A coalition opposed to a rumored school takeover proposal is encouraging District voters to write in a long-dead civil rights activist on Election Day to send a message, an organizer said.
Save Our Schools, a coalition of about 400 parents and volunteer activists devoted to D.C. Public Schools, has been posting its fliers to neighborhood electronic mailing lists urging voters to write in Julius Hobson instead of voting for Democrat Adrian Fenty for mayor on Nov. 7.
The flier accuses Fenty, who has suggested a takeover if elected, of not listening to residents.
“A takeover will undermine community input and create instability and uncertainty,” the flier reads. “It may even jeopardize the $3 billion modernization money promised to D.C.P.S. last spring.”
Hobson, a founder of the D.C. Statehood party and former Board of Education member, died in 1977.
He was a champion for school equality, and in 1966, brought a lawsuit against Superintendent Carl Hansen. The case, Hobson v. Hansen, decided in 1967, mandated equity in school funding for blacks.
Save Our Schools co-founder Gina Arlotta said that while she realizes the group’s campaign won’t topple Fenty, the group wants to send a message. With three children in D.C. public schools, she said she fears a takeover would derail progress made under current Superintendent Clifford Janey.
“I voted for Adrian Fenty (in the primary) and I do feel kind of betrayed by thewhole thing,” Arlotta said. “I don’t feel like it was articulated very clearly before the primary.”
Fenty met with Save Our Schools months before the primary, Fenty spokesman Neil Richardson said Tuesday. Another meeting will be planned soon, he said.
Richardson said a Fenty takeover would not jeopardize modernization money, which Fenty supported and campaigned on.
“I don’t know where they got that from,” Richardson said.
