Fixing the Schools? Parenting Is Paramount

They can't, of course.

Now let's dispel a notion before it becomes an article of faith: Murch is not an all-white privileged school in Ward 3. About half of its students are white. A large number of African American students come from other wards. Murch students, however, have one thing in common (with each other and with charter school enrollees): parents who actively seek the best for their children.

So what's really needed?

Political leadership, and not the variety driven by big drama seekers.

Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray are District-born, former D.C. public school students, and fathers; two indigenous leaders who know the problems of family life in the city. Gray is probably the most qualified authority on youth and social problems of any elected leader in the city's history.

This is African American history month. Fenty and Gray should make history.

They should convene an emergency session with the heads of organizations such as the Links, AKAs, Deltas, Zetas and Sigmas and other professional and social women's groups with rich experience in dealing with young women. Bring in Brenda Miller, ministers and college presidents. Tap the leadership of active high school alumni associations, such as Dunbar and Roosevelt's.

Do the same thing with male professional and fraternal groups (Kappas, Omegas, Alphas, Sigmas, Peaceoholics, Elks, Masons, etc.). Make it racially inclusive.

Enlist from these groups an army of adult volunteers to serve under an official Fenty-Gray mandate to fill the gaps at elementary and middle schools deficient in parental involvement.

The District has a wealth of talented people who can serve as mentors, tutors and extended family for children whose parents are unable, either because of work or personal circumstances, or unwilling because of their own issues, to be on the school scene. A Fenty-Gray sanctioned volunteer corps, like Murch parents, can partner with principals and teachers as fundraisers, classroom monitors and helpers. They can also provide direct feedback to Superintendent Clifford Janey and school board President Robert Bobb, as well as Fenty and Gray, on what's going on, good and bad, at ground level.

The school board and the teachers' union should welcome this initiative. If they don't, tough noogies.

I'm talking about changing a tenet of District life -- that responsibility for children is the school system's job. In truth, it belongs to parents and the community. This could be the time, under a Fenty and Gray initiative, for citizens to start acting like it.

kingc@washpost.com