Handouts and Hands Out

Why D.C. Schools Go Begging

When I think about the performance of folks in city hall, I repeat to myself, in a soothing tone, a slightly abridged version of French psychologist Émile Coué's positive autosuggestion: Every day, and in every way, the D.C. government is getting better and better.

Simply put, now that I'm in the autumn of life, I am trying to condition my mind not to worry too much about what the mayor and D.C. Council are up to. Without Coué's helpful formulation, I fear that I might conclude that the time has come for the good Lord to call me home.

What else to think?

Last Sunday's newspaper brought word that Mayor Adrian Fenty wants to hit up the private sector for $75 million a year to help pay for his high-stakes school reform effort.

Why not, you might ask?

The needs, you note, are clear. The total costs for renovations and simple maintenance of the public schools are well beyond the D.C. schools' $200 million annual capital improvement fund. The schools, as Fenty argues, must be fixed.

What's more, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says she knows exactly how to spend the $75 million, if only she could get her hands on it. Her plans, Rhee told The Post, are "truly transformative, different, outside the box."

Yes, stuff needs doing. Classrooms hunger for paint, cafeterias crave retiling, boilers need fixing, as do restrooms. Alarm systems and roofs cry out for repairs.

Which brings me to the reason my confidence in our city's leaders would be shaken, with all patience destroyed-- were it not for Coué's reminder.

Less than three weeks ago, the mayor and council gave away more than $56 million from the city's treasury -- without competitive bidding or close executive-branch scrutiny -- to a wide assortment of D.C. organizations.

As I noted in my May 17 column [" What D.C.'s Elves Do With Your Taxes"], public dollars will soon flow into the coffers of Ford's Theatre, the Washington National Opera, the National Building Museum and sundry nonprofits groups, large and small, deserving and undeserving. All courtesy of D.C. politicians. Some big-name groups are making out like bandits without having to resort to ski masks and hold-up notes.

Watching the city cavalierly give away $56 million in public money while the mayor goes hat in hand to the private sector for $75 million leads me to think terrible thoughts about him and his colleagues.