Candidates at the education forum.

Mayor Vince Gray faced an angry and very vocal crowd at Monday night’s mayoral candidate forum put on by the Washington Teachers Union, his first debate since announcing his plans to seek reelection.

Moderated by WTU President Liz Davis, the forum kicked off with a question about the criteria for selecting a schools chancellor. After a brief microphone snafu, Gray defended appointing Kaya Henderson to the role after taking office, calling her “somebody who has roots here in the District of Columbia,” “somebody who understands how to work with people” and “somebody who is flexible enough to move in the direction we need to move in.”

The crowd was not having any of it.

As the bell rang, signaling his time was up, Gray was in the midst of touting higher test scores as the crowd loudly voiced disapproval.

Second to Gray, who faced a hostile crowd for the entire hour, Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) received the most negative reaction. After he was asked a question about teacher evaluations through the IMPACT system, Evans instead talked about the importance of getting children into school as early as possible. “Answer the question,” the woman next to this editor said. “He didn’t answer the question.”

When he eventually did, Evans promised to evaluate the evaluations. “Evaluate evaluations,” Davis repeated as the crowd laughed.

Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal and relative unknown Christian Carter received the warmest reaction from those assembled, who cheered and clapped without abandon or admonishment from the moderator. The former did so by promising to “put the public back in public schools,” the latter by directly addressing — and pointing at — Gray.

Carter was handed the perfect question for the attack, having been asked what report card he would give the D.C. public school system. He approached the mayor and said he’d give them an “F.”

“We have a chancellor that’s not in touch with the people in these communities,” Carter told Gray directly. “We have a lot of people who have been put into the position where they can’t even afford to take their children to school.”

Carter also strongly criticized IMPACT to loud applause and cheers, and questioned the need to have a chancellor at all.

Both Shallal and Carter were the only candidates who said they would not close any public schools and would relinquish mayoral control.

Of the three Councilmembers present (Muriel Bowser had a scheduling conflict), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) seemingly pleased the crowd the most. Wells touted the “Renaissance” of elementary schools in his Ward and promised to do the same citywide. His biggest applause line, however, came after he said “This administration has closed nine elementary schools.”

Vincent Orange (D-At Large) promised to build a “pipeline” to take children through preschool to the University of the District of Columbia. Reta Jo Lewis was also present at the debate.

In an email to supporters, Gray’s campaign manager Chuck Thies said “Vince will not exchange the future of our children for a round of applause.”

“Vince will not yield to special interest groups with political muscle, and he certainly is not impressed by candidates whose education policy goes no further than a bumper sticker,” Thies continued. “There will be a lot of noise during this campaign. Vince prefers a conversation with you and your neighbors.”

In the 2010 election, WTU endorsed Gray. Based on last evening’s forum, it doesn’t seem that will happen again.