Mayor Adrian M. Fenty Announces Education Initiative

[Luke_Wilbur]

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty unveiled his plan to provide the city’s children with hope and opportunity through an education reform initiative. The plan would ensure rational, streamlined education policy by making the mayor accountable and responsible for managing DC Public Schools. Implementation of the plan rests on DC Council approval.

 

In a Capitol Hill hearing to the Joint Economic Committee, former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan told Congress, “If we don’t get education right, nothing else much matters.” I share his opinion. The future of this city on almost every level depends on getting the education of our children right.

 

So, today, I stand here with members of the City Council and members of the School Board to talk about legislation I plan to introduce that will help my Administration meet the following objectives:

 

Ensure that all children start school ready to learn

 

Improve transparency of and accountability for public education performance to ensure equal access to excellent public education

 

Centralize State Education Agency functions

 

Support the implementation of the research-based education reforms included in the Master Education Plan (MEP)

 

Create an interagency, outcome-driven strategy for delivery of youth-related services in support of education

 

Improve data systems in support of coordinated service delivery and increased transparency of program performance

 

Increase responsiveness of public schools to constituent concerns and engage community in support of public education

 

Increase retention of quality principals and teachers

 

Ensure that all public school students have access to appropriate facilities

 

Improve access to and quality of Special Education services

 

Improve access to and quality of Out-of-School-Time (OST) programs

 

Ensure the continued success of District-based institutions of higher education

 

Ensure school, university, employer, and community alignment in support of seamless transition from the education environment to the workforce

 

Ensure a diversity of effective lifelong learning alternatives in the District of Columbia

 

We have twenty years of reports documenting the shortcomings of our schools.

 

Twenty years of promises and twenty years of failures.

 

Twenty years of school boards, superintendents, Councils, Congresses, and mayors who have worked, often at cross purposes, with layers of bureaucracy, little accountability, and no real results.

 

As we have hesitated and stopped short of real reform, we have sent thousands of kids through a school system unworthy of them.

 

There can be no more delay.

 

No more broken promises.

 

That is why the first legislation I have proposed on the first full day of my mayoralty is one that promises to transform the educational landscape of this city.

 

From Anacostia to Friendship Heights and from Dunbar High School to Shepherd Elementary School. I heard loud and clear that the people in the District want a school system worthy of the nation’s capitol.

 

Today, I seek both the authority and the accountability – and the two must go together – to let me keep that promise – a promise to the 60,000 children who come through the DC public schools each year.

 

We owe it to them to push past the finger pointing.

 

To align all of our bodies of government behind student achievement

 

Under Dr. Janey’s leadership, we have made progress, but we need to move faster.

 

We need to clear a path for the Superintendent to do what needs to be done to make our students and our schools succeed.

 

People will say that Mayoral control sidelines an elected school board, vital in a city where democracy is far too scarce, but that’s simply not the case in this plan. The school board will maintain a significant role in education policy making.

 

And let’s remember democracy has not been served by a system that diffuses and confuses lines of accountability.

 

Democracy works best with a bright line of accountability – where voters know who’s in charge.

 

I have vowed that the elected Mayor and Council will put children first, ahead of a political system that has failed to meet their most basic needs.

 

That’s good government, and that’s democracy.

 

Let me be clear that Mayoral control of the schools is not an end itself, but a means for achieving better schools and a more accountable school system.

 

We have seen the evidence from other cities where Mayors have been given the responsibility for the public schools – Boston, Chicago, Miami and New York.

 

We want to invest in principals and teachers, giving them the tools to respond to parents and to prepare our children to meet the highest expectations.

 

The goal today is to allow us to marshal all of District government, behind the Mayor and Council, to create a school system in which parents can have confidence and in which all students can realize their potential.

 

As Mayor, I intend to break down the government agency silos that have worked independently and not as efficiently as they could to ensure an integrated services approach where agencies work together to provide services to our children.

 

One person in this government can do that….and that’s the Mayor of the District of Columbia.

 

This is my pledge to the residents of the District of Columbia. We will remind ourselves everyday about the gravity of our task. I will end my days thinking about the urgency required to make this happen. And finally, I commit to the children of the District—our future—to make this my top priority.

 

Thank you.

[Psycho]

Congress will never agree to amend the DC Home Rule Act to allow Fenty control of the schools.

 

Robert Bobb and Vincent Gray have their own plan for our schools and will fight a mayoral take over.

 

Fenty is all hot air and should not be taken seriously.

 

 

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty unveiled his plan to provide the city’s children with hope and opportunity through an education reform initiative. The plan would ensure rational, streamlined education policy by making the mayor accountable and responsible for managing DC Public Schools. Implementation of the plan rests on DC Council approval.