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Candidates Weigh In on System's Future
Jacque Patterson, center, supports charter schools. Opponents Jimmy Johnson, left, and William Lockridge say charter schools detract from traditional public schools.
(By Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)
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During the second panel presentation at the Town Hall Education, Arts and Recreation Campus in Southeast Washington, the District 4 candidates weighed in on charter schools and discussed ideas for correcting what they perceive as a funding imbalance for schools east of the Anacostia River.
Jacque Patterson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 8, supports charter schools, saying his 15-year-old daughter attends Thurgood Marshall Academy charter school in Southeast.
Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, a special education advocate, agreed. Because traditional public schools are so bad, Pinckney-Hackett said, "I support education by any means necessary."
But William Lockridge, the incumbent, and Jimmy Johnson, who conducts background checks for lawyers, said charter schools detract from traditional public schools. "We need to get the [traditional] public schools back on track," Johnson said.
The candidates were asked what they would do to bring more resources to schools in Wards 7 and 8, where children are more likely to have special education problems and live with poverty and violence.
Several said the effort should start with reducing special education costs.
Lockridge said the system should improve the schools so that 2,000 special education students currently being sent to private schools can return.
"Those special education dollars can go back into the classroom" for all students, he said.
