Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Buried in the June 28 Metro article on the D.C. Council's confirmation hearing on the appointment of Vincent A. Reinoso to be deputy mayor for education was the fact that Mr. Reinoso has a staff of 13 but appears not to know much about who they are ["Fenty Nominee Questioned on Plagiarism"]. On June 26, another Metro article, "Council Mostly Applauds Nominee," noted that Allan Y. Lew anticipates hiring a staff of 35 to assist in managing school renovation.

Those who follow District education issues understand that the public schools' central office is an outsized, deeply entrenched bureaucracy. Is the city building a new layer of overpaid staff members on top of the Barry-era "jobs program"? Surely there is some duplication of responsibilities.

Who will evaluate and clean out the longtime nonperformers? This task should not fall to Michelle A. Rhee, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's nominee to be schools chancellor. Ms. Rhee has only narrow experience in school-level personnel and curriculum and is a stranger to D.C. politics. So who in the Fenty administration will bell this cat?

LINDA SALAMON

Washington