“LIFO” stands for “Last In, First Out“; the acronym (in this case) refers to rules which determine which teachers get laid off, and in what order, based on seniority.
RECENT POSTS
Fenty Lost Because of Style, not School Reform
Flickr: Intangible Arts
Former D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty with a young constituent in 2007.
Our former Mayor is in denial about why he’s no longer in office, according to TBD. Hint: he may not be a martyr to education reform, after all.
In interview after interview, the ex-mayor and Michelle Rhee, his former schools chancellor, have argued that political defeat is what happens to those who are so bold as to champion an aggressive stance toward teachers unions and a program of radical shifts in how business is conducted in the classroom…
The real danger lies not in pursuing Fenty-Rhee-style education reform, but in pursuing anything in the Fenty-Rhee style. That means no dissing the media at every turn. No brushing aside the concerns of great Americans. No scorning the notion of legislative oversight.
For as long as he remains in denial about his mayoralty, Fenty will likely keep peddling his tale of woe about education reform. As time wears on, however, he’ll have to make peace with the facts: His signature issue of education reform is popular among District voters, who still saw fit to vote him out of office.
Gray Ethics and Transparency
Flickr: Jason Pier in DC
Vince Gray campaign sticker in Logan Circle.
WaPo’s Petula Clark calls out the Mayor’s hypocrisy:
Surreptitious. Clandestine. Circuitous. Sweetheart deals. Cronyism.
Those are all words that D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) used to attack the incumbent mayor on the campaign trail last year. And that’s why he is a disaster right now, not even 100 days in office.
The very platform of his campaign – sound ethics, fairness, transparency and dignity – are now crumbling in the face of some ugly allegations.
In case you forgot them, here are some of Fenty’s greatest hits:
Continue reading
Henderson Not Budging on Hardy Middle School
Flickr: D. Clow
Councilmember Jack Evans agrees with parents in his ward who want to bring Pope back.
Candidate Vince Gray supported the reinstatement of popular former Hardy Middle School principal, Patrick Pope, who was removed by Michelle Rhee from his post in Georgetown.
Mayor Vince Gray is deferring to Interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who has angered some powerful, vocal parents by refusing to return Pope to Hardy.
The Washington Post asserts that “Contrary to overblown reports, Hardy is not a school in chaos but one that is experiencing stresses typical to a middle school.”
But that assessment doesn’t mesh with what NBC 4′s P.J. Orvetti wrote, earlier today: “Since Pope was removed, the school has recorded 41 student suspensions — compared to just one for the entirety of last year.”
Unhappy parents have recruited a surprising ally to voice their concerns. According to the Georgetown Dish,
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown will hold an oversight hearing on District schools this Friday March 4 at 10:00 am in the Council Chamber. After mounting controversy at Hardy Middle School during the last year, Councilmember Jack Evans Tuesday introduced legislation to reinstate popular Principal Patrick Pope. The legislation is likely to be a topic of the hearing.
Mayor Gray has already indicated that even if the legislation passes, he won’t sign it. The Hardy Middle School saga continues.
Hard choices on school choice
Fredrick Kunkle’s story in yesterday’s Washington Post on the battle over school choice in Virginia underscores the emotion in the debate. In Kunkle’s telling, the battle pits civil rights heroes, still yearning for equality, against ambitious young students, questing for opportunity:
On one side are black elders who remember when school choice meant no choice at all because of state-mandated segregation. Many also remember how vouchers were given to white children to attend private academies during “massive resistance” in the late 1950s and early ’60s, when Virginia closed some public schools rather than desegregate as ordered under the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. the Board of Education. Opponents argue that school choice might resegregate the schools, this time by class and ability.
On the other side is a younger generation of single parents and working-class black families looking for any way out of the state’s most troubled schools in places such as Norfolk, Petersburg and the capital. Even if it’s difficult to rescue all schoolchildren, an effort should be made to save some, they say.
Read to the very bottom of the story for a fascinating tidbit in the conclusion.
Should local police have to give fingerprints to the Feds?
Twistiti / Flickr
You’ve heard of the DREAM Act, the bill that would offer a path to legal residency to great students that arrived in the US illegally when they were children. You’ve probably heard of SB 1070, Arizona’s law making it a state crime for non-citizens to be without their registration documents. But you might not have heard about Secure Communities, even though it’s a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s immigration policy, and it’s igniting plenty of controversy here in DC. And now more details are leaking out about how DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier has tried to work with the program. Continue reading
DC’s New Construction Signs = Gray’s Old Campaign Signs?
GrayTransition2010.org
Recognize this image from Vince Gray's mayoral campaign? Prepare to see something like it on improvement projects all over DC.
DCist flags a notable executive order in this week’s DC Register:
According to Executive Order 2011-45, [...] you’ll be seeing a lot more of “One City” around these parts — like everywhere the D.C. government maintains a presence.
