CITY GOVERNMENT
Officials Narrowly Keep Schools Measure Off Ballot
Amendment Would've Ordered 'High-Quality Education'
Wednesday, July 12, 2006; Page B04
The D.C. Council rejected a controversial bill yesterday that would have allowed voters to amend the D.C. Home Rule Act to require "free, high-quality" education for public school students.
The council's 7 to 6 vote to table the D.C. Education Rights Charter Amendment Act means that the measure will not appear on the November ballot and that it might not be reintroduced. The vote took supporters by surprise, especially because the council preliminarily approved the measure 12 to 1 last month.
The state of the District's public schools has become the biggest issue for residents in this year's council election. This year, the council approved giving $1 billion in sales tax revenue to renovate and repair the city's crumbling schools. There is a focus on raising academic standards and improving test scores as students flock to charter schools.
Council members who opposed the education measure did so largely because they could not agree on a definition of high-quality education and worried that promising students a level of education that the system is struggling to provide would open the city to lawsuits.
The vote came as the council considered a stack of other proposals, including 41 emergency bills, during the last meeting before the summer recess. The panel will not meet again until after the Sept. 12 primary election.
Iris Toyer, co-chairman of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, a group that had lobbied for the education bill, could hardly speak after the vote. "What just happened in there, I have no words. I can't tell you the level of disgust that I am feeling right now," she said.
Toyer directed her anger at council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), who moved to table the legislation after colleagues rejected his amendment to require the school system to set standards for third-graders, eighth-graders and high school seniors. Orange said he did not believe the bill had gone far enough.
"He's going to pay," Toyer said of Orange.
Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), the dissenter in last month's vote, said that approving the measure could invite lawsuits. She noted that the District has 2,143 lawyers per 100,000 residents. "Isn't that something? I can see the lawsuits now, and so will you," Schwartz said.
In an interview, Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who cast the deciding vote, said he began to wonder what the bill would achieve. "I looked at it and said, 'What's this going to do for kids?' I couldn't bring myself to say yes."
Orange, Schwartz and Brown voted with Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6), David A. Catania (I-At Large), Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) to table the bill.
On another matter, the council voted 7 to 6 to return a proposal for open government meetings to a council committee for review. The measure would have banned private meetings of government bodies when a quorum was present.
