy Forum, August 14
Maya Graham, mgraham@greaterdccares.org
As DC’s new Chancellor of Schools, Michelle Rhee, recently
commented, education has the potential to be the true equalizer within
our divided society. Unfortunately for DC’s youth, that promise
continues to remain unmet by the local public school system. Despite the
best efforts of our local educators and the fact that DC has one of the
highest per-pupil spending rates in the country, student achievement
consistently falls in the bottom of national rankings. Many have argued
that the failures of our system result from issues such as frequent
turnover in school leadership and staff; misappropriated allocation of
resources, both financial and material; anachronistic state of the
system’s infrastructure.
On August 14, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Greater DC Cares will host a
forum to discuss how these issues and others, inclusive of the Mayor’s
changes, affect college access, early childhood education, adult and
vocational education, and special education within the context of the
District’s educational system. Join us to better understand the issues
and learn specific, actionable steps to directly contribute to this
important cause. Panelists include College Summit’s National Capital
Region Director; Martha Ross, of the Brookings Institution’s Greater
Washington Research Program; Jesse Bailey, Advocacy Director, Pre-K for
All DC; Anne Gay, past DCPS Assistant Superintendent for Special
Education.
For more information or to RSVP, contact Maya Graham at mgraham@greaterdccares.org
or 777-4445. As always, our event is free and open to the public. Space
is limited, so please sign up as soon as possible. Location: 1727 I
Street, NW.
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