By Grassroots DC, on December 12th, 2013 
Cross-posted from the Washington Post By Aaron C. Davis and Emma Brown
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) chose a debate on education Monday night to make his campaign debut alongside council members, a restaurant owner, a former State Department official and others trying to keep him from a second term.
He could have picked an easier place to start.
Before a packed auditorium at Eastern High School of teachers, union leaders and activists — many of them upset with Gray’s current schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson — Gray was welcomed with a question that immediately put him on the defensive.“What is your criteria for selecting a chancellor?” asked President Elizabeth Davis of the Washington Teachers’ Union, which sponsored the forum.“Our chancellor is a person who understands the importance of working with teachers,” Gray began, eliciting a smattering of boos and groans.“She was the first appointment that was made in my administration.” More groans.As Gray got around to the heart of his response, the bell rang and he was cut off.“When you look at the results, our test scores have gone up . . . .”
Gray’s voice trailed off. He set down the microphone and returned to his seat.
It was as good as it got for the rest of the night.
The hostile crowd showed that the city’s long-beleaguered school system — and tense negotiations with its teachers union — could complicate the incumbent mayor’s reelection narrative that the city’s schools have improved under his watch.
During Gray’s three years in office, the District’s public school system has recorded rising scores on standardized testing, and Gray has highlighted those achievements as evidence of his seriousness about education reform. He would continue on that path if reelected, he said.
But in holding up test scores as the barometer of success, Gray has exposed himself to the charge that he has abandoned his skepticism of reform from his 2010 campaign. Then, he said test scores were not the largest measure of success — helping to attract the strong backing of the Washington Teachers’ Union.
On Monday, upstart candidates including restaurateur Andy Shallal, the owner of Busboys and Poets, and Reta Jo Lewis, a Democrat and former State Department official, drew the biggest applause, indicting both Gray and members of the council who seek to replace him for alienating parents and teachers amid a forceful push for school reform.
Shallal criticized mayoral control of the schools, which was authorized in 2007, saying that it has led to untenably high teacher turnover and “changed the way we put the public in public schools — people have become more disenfranchised, disaffected and disrespected.”
He also took aim at the city’s support for school choice, in which many children face long odds to win admission by lottery to the most sought-after schools.
“I don’t want to play Russian roulette with our kids,” he said. “Every single kid deserves a good education.”
Lewis drew hoots of support when she declared that, since the D.C. Council granted then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty power to take over the ailing school system, too many “secrets” have been kept about school management.
By Grassroots DC, on July 23rd, 2013 
The previous post, entitled “A Lesson in Systematic Racism: Stand Your Ground, the NRA, and the American Legislative Council (ALEC),” examined the connection between the untimely death of Trayvon Martin and the powerful lobbying groups that made laws like “Stand Your Ground” possible. This post expands on the previous one by highlighting ALEC’s connection to school closures and the privatization of education.
Arlington, VA – On Thursday, July 18, 2013, a coalition of faith, labor, education and anti-gun violence groups staged a rally at the newly relocated headquarters of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC gained notoriety last year after the revelation that it was instrumental in writing the “Stand Your Ground” law used in Florida and other discriminatory legislation. In light of the recent not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, the protesters demanded the repeal of Stand Your Ground (aka “kill at will”) in Florida, aiming to change the system that killed Trayvon Martin.
In addition to seeking justice for Trayvon, speakers at the event drew attention to the corporate influence ALEC has on government. By bringing together business leaders and state lawmakers to write laws before they are even passed, ALEC ensures the advancement of a corporate agenda at the state level. This affects everything from worker’s rights to safety net programs. Speakers at the event talked about how ALEC’s laws perpetuate school closures, low wage jobs, and gun violence.
Josh Horwitz, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:
Josh Horwitz
“With the George Zimmerman trial we saw that now what was once murder is no more. Saving human life is not valued. That’s not Virginia values, that’s not American values, and that’s not legal values. Instead of sitting upstairs and drinking wine and eating snacks and celebrating their move to Virginia, ALEC and the corporations that support it should humble themselves and work as hard as they can to repeal the stand your ground laws before one more kid is killed.”
Brendan Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy (publisher of ALECexposed.org):
Brendan Fischer
“This is much more than ‘Stand your ground.’ It includes efforts to push voter ID to make it harder to vote. Efforts to prohibit cities from banning ammunition or banning dangerous machine guns. They’ve also pushed harsh sentencing laws like ‘three strikes you’re out.” At the same time that they were pushing private prisons, which, as more people were flowing into prison, the profits were increasing for private prison industries like Correction Corporation of America, which just happen to be ALEC members. Not surprisingly, these bills do have a disproportionate impact on people of color. And you are probably not surprised to know that many of the people who are in these ALEC meetings deciding to adopt these bills and spread them around the country, are White.”
