Hypocrisy of Mayoral Control

The Mayor Is Out Of Control !

Norm at Ed Notes on Line has an excellent piece on mayoral control titled: Barron, Klein, Spellings, Sharpton Confrontation: New Video by Angel Gonzalez. I wanted to share this with my readers here in Washington, DC. I believe Norm's piece deserves front page billing. Even though the subject of Angel Gonzalez's video is about NY public schools - it sounds eerily familiar to what is happening right here in the District of Columbia Public Schools . I can't say that that NY parents and teachers didn't warn us before DC Mayor Adrian Fenty started down this very slippery slope of mayoral control of our public school system. I encourage you to watch closely this must see video.

There are many similarities of mayoral control of public schools gone bad in NYC and DC. They include: waiving public school superintendent's credentials, pitting charter schools against public schools, blaming teachers, failing to be transparent as promised, disenfranchising parents and other critical stakeholders, dumbing down the curriculum, teaching to the test/creating test taking mills, and blaming schools when they fail after they have not received required funding , etc. For example, when 31 of DC Public Schools did not receive the funding they were due in SY '08-09, DC Schools Chief Financial Officer , Noah Wepman said that it won't happen AGAIN next school year. Oh Really? It's hard to believe this especially when a plan was not immediately developed by Fenty, Rhee or Wepman over 1 year ago and only some adjustments were made. It wasn't until 1 year later after the release of the study by Mary Levy on DC public school funding was featured in the March 28th WaPO article by Bill Turque titled, "Study Questions Disparities in Funding Among Some Schools"did the general public learn that there was such a problem with funding. This is just not acceptable from an 'administration that vowed transparency' to the DC community.

Courtesy of Ed Notes on Line & Angel Gonzalez: "In a brilliant new video, Angel Gonzalez of ICE and the Grassroots Education Movement exposes the hypocrisy of mayoral control and the phony mantra that their critics are all about adults and they are all about children." Here's Angel's introduction :

4-3-09 "Sharpton-Klein National Action Network / Education Equality Project Forum with pro-mayoral control and pro-charter school panelists from across the US. NYC Councilman Charles Barron condemned their privatization of public schools agenda. After protests from the NO Mayoral Control Coalition, Sharpton conceded Barron's address prior to the speeches of the panelists. Barron condemns the profiteering & the educational devastation promulgated by the Bloomberg/Klein Dictatorial Control of public education in NYC. "- Angel Gonzalez (Posted by The Washington Teacher)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntbFiTXD4Og