Around Town: Battle Brewing Over D.C. Schools?

D.C. COUNCIL MEMBERS ARE SO EAGER to stand behind something that addresses the District's failing school system, they'll take even a non-plan. And so, the D.C. Council has signaled their support for Mayor Adrian Fenty's plan to assume control of the schools — with details to be determined at a later date. The Post's David Nakamara and Nikita Stewart cite confidential sources who revealed — surely to the horror of school board president Robert Bobb — that Fenty's design would outline the school board's authority over standardized testing and teacher certification and keep the board from making decisions about budget, management and operations.

WTOP's Mark Plotkin doesn't think that the D.C. Council's opinion is so uniform. In a washingtonpost.com Live Online chat, Plotkin wrote of incoming council chairman Vincent Gray, at right:

Gray is signaling a fight with Fenty, I believe, over the take over of the schools, that's why he made himself Chair of the Education Committee and every councilmember a member of that committee.

In much of the metropolitan area, education resumes today, with most students blissfully unaware of machinations higher up. But for 6,000 students in Maryland, however, school started with a big hitch. The Post's Susan Levine notes that a number of students in grades 6 through 9 were detained after they failed to produce mandatory records showing they had received vaccinations for chickepox and hepatitis B.
Photo by Rich Lipski/The Washington Post
» "School Takeover Gaining Support" [WaPo]
» "D.C., Maryland, and Virginia Politics" [Live Online/WaPo]
» "6,000 in Md. Suburbs Barred From Class" [WaPo]

» WILSON BUILDING: Plotkin also notes that new Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh chose to be given the oath of office by Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during today's swearing-in ceremony. Different folks will read different strokes in that play; Plotkin calls Cheh's decision a matter of "Stockholm Syndrome," as Ginsburg voted against the city's push for full voting representation in Alexander v. Daley. [Live Online/WaPo]

» CAPITOL HILL: The Hill observes that Democratic lawmakers are close to declawing K Street. Yesterday House legislators polished a bill "to ban all travel paid for by lobbyists or organizations that employ lobbyists, require the ethics committee to pre-approve travel paid for by outside groups, enact a total gift ban, and require lawmakers to pay the market cost of flying on a corporate jet." [The Hill]

Posted By Kriston Capps at 11:27 AM on January 3, 2007 Tagged in Around Town , Capitol Hill , D.C. Government , D.C. Politics , Free Ride , The District

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