Sabrina Stevens, American Federation of Teachers (AFT):
Sabrina Stevens
“When we look at organizations like ALEC, especially what they have done to our entire society, that comes into classrooms every day. So, whether it’s children who are tired because they are struggling to find a place to live with their parents who don’t get paid enough, whether it’s people who because of the three strikes laws and other that they’ve helped to pass that make it easier to incarcerate people than to let them vote. All of those things show up in our classrooms. And then, they exploit that perception of failure to create even more excuses to profitize and privatize schools. Those schools in turn don’t hold teachers or the companies accountable for actually tracking students, keeping track of where they are. They do make a lot of profit. And we end up with undereducated children who are fed right into the school to prison pipeline. We have to say no. We have to stand up to this.”
ALECexposed.org lists detailed information about how ALEC has led the fight to de-fund public schools and privatize education:
“Through ALEC, corporations, ideologues, and their politician allies voted to spend public tax dollars to subsidize private K-12 education and attack professional teachers and teachers’ unions by…promoting voucher programs…segregating students with disabilities…setting up low-income students for failure in college…[and] undermining teacher’s unions.”
We’ve seen this at the local level here in DC through past and current public school closures. At the national level, school closures are happening across the country in major cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. It’s clear there is . . . → Read More: A Lesson in Systemic Racism, Part II: ALEC, School Closures, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
By Guest Contributor, on June 3rd, 2013 
Cross-posted from Democracy Now
As the academic year winds down, a record number of Chicago schools are preparing to close their doors for good in the largest mass school closing ever in one U.S. city. Last week, the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 of the city’s public schools in a move that will impact some 30,000 students, around 90 percent of them African American. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pushed for the closures in order to save the city more than $500 billion, half of its deficit. “Rahm Emanuel actually does not have an educational plan, he has an economic development plan,” says our guest Diane Ravitch, who served as the assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush. Proponents say the closures will hit schools that are both underperforming and underutilized. But a vocal coalition of parents, teachers and students has fought back, warning that the closures will lead to overcrowded classrooms and endanger those students forced to walk longer distances to their new schools.
For Democracy Now’s full report, watch the video below:
By Guest Contributor, on April 24th, 2013 Cross-posted from the Washington Post By Jonathan O’Connell
For all the difficulty and anguish of closing under-utilized public schools, the process is likely to prompt excitement from at least one constituency in the city: real estate developers.
When Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced in 2007 that they would try to close 24 public schools, the interest from the commercial real estate industry was immediate, and for good reason.
Some of the schools Fenty and Rhee proposed shuttering — and which ultimately closed — held high commercial value. Hine Jr. High School on Capitol Hill, across from Eastern Market, and Stevens Elementary School, in the West End, topped the list. Hine is on its way to becoming a mixed-use project led by EastBanc, and Akridge and Ivymount School plan to turn Stevens into an office building and special education center.
What are the prospects for the 20 schools pegged for closure by Kaya Henderson, schools chancellor Mayor Vincent C. Gray?
It is not clear. When Fenty and Rhee began closing schools, Neil O. Albert, then-deputy mayor for planning and economic development, did not take long to see empty school building as a redevelopment opportunity. Fenty and Rhee announced their plans to close the schools in November of 2007 and by December of 2008, Albert had analyzed the available properties and prepared 11 of them for commercial real estate developers to bid on (which they announced two days before Christmas).
Henderson, on the other hand, said Tuesday that she wants to keep all of the schools within the school system’s control and has already announced plans to re-use many of them.
Of the 20 schools (or 19 buildings), she suggests that 11 buildings be kept by DCPS, either to plan for future expansion of the school system or for expansion of other educational programs. These include: Francis-Stevens, Garrison, MacFarland, Marshall, Spingarn, Prospect, Shaw at Garnet-Patterson, Davis, Kenilworth, Ferebee-Hope and Johnson.
For three other schools, Henderson says she has set aside for possible use by charters schools. Those are Sharpe Health School, Hamilton campus and Malcolm X. That leaves five listed as “to be determined” and Shaw at Garnet-Patterson as possibly “to be determined.”
Jose Sousa, spokesman for Victor Hoskins, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, said early Tuesday afternoon that he had not seen the list of proposed schools to close and declined comment.
Regardless of whether Henderson succeeds in closing the schools but retaining control of the buildings, there is nothing on the current list of closures that approach Hine or Stevens in terms of commercial real estate value. Nine of the properties, for instance, are located east of the Anacostia River, which has not traditionally been a magnet for new development.
But there are certainly properties that will attract commercial interest.
