UPDATED, 7 p.m.: Council Chairman Kwame Brown will not ask the council to vote on a requirement to for parents on publi assistance to attend half of all parent-teacher conferences to receive benefits. The dollars are funded by the federal government, but local jurisdictions can determine who receives them and why.
The plan was included in a draft of the budget that was circulated among council members on Friday, but will now be pulled, council sources said. The decision appears to have been soon after The Washington Examiner published the blog post below.
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D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown is considering an amendment to the city’s budget that would require parents who receive welfare benefits to agree to attend half of their children’s parent-teacher conferences before they get their government cash, sources confirmed to The Washington Examiner.
The amendment’s final language might be changed after some council members expressed displeasure with the idea, sources said. If he goes forward with the measure, Brown would introduce it on Tuesday when the council casts its second vote on the $5.6 billion operating budget for the 2012 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
The amendment is meant to push parents on welfare to be closely involved in the education of their children. But some schools ask parents of children who are doing well not to come in because doing so crowds an already tight schedule of conferences, opponents of the amendment were quick to point out.
The council is also likely to consider an amendment by at-large Councilman Jack Evans that would apply a tax on out-of-state municipal bonds only to those who buy them in the future. The proposed budget would currently tax interest earned on all non-D.C. municipal bonds, regardless of when they were purchased.
Mayor Vince Gray has also asked the council to make it a top priority to spend about $32 million of extra revenue expected to come from a revenue projection later this month on a rate increase for managed care groups that provide medical care to the poor. Spending $10 million on hiring new police officers currently tops the list of spending priorities for future revenue from the upcoming projection.
It has been estimated that the projection will add anywhere from $40 million to $90 million to the budget. The city’s chief financial officer has advised lawmakers to wait until September’s revenue projection before committing the dollars, given the uncertainty of the economy.
