Fenty Urges Council to Move Quickly on Plan to Take Over Public Schools
By Joseph Young
WI Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

  
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s (D) testimony before the D.C. City Council last week wrapped up seven public hearing held on Fenty’s plan to take over public schools, a plan for which the majority of council members voiced support. Fenty is pushing for a vote on his plan by April.
  
“Schools can no longer be islands unto themselves,” said Mayor Fenty, whose plan has come under attack for its emphasis on governance instead of student achievement. “[Their] special mission is to educate and develop children. The responsibility to carry out this mission, however, is one that we all share.”
  
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) said, in an interview outside the council chambers that the bill should be subjected to more public input. “I think an argument can be made for a referendum where we ask the residents to weight in, because I don’t think the mayor was elected on this issue,” Wells said.
  
Wells, a former school board member, said he would support a referendum. “If a referendum only delays it by 30 or 60 days I would support a referendum.”
  
Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) asked Fenty whether he would support a provision in the take-over plan that provided for a referendum. The city of Cleveland set up such a referendum on mayoral control of public schools three years after instituting the take over, and voters approved the take-over.
  
Mayor Fenty indicated he would not be in favor of bringing the measure to a referendum.
  
Dwight Kirk, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which opposes the plan, said that the vote on the plan should be delayed until after the May 1 special election to fill vacancies on the council for representatives from wards 4 and 7. “People in Ward 7 and 4 should get an opportunity to get their voices heard directly in this debate,” Kirk said.
  
Council member Wells, however, says residents in Wards 4 and 7 already are represented because both council member Vincent Gray and council member Kwame Brown come from and lives in Ward 7, and the mayor lives in Ward 4.
   
“The council is more concerned about the nuances of how the school system is governed rather than what’s the electoral process for representation,” Wells said.
  
At the conclusion of his testimony, Mayor Fenty urged the council to complete its deliberation quickly and move forward with a comprehensive bill.