Cropp Stakes Her Future On School Improvement

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said yesterday that the city's public schools would begin to improve within a year if she is elected mayor and vowed not to seek a second term if the turnaround failed.

"If you do not see a change, I will not run for reelection," Cropp said during a lunch with Washington Post reporters and editors.

With about 2 1/2 weeks until the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Cropp has sought to illustrate the difference between her and her chief rival, council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4), who polls show is the front-runner.

Improving the city's struggling public schools has been a constant top issue among voters, and Cropp and Fenty have pledged to push for changes to school administration. Cropp reiterated yesterday that she would seek to take over underperforming schools. Fenty has said he would create a deputy mayor for education in his Cabinet, a position that does not exist under Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).

Cropp said yesterday that she wants to change the way the school system develops its budget to ensure that other city agencies contribute meaningful programs to support education.

"We can be programmatic-based as opposed to budget-based," Cropp said, citing the city's Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Health as agencies that could help the schools.

Although Cropp described a "holistic approach" for the budget process, her proposal to take over schools apparently would create three tracks for the education system: charter schools, public schools under control of the superintendent and failing schools under the authority of the mayor.

Asked about that contradiction, Cropp said mayors in other cities have taken control of failing schools with great success, but she did not cite specific cases.

Cropp said that she has shared her views with Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and the D.C. Board of Education, and that she has received support.

"We need to make believers out of people who want to be in our city that the schools can be turned around," she said.

Cropp was a teacher and guidance counselor in D.C. public schools in the 1970s before being elected to the school board in 1980. She served on the board for 10 years, two as president.

On the campaign trail, Cropp has been challenged by some residents for her inability to help turn around the system. She defended her record yesterday, saying the board won funding for 100 new roofs for school buildings and turned Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Northwest Washington into a rigorous academic magnet that is consistently rated among the country's top schools.