.
Strauss’ account of Inspector General Charles Willoughby’s
“investigation” reveals it as a pitiful failure: “Investigators only
delved into cheating suspicions at Noyes, where big gains on scores were
reported during the time that Michelle Rhee was schools chancellor and
linked student test scores to the evaluations of some teachers.
Willoughby’s team found that at least one teacher had cheated, and
decided that because they found so little fire amid the smoke, there was
no reason to look at any other schools, the report said. Yes, that’s
what they found after seventeen months of work.”
Strauss notes: “Of course, there is a history in Washington, DC, of
cheating allegations — and less than a determined effort to get to the
bottom of it. Back in 2009, my colleague Bill Turque wrote about an
investigation into possible cheating at 26 public and public charter
schools where reading and math scores had shot up in 2008. The
suspicions were never thoroughly investigated by the Rhee
administration.” These suspicions weren’t either, and it only reinforces
the public’s justified doubt that the DC government has the ability or
the will to police itself and to clean up corruption when it encounters
it.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
Initiative 70. Last week, the DC Board of Elections, at its August 8
meeting, determined that Initiative 70, the “Prohibition of Corporate
Contributions Initiative of 2012,” did not have enough signatures to be
placed on the November 6 general election ballot. Following a thorough
review by the Board’s staff, it was determined that the petition had
only 21,572 valid signatures, 1,726 below the legal bar for
certification; and that it had met the signature requirement in only
four of the eight wards, namely Wards 1, 3, 4, and 6. District laws
allows the initiative’s proponents to challenge the Board’s findings in
Superior Court within ten days. However, since the Board hearing,
proponents have suggested that they could challenge the Board’s decision
on two grounds, both of which are based on false assumptions. The first
is that the proponents could continue to circulate the initiatives’
petitions, and supplement their submission with additional signatures.
When the Board approved the initiative in March, that started the
180-day limit to secure petition signatures; that limit would have
expired on September 10. However, because they were seeking to place the
initiative on the November ballot, the proponents submitted their
petitions on July 9. Once the petitions were submitted to the Board, the
signatures on them cannot be reused in a subsequent submission to the
Board. The second false assumption is that the initiative’s proponents
can correct the more than three thousand signatures that were rejected
by the Board because the petition signers’ addresses did not match their
registered voter addresses. However, although District law allows
someone to change his registered address, that change has to be made
timely and before the Board makes a determination on certification of an
initiative. (In this case, more than thirty days passed since the
petition was filed with the Board on July 9
Funding candidates in the November election. The August 10 filing
with the Office of Campaign Finance shows that there has been a chilling
effect on funding incumbents’ campaigns for the November election. Two
candidates have limited cash on hand. Vincent Orange reports only
$9,856.42, while Yvette Alexander has only $3,935.12. In the last
reporting period, from June 11 through August 10, Orange received only
eleven contributions, nine of which were maximum contributions of $1,000
each that came from companies at the same address — 6000 Executive
Boulevard, Suite 11, Rockville, Maryland. Because of the ongoing
investigation by OCF of finds missing from his campaign account, Michael
Brown was not required to do a formal filing. However, his campaign
press secretary issued a press release stating that Brown had raised
approximately $30,000 during the most recent filing period. In the
August 10 report, Phil Mendelson has $41,768.30 on hard, while Jack
Evans has $51,226.42 and Muriel Bowser has $96,626.54. Evans and Bowser
are the best funded candidates, and yet they are both running unopposed.
The question is whether they are really raising funds for the current
election, or for an anticipated future race.
Where is Michael Brown? Last week, August 6-9, the National
Conference of State Legislatures had its legislative summit in Chicago.
Councilmember Michael Brown and three members of his staff were supposed
to attend the meeting as the official representatives of the DC council.
Although Brown was apparently in Chicago, he did not participate, nor
was he seen, at any of the organization’s meetings, including a crucial
NCSL business meeting on Thursday morning, where DC was reported absent
for a roll call of the states.
###############
Unless DC voters speak our loudly and clearly, this may be the third
presidential election in a row in which the Democratic Party does not
endorse statehood for the District of Columbia. From 1980 through 2000,
the Democratic Party endorsed statehood for the District of Columbia.
Senator Edward Kennedy and Rep. Ron Dellums were the original
co-sponsors of the statehood plank to the Democratic platform in 1980.
However, our own nonvoting Delegate (an office all US colonies have,
at least for now), Eleanor Holmes Norton, took it out in 2004 and 2008,
when she was vice chair of the Democratic Platform Committee, and
rewrote the plank drafted by the DC Democratic State Committee to take
it out again this year. Please call Delegate Norton (225-8050) and let
her know that DC voters want statehood and all the same rights as every
other American.
Also, please contact Mayor Gray (724-6300), the head of DC’s
delegation to the convention, and Councilmembers Mendelson (724-8064),
Barry (724-8045), Evans (724-8058) and Orange (724-8174), who are all
delegates, and tell them we want statehood back in the Democratic
platform. Finally, call Anita Bonds (714-3368), Chair of the DC
Democratic State Committee, and tell her the same thing. If you would
like to see who some of the other DC delegates are, go to:
.
If you know them, let them know how you feel.
Being a “little free” is not enough; we are either free and
self-governing people like other Americans or we are not. The only way
to have the full right to self-government — at all levels — is to be a
citizen of a state. Until that happens, we have 535 people not elected
by, or responsible to, the 618,000 of us who live in DC deciding how we
will be governed, how our tax money is spent, and what rights we may
have. That’s not freedom, and it is not OK.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Dupont Circle House Tour and Tea, October 21
Doug Rogers,
president@dupont-circle.org
The Dupont Circle Citizens Association will hold its forty-fifth
consecutive annual House Tour on Sunday, October 21, showcasing the
variety of homes found in the Historic Dupont Circle District from high
Victorian to ultra modern. New this year is an emphasis on the
environmentally sustainable, including Dupont’s first residential gray
water system seamlessly nestled into a turn-of-the-20th-century
townhouse.
In addition to homes, the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple will be open
to tour goers, as well as an embassy or two. The tour is also well-known
for its sumptuous afternoon tea and worth the price of admission alone.
Truly sustainable. Advertisement and sponsorship opportunities are now
available. For more information, contact Advertising Chair, Nelson
Marban, at nelson.marban@wfp.com.
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