Fenty's Plan to Take Over Ailing System Is Finding Foes

Former school board candidate Jacque Patterson, left, Robert C. Bobb, the new board president, council member Marion Barry and Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty talk on Election Day. Bobb has spoken out forcefully against a takeover. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

D.C. Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty is moving briskly to convert his Election Day popularity into political support for taking over the District's failing public school system, but he faces potential challenges from other city leaders.

Robert C. Bobb, the former city administrator who will become president of the Board of Education, spoke out forcefully against a takeover last week. Vincent C. Gray (D), the incoming D.C. Council chairman, has reserved judgment until he hears more details. If Fenty (D) wins support in the District, his plan also would require approval from Congress and President Bush.

Fenty's bid to overhaul the system has become a focus of his administration even before he takes office Jan. 2. Knowing that success or failure will affect his reputation, Fenty is trying to avoid the political pitfalls that doomed an effort to take over the schools two years ago by his predecessor, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).

Fenty has assembled a team of education consultants to develop the takeover proposal. By the end of next month, he said, the group will deliver a detailed report about how the 58,000-student school system might improve if it were restructured so the school superintendent reports to the mayor's office instead of the nine-member school board.

Fixing the school system "is critical to the future of the city," Fenty said. "At the end of the day, as the highest elected leader [in the District], I have a responsibility to address the highest priority in the city. If you're looking at what is my plan to fix the schools, I envision a system with a lot of reform quickly. The takeover is not the endgame; it's a means to the endgame, which is improving the schools."

Parents, meanwhile, are nervous about whether a change of governance will accelerate reform or set back initial progress made by Clifford B. Janey, the seventh superintendent in the District in 15 years. Fenty has focused mostly on structural changes, saying little about improvements in the classroom or when changes would begin.

Education was a top issue cited by residents during the campaign. By improving schools, Fenty said, he would do more than answer parents' concerns. He hopes to resolve a growing divide among social classes by prompting middle-class families to reinvest in public education.

Kenneth K. Wong, a professor of education at Brown University, said mayors in cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston are taking a more hands-on approach to school reform. But, Wong cautioned, Fenty's bid for control will depend on how well he can convince the public that he will make good on his promises.

"The challenge is that local context is a big deal," Wong said. "In D.C., it was tried in the past a little bit, but the previous efforts were incomplete."

In 2004, the council rejected Williams's proposal to turn the school board into an advisory panel and to award him control of the schools. At the time, some members criticized Williams's aloof manner and doubted whether he would have the energy and drive to focus on school reform. Others said they were fundamentally opposed to eliminating the school board.

Fenty also wants to downgrade the board because he believes it has been bogged down in fractious politics that slow reform efforts, and he thinks he is better suited than Williams to win the support of the political leadership.

With his unprecedented sweep of 142 precincts during the mayoral primary, Fenty is banking on swaying colleagues with his clout and image as an energetic, engaged performer. And he is turning on the charm. He has begun lobbying council members and is scheduling a trip to take them with him to New York next month for a meeting with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) on that city's school model.