Schools Roundup: Pick Your Petition Edition
UPDATE 12:42 p.m.: The Council has voted unanimously to reject the Mayor's proposal, maintaining the existing requirements concerning the release of DCPS budget information and hearings.
Today, the D.C. Council is scheduled to cast its first votes on Mayor Fenty's proposed fiscal 2009 budget, including $773 million for the District’s schools. However, one proposal in particular by Mayor Fenty has been garnering the attention of parent and community groups around D.C. – the motion to end Mayoral and Chancellor budget hearings for DCPS (Section 4031 of the Budget Support Act).
Petition For Transparency: A petition that has been making the rounds of parent advocacy groups and advisory neighborhood commissions asks the Council to reject the motion, arguing that it eliminates the “opportunity for meaningful parent and community involvement at a critical juncture in the budget process.” The petition now has over 1,000 signatures from D.C. residents and organizations, and was supported in a recent Washington Examiner editorial calling for more transparency and community input in the schools budget process. The Examiner writes, “The law requiring the public discussion of the school budget was put on the books as a result of a 1987 initiative supported by 85 percent of the voters” and points out that in light of the recent embezzlement scandals at three city agencies, more transparency should be required, not less.
Margot Berkey, director of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, one of the city’s oldest advocacy groups and one of the first to sign the petition, told DCist that the ability to maintain an equal level of parental input as what was established in previous DCPS administrations is a deeply personal priority.
“It’s not the same. There is nothing about my quality of life in the District that means more to me than the education of my children,” she said in response to the Mayor’s position that DCPS be treated like other government agencies, who only hold hearings after the budgets are released. While she acknowledged that a “dramatic culture shift” is certainly required to raise achievement in the District, she said that parents deserve the opportunity to comment on what they see as the school budget’s strengths and weaknesses while there is still time for revision.
Petition For Support: Another petition being offered to the D.C. Council takes a different stance. DC School Reform Now, a new organization founded by D.C. residents Beth Schmierer and Kristin Ehrgood, has launched a petition of its own expressing support for the Mayor and Chancellor.
“In our mind, the only organized effort from the community level were from reform opponents,” said Andrew Simon, a D.C. resident and volunteer with the group.
The petition, which currently has about 350 signers, states, “For the sake of the future of DC Public Schools and all DC Public School students, we expect that Mayor Fenty, Chancellor Rhee, and the DC City Council will move forward with the education reform priorities that will transform DC’s schools into centers of excellence.” Their future plans include being a presence at school-related meetings and hearings, and providing information to parents and residents about proposed reforms. D.C. Wire has more here, here, and here.
Petition For Charters: And just in case anyone was feeling left out, the Examiner reported that a third petition has been circulating around school communities, this one from charter school advocates urging the D.C. Council not to limit charter school expansion, even though no specific legislation to that effect is currently being debated. The petition, called “Kids Aren’t Cookie Cutters”, has 150 signatures thus far. D.C. has the second largest enrollment in public charter schools in the nation, behind New Orleans. Kevin Carey over at The Quick and ED offers his take on why this growth should be considered a good thing, citing D.C.’s own SEED Foundation as an example.
Schools Notes: Phelps High School will open this fall in a state-of-the-art building, signaling new attention to vocational education programs…Boston looks to Rhee’s business engagement plan as a model…Two DCPS teachers, Darcy Hampton, a science teacher at Alice Deal Middle School and John Seelke, a math teacher at McKinley Technology High School,