There is more urgency behind preparations for an elusive bird flu pandemic than reforming the D.C. Public Schools. District leaders are all chatter, “compacts” and caution, as tens of thousands of children are destined to poverty, unable to compete in their own country or the larger world.
Years ago, when Mayor Anthony Williams proposed following the Chicago and Boston model of an executive takeover of public schools, residents and D.C. Council members declared their priority: preserving an antiquated, ineffective governance structure. Radically altering DCPS was set aside in favor of politically expedient tweaking.
It’s happened again.
This week, Superintendent Clifford Janey recommended closing or consolidating six schools by August. Charter schools will use a few others. DCPS has more than 140 buildings, most underused or deteriorating; its student population dropped by 10,000 during the past decade.
Some, like D.C. Board of Education Member William Lockridge, are trashing the plan, using race and class as weapons of choice. Most are praising Janey’s proposal.
Puny shouldn’t win accolades.
Demographics, financial need and the demands of a technologically advanced society, combined with the desire for significant academic achievement, mandate a more aggressive plan. What the superintendent floated was timid and middling.
Janey says his proposal will generate $8.2 million. But none of the buildings will be sold and most of the staff will remain.
It’s rabbit-pulling time!
The plan comes in response to a School Board mandate to reduce 1 million square feet of the system’s inventory. Another 2 million will be cut by 2008 — even that is insufficient giving the rapid drop in population.
To be fair, Janey has made some improvements since arriving in the District two years ago. But none of the changes yielded any dramatic academic or financial results. And all have taken too long to implement.
Molasses Man doesn’t understand that residents are tired of waiting. They have seen new plans, new curricula and a bunch of superintendents. What they haven’t seen are reforms that ensure their children’s success.
For that, the superintendent and the School Board have to take bolder, more daring, decisive action — and with all deliberate speed.
More on relocation costs
Last week, I wrote about a report released by D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols that focused on the hiring of Pedro and Kim Agosto — a husband-and-wife team — by Chief Technology Officer Suzanne Peck. The hiring and payment of relocation expenses violated city personnel laws. The auditor indicated that $28,139.23 had been paid to cover relocation costs. A 2003 internal memorandum produced by the office of the chief financial officer put the amount at $18,936.45. An explanation for the discrepancy from the CFO didn’t make it into my column. Ben Lorigo said his office didn’t know about payments made by Janet Mahaney, head of operations in the technology office, with her government-issued credit card. Mahaney is Kim Agosto’s aunt.
Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst forWAMU radio’s D.C. “Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta.”
