This week, the District of Columbia City Council rejected Mayor Anthony Williams's proposal to take control of the District's public school system (the wretchedness of which we have spilled much electronic ink documenting; see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=124#1554, http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=141#1738, and http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=27#149 for some of the lowlights). The council, a collection primarily of - dare we speak the truth? - political hacks, spiced its rejection with vicious denunciations of the mayor's performance in a number of areas. (It may be worth noting that several members of the same council have, or plan to, run for the mayor's job themselves.) We aren't certain that mayoral control would have been the silver bullet Williams suggested (Mr. Bloomberg, call your office). After all, what's important is not who controls what but what the person in charge does. But the nation's capital is surely one place where just about anything would be preferable to the status quo. Let's hope that the new D.C. voucher program will provide at least some children with a way out of schools that are the very definition of "failing."
"Williams's school plan defeated," by Justin Blum, Washington Post, April 1, 2004
"Williams' plan for schools rejected," by Matthew Cellis, Washington Times, April 21, 2004