The branding has already begun: the city’s annual Summer Youth Employment Program is now officially called the “2011 Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s One City Summer Youth Employment Program.”
The commenters at DCist are already bringing the snark, as they do. “Aside from the race baiting connotations, and campaign use, it’s not a slogan for a city,” posts Stmove. “It’s embarassing, as if the best thing we can say about the District is that it’s one city. It sort of makes Baltimore’s ‘Charm City’ look totally non ironic in comparison.” Best comment: “Yet another example of the “Novus Ordo Secretum” as prophecied in The Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accept Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, the Book of Revelations, the Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and the Fun 4 Kidz placemat at the Expressway 83 Shoney’s near McAllen, TX.”
How about it, DCentrists? Any thoughts on the logo, soon to be on DC business cards, letterheads and signs near you?
Three Surprising Facts About Metro Crime
Crime in the Metro system hit a 5-year high in 2010, according to a WMATA report released today. That’s the banner finding among many grim facts in the report, which you can read in its PowerPoint-y entirety here. Here are some of the other surprises:
A third of the 2,012 arrests in 2010 involved youths.
I’m not sure whether I expected this figure to be higher or lower, but it was definitely interesting. Many of our discussions of Metro crime over the past several months have been about youth on the Metro, such as today’s story embedded at right from MyFoxDC. Last summer’s brawl at Gallery Place sparked several comment threads about race and crime on various sites online, such as DCist. What do you think? Did you find this figure surprising?
4 of 7 sexual offenses “allegedly involved assaults on disabled customers by MetroAccess drivers.”
This statistic, from the WaPo story about the report, paints a very disturbing picture. An account from a WaPo story last April provides some more context:
Both contract drivers [charged with sexual assaults against customers] were hired after passing a background check, said Nikki Frenney, vice president of public affairs for MV Transportation, which oversees the 1,500 drivers in the MetroAccess system for Metro. MetroAccess provides about 7,700 trips a day for people with disabilities who are unable to use regular bus and rail service.
A homicide appears to be missing from the data.
MyFoxDC noted this in their story on the report. Indeed, the WMATA report claims no homicides occurred in the Metro system in 2010, but what happened to the homicide at the Congress Heights Metro Station in May? MyFoxDC asked Councilmember Tommy Wells, who didn’t have an answer for why the homicide might be omitted. The station wasn’t able to get a comment from Metro officials.
Kwame Brown’s Luxurious Black Lincoln
Flickr: Chad Horwedel
A spiffy Lincoln Navigator. Not Brown's.
Budget shortfall. Procuring a luxury SUV. Should a city suffering from the former do the latter? Too late– we already did. Twice. As mentioned in our morning roundup a few weeks ago, our Council Chair Kwame Brown– or someone acting on his behalf– required a top-of-the-line Lincoln SUV, complete with 600-watt sound system and DVD-entertainment, and it had to be here before the beginning of the year.
In the Sunday Post, Mike DeBonis outlines exactly how a city with budget woes purchased one luxurious Lincoln for Brown, only to have it rejected for the trifling flaw of having a gray interior vs. the requested black one. A dealer from Coldwater, Michigan drove a second, more suitable SUV to D.C. to deliver it in time for Brown’s inauguration. Did I mention that the city isn’t exactly flush with cash right now?
…when he was asked on television why taxpayers should foot the $1,900-a-month lease payments, Brown (D) said he had merely requested a black sport-utility vehicle and was driving the vehicle that the District had procured for him.
E-mails written by members of his staff and city officials – and obtained by The Washington Post through the Freedom of Information Act – tell a different story, beginning with a Department of Public Works solicitation in November for a 2011 Lincoln Navigator L series, an extended-wheelbase version of the Navigator. The e-mail specified “Fully Loaded Required” and indicated that the vehicle was being sought at Brown’s request…
DC Vote Wakes Up John Boehner
Flickr: DonkeyHotey
If you’re really passionate about wresting control of your city from Congress…why not organize a protest at Speaker John Boehner’s apartment, at 7:30 in the morning? Via The Hill:
The protest, organized by the voting rights group DC Vote, reflects a new, more aggressive approach to objecting to congressional influence over the city. Last week, nearly a dozen demonstrators were thrown out of a House hearing on an abortion measure after staging a silent protest…
“It is a shift in strategy,” said Leah Ramsay, a spokeswoman for the group. “We’ve played the inside game on the Hill for years. We came very close to having our delegate in Congress become a full voting member.”
“It’s time to get more aggressive. There’s no other way to look at it, as we see it,” she said.
Capitol Police prevented the protesters from hand-delivering a letter to Boehner on Thursday and police formed a barricade for the new Republican Speaker to walk behind as demonstrators asked him, “Why are you treading on D.C.?” according to Ramsay.