DC Schools proposal by Mayor Fenty

It's difficult to balance civic engagement and populism with the need to work with elected officials and the "system." Remember this quote from the other day?

From the abstract, "Civic Capacity and Urban Education," Urban Affairs Review, 36:5, 2001:

In 1993, a team of political scientists launched an 11-city study of school reform, centering on the concept of civic capacity. In the field of urban education, the 11-city study found places ranging from those with low levels of civic capacity in which diffuse and scattered concerns never became focused and synergistic to those with relatively high levels of civic capacity in which key actors came together in concerted action. Community leaders develop civic capacity to respond to major community-wide problems with a high potential for controversy. An ever-present potential for conflict means that a spirit of cooperation can quickly erode, and civic capacity differs from micro versions of social capital. To be lasting, civic capacity needs an institutional foundation for interaction among elites and a "grassroots" base through which ordinary citizens are engaged.

(emphasis added)

So I have great concern that the proscription for the DC Public School System as recounted by someone who attended today's press conference:

1. That he wants to create a construction authority to control the real estate and the modernization money.

2. That he doesn't seem to understand the word mandate: just because you are elected (without putting forward any platform for people to vote on) doesn't mean that you have a mandate to then do whatever you want to do, but never discussed publically before the election.

3. That he is going straight to Congress to amend the DC charter allowing his takeover, a total slap in the face to all DC residents! and

4. that any questions about the oversight of any DC charter school is vested in the DC Public Charter School Board [which has no citizen oversight--board members are not elected] unless the charter school wants to appeal a revocation or protest their not being given a charter, and then they get to go cry to the Deputy Mayor for Education, Victor Reinoso.

Once again, elected officials are making every attempt to promote and accomodate charter schools at the expense of the DCPS. Do we take bets now or later on how much modernization money will actually be used to modernize DCPS, instead going to modernize and renovate buildings for charter schools-who have their own construction opportunities through Sallie Mae and other private groups? Heck, they even have their own office of charter school construction and loans in the Mayor's office.

Anyone who wants to show their opposition to this plan PLEASE join the Save Our Schools Coalition for a press conference prior to Fenty's Inaugural Ball on Saturday. I know there are people out there who feel just the way I do, maybe you even voted for Fenty, as I did, and still feel completely blindsided by this blatant power grab. It's so obvious that the only reason he's pushing for things like line item control and a construction and real estate authority is because of that $3B in modernization funds.
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Save Our Schools Coalition
-- "New Chief Lashes Out at Takeover Proposal" subtitled "2 Elected Members, President Sworn In" from the Post
-- and this from the Examiner (which I say has to piss me off, they should have paid me to do strategic planning and communications development I think in comparison to where they are today) "Source: D.C. paid actor $150,000 to market schools" From the article:

An obscure character actor has been paid six figures to help District of Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Clifford B. Janey “market and brand” the city’s failing schools.

Of course, the Washington Post editorial page is okay with reducing citizen oversight and citizen involvement in favor of the Mayor's proposal, according to the editorial "Give the Mayor the Ball," subtitled "Washington schoolchildren deserve better than the status quo."

Editorial writers ought to know that football and football analogies don't necessarily work when it comes to real life see the story of the Ford Motor Company (in dire straits) and the football team the family members own, the Detroit Lions (perenially an also ran), or the story of the Washington Redskins, especially under the tenure of owner Dan Snyder. Most of the teams lose. That's the nature of sports.

While part of the problem is the governing structure, I think the biggest problems have been the disconnection of the school system from the community and a lack of accountability and a relative unconcern for outcomes (this started with the first elected school board, which saw the school system as a power base and a jobs program), as well as the fact that a majority of the children in the system come from troubled communities and families.

Seizing control of the school system will begin to address only some of the problems, but ignore the others.

While definitely a show of action, it could well be misdirected (see as an example, the War in Iraq).

Index Keywords: education