Record Funding Boost Likely for Schools

Others made the same connection. Although school modernization already was the focus of hearings chaired by council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), "the stadium thing, in my mind, really helped propel things," said Marc Borbely, a former Eastern High School teacher and a leader of the schools coalition. "It was something we used to generate outrage."

In April, at the Washington Nationals' home opener, school advocates staged one of their first protests. More than 400 people handed out peanuts to arriving fans under signs reading, "Millions for the stadium, Peanuts for the kids."

Five days later, Fenty announced his schools bill, a $1 billion bond issuance that would have been secured by D.C. Lottery revenue. Cropp sent it to two committees: Patterson's education committee and the finance and revenue panel chaired by Jack Evans (D-Ward 2).

The bill quickly was dismissed as unrealistic. "There's no money available," said Evans, who was considering a mayoral run at the time. Cropp responded with what she called a "fiscally prudent" plan to raise $150 million for schools. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi said Fenty's bill would generate no more than $400 million while wrecking the city's bond rating.

But in late spring, Fenty, Evans and others started polling. When the results came in, education popped off the page. In Fenty's poll, it exceeded other issues, including crime and affordable housing, as the top concern by more than 40 percentage points.

Ron Lester, who did a poll for then-mayoral contender and current at-large council candidate A. Scott Bolden (D), said even affluent white voters ranked public schools as their top priority, a "sea change" over past surveys.

"People are more stressed financially. With the recent housing boom, they have to pay these high mortgages," Lester said. "Two-income couples each earning $100,000 are stressed because of the private-school bill. They would like to send their kids to public schools, but they really don't trust them. So education becomes a quality-of-life issue."

Activists latched onto the Fenty bill, packing the council chamber for a July public hearing. "People said it was crazy, unworkable," Borbely said, but it was something concrete to fight for. "Without that bill, we would be a bunch of advocates screaming in the wind," he said.

On July 14, the finance committee voted. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was absent. Patterson voted yes. And, in a bizarre piece of political theater, Evans, mayoral candidate Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) and Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) criticized the bill, then declined to vote yea or nay. They registered "present," and the bill survived on a vote of 1 to 0.

In a recent interview, Evans said he couldn't vote for the measure because it "didn't make any sense."

"I tried to explain to everyone why it didn't make any sense, but nobody would listen. So, I just said, 'Okay, we'll just pass the bill,' " Evans said. "Maybe we should have voted it down, but I thought the end result couldn't have been better."

The end result is a measure that has been completely reworked, first by Patterson -- who proposed funding it with new taxes and by delaying a planned cut in income taxes -- and finally by Evans.