May 22, 2007
Landrieu Lifts Hold on School Takeover Legislation
Well that was fast.
After placing a second hold on legislation granting Mayor Adrian Fenty direct control over the District's public schools, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) this afternoon agreed to lift her hold and let the proposal move forward in the Senate. According to the Post, Landrieu did so after being assured that School Board President Robert Bobb (pictured right), who had asked for the hold, and Fenty had agreed to sit down and iron out some final differences over the school takeover.
Of course, Bobb won't be getting out of this one easily. In the mere hours that the news was circulating, the former city administrator was roundly criticized for encouraging a stall tactic that District officials have always hated. In his online chat today at the Post, WTOP Political Analyst Mark Plotkin took Bobb to task for the move, writing:
I fault Robert Bobb, the President of the DC School Board, for jumping over the elected leadership (he's elected too) and going to Landrieu and asking her to put a hold on the legislation. Bobb who is crassly ambitious and new to the city is not, obviously, in touch with our home rule government. It was a cheap stunt by Bobb and I hope there is some political damage which sticks to him for this ploy.Bobb's been here for four years, so we're not sure we'd feel comfortable calling him "new to the city" still, but his role notwithstanding, this recent episode again reminds us that more than ever, we need voting rights and governmental autonomy.
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Recall election for Bobb?
This asshat needs to go. Manipulating the process in such an egregious manner for one's own political gain may be par for the course in this 'burg, but that doesn't mean DC citizens shouldn't tell Bobb to take his self-serving shit somewhere else. So, just to reiterate from a previous post, here's the contact number for Robert Bobb, should anyone want to call his office: (202) 442-4289. Please feel free [compelled] to use and abuse this number.
Aren't D.C. city employees legally barred from lobbying Congress? Or does that not apply to elected officials?
Levin placed a hold... then released it 20 minutes later... something about clocks
Robert Bobb was a Williams hire, after all, and Tony never minded going up to the Hill to reassure DC's unelected rulers that he wasn't Marion.
Robert Bobb was a Williams hire, after all, and Tony never minded going up to the Hill to reassure DC's unelected rulers that he wasn't Marion.
Voting rights for DC????!!! After electing Fenty as Mayor, DC doesn't deserve anything BUT Federal Control. lol
Shortly after Landrieu released the bill, another senator, Carl Levin (D-Mich.), put his own hold on it. D.C. government sources said they were led to believe that Levin wanted to negotiate putting meters into District taxicabs, a proposal he has lobbied for in the past. However, Levin lifted his hold an hour later [...]
Levin would have caused a freaking riot if he kept that hold. Hold up an overhaul of our City's schools over Taxi cab meters - is he crazy?
I'm just counting down the days until home rule.
His name is Bob Bobb. hehe.
Levin thinks meters in cabs should hold up efforts to improve DC schools? What an ass.
More than calling his office, how about getting an editorial in his hometown newspaper. For that matter, how about doing that with Landreau in LA. And Bobb's old haunt of Oakton?
Shame the Hacks in their mothers hometowns.
4 yrs is still new to the city - ask anyone originally from this city. We need excellent schools, services safety, and fair taxation and laws and excellent infrastructure - home rule won't give us that. Sure, things had improved but i think slipped. The Home Rule and autonomy will come ... I can wait for that but want a better city for all the citizens now.
Because Fenty's done such a bang-up job running the rest of the city that we need to put the schools on his plate, too.
Don't worry: he won't make any positive changes.
Can someone say karma? From WTOP news:
LAS VEGAS -- D.C. School Board President Robert Bobb was fired from his private sector job Tuesday, amid news of his recent involvement with the congressional approval of the D.C. schools takeover bill.
Bobb was fired from his full-time job as a consultant for D.C. United owner Victor MacFarlane's real estate development firm.
MacFarlane spoke with Bobb Tuesday afternoon and told him that his work on the school board had become a distraction and that it was best to part ways, a spokesperson for MacFarlane tells WTOP
Earlier Tuesday, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) put a hold on the schools takeover legislation after speaking with Bobb, who voiced his concerns to the senator.
"Bobb was fired from his full-time job as a consultant for D.C. United owner Victor MacFarlane's real estate development firm."
Oh, so is that why he was in Las Vegas for a shopping center convention? I didn't realize being president of the School Board was a part time job, and that's before Fenty takes over.
I don't want to pile on Bobb because I think he's been a generally good government servant, he's just on the wrong side here.
Four years is new to the city. When congress took control of the city and brought in the control board after crack head was re-elected many of us were very grateful for their actions.
One of the best things about living in DC is knowing that our mayor and council can be quickly neutered when they screw up. DC would not be the city it is today if not for congress's actions.
What did Fenty and the DC Council expect, when they asked Congress to approve a part of the school takeover legislation?
Instead of going to Congress AT ALL, our elected leaders could have gone to District voters, in a referendum. This would have avoided the need for federal legislation at all. A referendum could have been held on May 1.
There will probably still be a referendum.
See the article in today's Post.
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The Fenty school take over plan will fail for one big reason and that is, there is only available 10% of the money needed to do the actual job.
In order for DC to bring all of its schools and their physical make-up to modern day standards of what most school are, it would cost DC well over $23 billion dollars just for the physical modernization process.
In other words, Fenty cannot succeed because the money is not there!
The best we can expect is a slapping on of a few coats of paint, new floor tile, new windows, new classroom doors and some other nik naks, but to re-build or build new schools to replaces those that are utter disaster would cost DC ten (10x) more than we have.
Voters when voting for Fenty were totally clueless as to the dollar figure that would be needed for the plan to work.
The best we can expect is some improvements on the physical appearance of our schools but not even Fenty and his machine will have any real impact upon student performance as the factors causing that problem is beyond the reach of our political leaders and is something that must begin at home.
Anybody who really believed that Fenty could succeed with his plan is dumber than Fenty!
So in R.J. Stewart's analysis let's take a defeatest attitude and keep with the status quo of the DC Public School system and hope the kids have a safe summer and nice life . . . .
DC spends more money per student (approx 49K per annum) than any other school system. We all should agree that the current system does not work and how much worse will we allow it to get before acting. And it seems to also suggest that the issue is administrative accountability. The Fenty administration is attempting to raise the standards of accountability and overhaul the bureaucracy.