Two contenders have already thrown their hats in the ring — Adrian Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5) — and more may soon follow suit. As the contest for the 2006 mayoral election heats up, less attention will be focused on who’s running and more on what they’re running on. What issues will dominate the campaigns? What will candidates highlight as the main problems facing District residents, and what will they concentrate their efforts on solving? In this, the first of a series of installments focusing on the issues of the campaign, DCist explores what may be the primary fight into 2006 — D.C. schools.

Just last week, D.C. School Superintendent Clifford Janey announced that public schools would dismiss students early, fearing mounting complaints over classrooms sweltering in the pre-summer heat and humidity. What in most cases would have seemed as a safety precaution and a much-appreciated half-day for District students turned into a nightmare for most parents — many rushed to pick up their children and arrange babysitters, most at last-minute notice. This dismissal served to highlight a consistent and long-standing problem with school in the District, and one which has the power to attract attention and decide a winner from a loser in a campaign — the state of the city’s educational facilities.

While it is harder to debate on the issue of educational policy — what should kids be learning, and how? — it is much easier to point to old and decrepit buildings and malfunctioning infrastructure and make a point about a government’s priorities and efficacy in educating the city’s 65,000 students. After all, how well can a good teacher teach in a poor environment, and how well can their students learn in one?