(Photo by Lorie Shaull)

Mayor Muriel Bowser is sticking with former Mayor Tony Williams for a key education position over objections from elsewhere in the John A. Wilson Building.

“The mayor does not intend to remove former Mayor Williams as a co-chair for our education task force,” says Kevin Harris, Bowser’s director of communication, in an emailed statement. “One of the reasons we are the fastest improving urban school district in the country is because we work alongside great leaders like the former mayor.”

About two weeks ago, D.C. Council Education Committee Chair David Grosso sent a letter to the mayor to request that she remove Williams as the co-chair of the District of Columbia Cross-Sector Collaboration Task Force. The group’s role is to figure out how to get D.C. Public Schools and public charter schools to work together.

At issue is Williams’ endorsement of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. The former mayor described her as a “proven reformer who will challenge an education establishment that has forgotten too many children.”

Grosso disagrees. “The Task Force’s mission of creating recommendations for a fair public education and William’s endorsement of a nominee who supports voucher programs are in conflict,” he wrote in an earlier letter to Jennifer Niles, the deputy mayor for education. “The school voucher program that Ms. DeVos publicly supports and campaigns for and Mr. Williams endorses, would deeply undermine the quality of education children can receive in the District of Columbia.”

Niles, the other co-chair of the task force, said in a response that she referred Grosso’s request to Bowser for “further consideration” on February 8. Later that day, he sent a follow up letter to the mayor. He has not heard back, his office says.

Since then, DeVos was confirmed by the Senate after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence.

DeVos, who has never attended or sent her children to public school, began her tenure by visiting Jefferson Academy in Southwest D.C. She was met with hundreds of protesters, one of whom temporarily blocked her entrance into the school.

While she initially called her tour of the D.C. public middle school “awesome,” she later criticized its teachers as being in “receive mode.”

“They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child,” she said during an interview with Townhall.

The school fired back in a series of tweets.

JA teachers are not in a “receive mode.” Unless you mean we “receive” students at a 2nd grade level and move them to an 8th grade level.

— Jefferson Academy (@JATrojans) February 18, 2017

Williams served as mayor for two terms, from 1999-2007, and now leads the Federal City Council, a business-focused non-profit that promotes economic development (the group has come out in favor of the Exelon-Pepco merger and against the Council’s paid family leave plan, both of which mirror the Bowser administration’s positions). We’ve reached out to Williams to see if his thoughts about DeVos have changed since she took over the Department of Education, and will update if we hear back.

When DeVos was briefly blocked from entering Jefferson Academy, Bowser tweeted that “We welcome Betsy DeVos & anyone who wants to learn more about our schools.” Despite DeVos’s criticism, Bowser’s office wants to “invite the Secretary back to learn more about our schools and the amazing teachers in the District,” says Harris.

Grosso feels otherwise. ““Her lack of policy knowledge demonstrated during her confirmation hearings, her support of vouchers, and her disparaging of D.C. teachers show me she was not the right person for the job,” he says over email.

He adds that her reported pushback against the Trump administration over its withdrawal of protections for transgender students has not changed his opinion of DeVos. “Actions speak louder than words,” Grosso says. “She ultimately approved this policy, further adding to my fear that she won’t stand up for students when it truly matters.”

As for his response to Bowser keeping Williams as co-chair of the task force? “We’ll respond when we receive a response from the mayor’s office,” says Matthew Nocella, Grosso’s communications director.

The task force, established in 2016, has 26 members who meet monthly over a two-year period.

Correspondence From CM Grosso to Mayor Bowser RE CSCTF Feb 9 2017 by Team_Grosso on Scribd