When Council Chairman Vincent Gray gaveled to order Tuesday’s hearing on next year’s school construction budget, he gazed down on the man who might be responsible for his defeat in the upcoming mayoral campaign.
It was not Mayor Adrian Fenty.
The man testifying was Allen Lew, executive director of the Education Reform and School Modernization agency. Lew and his staff are responsible for renovating school buildings, athletic fields and playgrounds from one end of D.C. to the other. With a top core of fewer than 30, Lew has hired and monitored construction companies that have done in three years what the District has failed to do in the past 50.
Lew has fixed the schools, period.
The chattering classes are focused on whether Gray would keep schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee around if he’s elected mayor. If Gray were smart, he would let Rhee’s future slide but guarantee Lew’s job.
Before Lew testified, I took a few minutes to read through his agency’s monthly reports. I had to chuckle at our obsessive focus on the politics of school reform, rather than the reality of the changes in the schools.
Take the obsession on contract negotiations between Rhee and the teachers union. Will Chief Financial Officer Nat Gandhi certify the way Rhee intends to finance the deal? I hate to spoil the suspense, but the answer is yes. Gandhi’s people are working with Rhee’s staff to find holes in her budget — and fill them, so they can present a tidy package to the council Friday.
Take the obsession with the mysterious surplus in Rhee’s budget, which evaporated in a blink. Fired teachers are back in court asking to be reinstated, because Rhee’s reason for cutting them was fiction. I have seen the documents and interviewed the players. The evidence supports Rhee.
Ask yourself: Will voters pay more attention to the politics of school reform or the very real improvements to their schools?
Visit Tyler Elementary on Capitol Hill, a few streets east of the Marine Barracks. It used to be a dingy place bereft of students. Starting this summer, Lew is scheduled to renovate the insides, but he’s already put in new fields and playgrounds. Locals are clamoring to enroll their kids.
Visit Sousa Middle School, in a rough neighborhood on the city’s east side. Lew remade the insides, and Rhee installed a new principal; now the halls and classrooms are jammed with students, and parents are thrilled. “I Am So Pleased That My Child is in This School Because it is a great environment and staff,” one parent wrote on a real estate Web site.
In Upper Caucasia, Lew and Rhee are in the process of creating a K-12 public school paradise. The elementary schools in far Northwest have been excellent for decades. Last year Lew renovated Alice Deal Middle School; Wilson High is next. Both have great principals.
If Vince Gray wants to be mayor, he should embrace Allen Lew, put on a hard hat and take credit for funding the fixed-up schools.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected].
