Harry Jaffe: Reading, writing, 'rithmatic and Fenty's boys
By: Harry Jaffe
Examiner Columnist
August 26, 2009
Let's begin today's lesson with addition.
With much glee, Rhee haters and anti-reform whiners broadcast news that only 37,000 students were enrolled to start D.C. public school on Monday. Chancellor Michelle Rhee had convinced the city council to fund 44,000 students. Hah! Rhee is failing!
Not so fast. Relying on that number would be like basing attendance for a baseball game by counting fans in the stands for the first pitch. The stands are always half-empty, but by the third inning, they have plumped up. Attendance is taken in the fifth inning, not the beginning.
By early Tuesday, the system had received new enrollment figures that added 2,000 students, putting the number of students over 39,000. By Oct. 5, when the numbers are audited, enrollment could exceed the 44,000 Rhee expects.
The city's schools are notorious for miscounting or not even trying to count students -- or teachers, or textbooks. Rhee has demanded numbers. That numbers are actually coming in is a breakthrough. By the way, last year's enrollment number on day one was 11,400; it rose fourfold.
The numbers that matter to students, teachers and parents are: $100 million, which represents the amount of money spent on fixing schools this summer; 10 new or renovated schools; 20 refurbished fields or playgrounds.
Those of us who sent kids to District of C Public Schools remember when schools opened with filthy and stifling buildings, when textbooks didn't arrive for weeks, when Judge Kaye Christian refused to allow students into schools that failed to meet fire code in 1997.
Rhee is starting her third school year as chancellor. Give her a break. No -- give her a bouquet.
Mayor Adrian Fenty was not throwing flowers to reporters who dared ask where his twin sons, Andrew and Matthew, would be attending school. "I don't want to comment on my kids," he spat, "and I don't want to invite others to comment on my kids."
Which invites me to advise: Chill, dude!
Why be so defensive about his decision to send his boys to Lafayette Elementary School? Why not flash that Fenty grin and say he's proud? Having broken the news last month that the boys would go to Lafayette, I can't figure why Fenty seems so embarrassed. Perhaps because he hopped Rock Creek Park to find the best school?
I was embarrassed by my mischaracterization of West Elementary, the Fenty boys' neighborhood school. I wrote last week that it was in turmoil. That's old news.
Sherilyn Pruitt, president of West's parent-teacher-community group, said the school was growing and thriving and improving scores. "Regarding our Mayor and his twins," she wrote, "we would welcome the children with open arms and would be glad to include the mayor, his wife, and his children as part of the West family. But regardless of whether or not they enroll at West, West will become a model of what can happen at a D.C. public school when you have the right leadership, great teachers and parental involvement."
By the end of Tuesday, DCPS enrollment was above 40,000.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at hjaffe@washingtonexaminer.com
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