Mayor Fenty briefs D.C. Council on his proposal to overhaul the public schools
Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has briefed the D.C. Council on his proposal to take direct responsibility for overhauling Washington's ailing public school system. The program, unveiled two weeks ago, would create an independent agency headed by a chief executive appointed by the mayor to take charge of a $2.3 billion capital construction budget, oversee routine maintenance and repairs, and carry out a decision by the mayor and the "school chancellor" or superintendent to close about 20 underenrolled schools identified in Superintendent Clifford B. Janey's master facilities plan; establish an ombudsman to investigate complaints from parents; give the city council line-item budget control; and consolidate responsibility for all charter schools in D.C., which are currently overseen by two organizations, under the sole control of the D.C. Public Charter School Board. "There have been decades of failure," the mayor said. "There can be no more delay, no more broken promises."
The D.C. Board of Education has voted unanimously to oppose the plan, and board president Robert C. Bobb has threatened to resign if it is approved. School board members are angry with the mayor because he did not include them in developing the proposal and did not brief them before his announcement. The board, currently a mix of elected and appointed members, would be rechristened as a "state board of education" and lose all of its authority over day-to-day operations of schools, but it would retain its role in devising policies on such matters as standardized testing and teacher certification.
The council hearing was the first of six scheduled on a fast track so a vote can be taken by April. Because the proposal would require a change in the city's home rule charter, it also requires Congressional approval. Although 8 of 11 council members tentatively support the plan, council chairman Vincent C. Gray and at-large representatives Carol Schwartz and Phil Mendelson questioned whether a dramatic takeover was warranted or would succeed. "The improvement of our schools is not going to evolve around the structure for governance," said Mr. Mendelson, who added a takeover would make schools vulnerable to the political give-and-take that often dominates relations between the mayor's office and the council. Ms. Schwartz, herself a former school board member, said she opposes the takeover because she wants to give the newly elected board president a chance to govern, and running the rest of the city is enough to keep the mayor and council fully engaged. Mr. Gray asked why a takeover is necessary to spur reform and what classroom improvements parents could expect to see as a result. The mayor said he did not consider it his role to propose specific reforms and programmatic improvements. Rather, he said, his job would be to demand that people in charge of the system make it better.
Mr. Gray says Mr. Fenty will return to the council Feb. 27 for a second session, after parents, activists, school board members, and other experts have testified. Some members of the D.C. community believe the mayor should take his plan to the voters in a referendum to allow the public to decide if they want to jettison the school board. Mr. Fenty says he did not do so largely because he and six council members had just won an election in which voters called for drastic measures to improve the schools.
Meanwhile, officials at some D.C. charter schools fear the proposal could cause them to lose touch with the public by placing them under an appointed board. "The whole point of being a public school is to be connected to officials in the public policymaking process," says Ramona Edelin, executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools. Norman Johnson of the Integrated Design and Electronics Academy charter school says he applied to the school board 10 years ago because he wanted to be accountable to the local elected body. "Parents still want to talk to an elected board about their issues," he says. "When you have an elected board, you get people who represent people." Proponents say the consolidation is a much-needed improvement of the charter school structure, which splits power between the two boards. The proposal puts a spotlight on the charter board, which has a $1.9 million annual budget and has remained largely under the radar as the number of charter schools has swelled in the past 10 years. According to the board’s chairman, Thomas A. Nida, the board ultimately is accountable to the mayor and, by extension, the public. With the changing education landscape, the board has discussed ways to raise its profile, he says. "I think it's clear that increased transparency is something that we all need to be moving to."
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[Editor’s Note: For background, see below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on D.C. takeover bid]