Although Henderson has it pegged for expansion of a high school for School Without Walls, Francis-Stevens Education campus, at 2425 N St. NW, is sandwiched between Rock Creek Park and neighborhoods in the West End. It’s down the street from the Fairmont Hotel and the Park Hyatt.
Garrison Elementary, at 1200 S St. NW, is just north of Logan Circle. Nearby, Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson, at 2001 10th Street NW, is just north of U Street, in an area in which the JBG Cos. is aggressively adding new apartments and retail.
There are some potentially attractive properties in Northeast as well, near the booming H Street corridor. Prospect Learning Center, at 920 F Street NE, is between H Street and Capitol Hill. Spingarn High School, at 2500 Benning Road NE, is along the first streetcar route planned by the city and has been discussed as a property on which to store the new streetcars. Henderson plans for it to be turned into a career and technical education center.
The education discussion comes first. But shortly thereafter, expect the real estate discussion to begin.
By Guest Contributor, on January 28th, 2013 
Last week, the DC City Council’s new Education Committee met for the first time. Inside the hearing room, Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson was defensive, while outside Empower DC announces a lawsuit that would block Henderson’s plan to close 15 DC public schools. Below is a brief round up of the news from that day. It includes two videos from the local news and one article from the Examiner. Enjoy!
View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
DCPS Chancellor Faces Lawsuit, Angry City Council
Cross-Posted From The Examiner Written by Jane Kreisman
Shortly before embattled DC Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Kaya Henderson met with the DC City Council’s new Education Committee inside the John A. Wilson Building today, Empower DC and attorney Johnny Barnes announced a legal injunction to block her plan to close 15 city public schools from the freezing steps of the same building.
Protesters brought many of their colorful and provocative signs inside and filled seats at the City Council committee hearing. The proceedings indoors aired live on City Cable TV 13 and DC Council member David A. Catania kept other citizens apprised of developments by tweeting live on Twitter.
D.C. Council members finally had their chance to question Chancellor Kaya Henderson in person and in public about her latest school consolidation plan.
David Catania, the Independent At-Large Council member who is Chair of the new Education Committee has said that one of his top priorities is improving the school system’s budget transparency and ”understanding how every dollar is spent.”
Catania said that DC education committees have been ”missing in action for six years,” and that lack of oversight has detrimentally affected DCPS.
For example, the closure of 23 D.C. schools in 2008 cost nearly $18 million, according to an audit released in August, nearly double the $9.7 million originally reported by the school system.
Catania has already introduced three bills this year for city reform, most notably one for DC CFO budget transparency.
Council and Committee member Yvette Alexander represents Ward 7, where four of the Chancellor’s 15 schools are slated to be closed. She demands that any savings from the closures of those four schools, Ron Brown Middle, Kenilworth Elementary, Davis Elementary and Winston Education Campus, must remain in Ward 7.
While Alexander made a visible effort and succeeded in remaining civil and constructive throughout the meeting, the Chancellor did neither.
The most notable comments about her contentiousness came from Marion Barry, Council member for Ward 8 and former DC Mayor, who criticized the Chancellor for giving the council a ”facetious” answer to their questions. He also took her to task for interrupting him and for ”cutting (him) off’.”
At one point, Henderson lost her composure and raised her voice over soft-spoken Barry.
”Why the hostility?” he asked.
Half-way through the Chancellor’s answer to his next question, he retracted it, complaining, ”No, I don’t want your answer.”
He ended his attempt at a civil discourse with the Chancellor with a statement of disgust, insisting, ”You’re not telling the truth!”
Instead of releasing the anticipated data of studies already conducted to support her case, Henderson was mostly on the defensive today.
Although Henderson again promised ”more robust” programs across the city, she was reminded how she has orchestrated a systematic downsizing and ”excessing” of Art, Music and other ‘special subjects’ programs and teachers during her tenure.
Council member Alexander stated, ”I want to see Art , Music and P.E. in every school in Ward 7. I want to see language offerings in Ward 7, modern libraries in Ward 7, and a STEM focus in every school in Ward 7.”
As the end of the meeting approached, Chairperson Catania gave his ”recap,”
‘We are hoping to embark on a new era of collective responsibility, giving out honest information, so that the public can make informed decisions.’
The Chancellor was allowed the final word:
”This is complex, frustrating and difficult,” she said, but she agreed to ”work on these budget issues.”
Notably, this is how the Chancellor chose to end the nearly 3-hour meeting.
Dripping in flashy, bulky gold jewelry, the Chancellor bragged about all her other standing job offers and implied that she could be making a lot more money ”without all of this,” gesturing with both arms at the City Council and the cameras.
. . . → Read More: News Round Up: School Closings Lawsuit
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