Rebuilding D.C. Schools

THE AMOUNT is as unprecedented as the goal is ambitious: to set aside $100 million a year of city sales tax revenue for at least 10 years to renovate and modernize the District's public school buildings. That is the plan the D.C. Council approved this week by a unanimous vote that followed months of debate, negotiations and pressure from a large grass-roots coalition of community activists, parents and educators. A council vote is no guarantee that fire sprinklers, air conditioning and state-of-the-art science labs will materialize in the District's crumbling schools anytime soon. But now school officials have the money to transform the buildings in which children are educated. As council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said, "Providing the funding is actually the easier part of it." The next step is for Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and the Board of Education to see that wise use of the money leads to improvements in student achievement.

The school board's track record on improving school facilities is not enviable. Previous capital budgets have been frequently overspent. A repeat performance would be disastrous, not only for students and parents, but for the effort to give the board greater responsibility. That well-founded concern is the basis for the council's requirement that the board provide a plan by May 1 detailing how the funds and the larger capital program will be managed. The new law also requires the superintendent to issue yearly benchmarks on rebuilding progress. Likewise, the board, working with Mr. Janey, will have to produce a plan to consolidate and close schools with excess space by fall. Only then can a useful modernization plan be implemented.

A year ago, a massive undertaking to rebuild dilapidated D.C. schools was hardly on the radar screen. Credit Ward 4 council member Adrian M. Fenty for having the imagination, determination and sense of theater (he managed to bring TV cameras with him to broken schools) to spark public interest in school modernization. He got people used to the idea of spending a billion dollars on the schools. It fell, however, to education committee chairman Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) to negotiate with her colleagues and business leaders to fashion -- with the help of council chairman Linda W. Cropp and Mr. Evans -- the legislative package that ultimately garnered a 13 to 0 vote. Now for the next steps: planning, implementation and oversight.