Education Becoming Top Issue For D.C.

But repairing schoolhouses doesn't guarantee improvement in the classroom. Cherita Whiting, PTA president at the newly renovated McKinley Technology High School in Eckington, off New York Avenue NE, complains that some teachers don't enlist families to help their children excel.

"There are kids in McKinley with five F's on their report cards," Whiting said. "These kids want to do good. The problem is some teachers do not communicate with the parents."

This spring, Deanwood community activist John Frye pulled his 12-year-old stepdaughter out of Kelly Miller Middle School, which opened in 2004 in Northeast Washington. Frye noticed that the seventh-grader wasn't doing homework. She said her class didn't have books.

Frye complained to Principal Robert W. Gill Sr., then went to Kelly Miller to check things out. What he saw appalled him, he said. The teachers were at a training session, leaving children to run wild in the halls.

"It brought tears to my eyes," Frye said, "to see a whole generation of young black people out of control like that. No supervision. I said, 'What the hell is going on?' "

Gill called the incident unfortunate. "It's like when you invite somebody over to your house, and the lights go out," he said, adding that school system administrators quickly agreed to modify the teacher training schedule.

Still, Frye transferred the girl in February to one of the city's 52 charter schools, one of the nation's largest networks of alternative public education. Now, with a whip-smart 4-year-old just starting her formal schooling, Frye and his wife have decided to take no more chances. They bought a house in Upper Marlboro. Born and raised in the city, Frye is moving out.

"I kind of had faith in the public school system. But not anymore," he said. "We're moving on."

Parents such as Frye and Whiting are no longer alone in their desire for better schools. Pollsters say voters from all backgrounds are focused on the problem. And this year, after many employers complained of trouble finding workers, the city's most influential business groups declared public schools to be their top priority.

At an education summit convened in March by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Business Journal, Stephen S. Fuller, a public policy professor at George Mason University, reported that the District generated nearly 31,000 jobs from 2000 to 2005. But most of the jobs, which pay an average of $77,000 a year, require some college. Many D.C. residents couldn't compete. As businesses hired from the suburbs, the number of employed D.C. residents fell by 13,000 workers. The result: The D.C. government went without an estimated $107 million in taxes.

Barred by Congress from taxing commuters, the District must find jobs for more of its residents or lure more working people to maintain its economic momentum, Fuller said. In 2003, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) set a goal of adding 100,000 residents by 2013. But the city lost about 21,000 people from 2000 to 2005 as singles moved in and families with children moved out, often because of frustration with the school system.

In many ways, "the District has done an amazing job," Fuller said. "It has more money in the bank than any city in the country. The housing market has turned around. The job base is strong. But they could lose it all if they don't get that one missing link: having middle- or upper-income families who want to live in the District."