More on School Reform....At the D.C. Council Today
Beth Schmierer and Kristin Ehrgood, District residents who started an online petition that DC Wire told you about yesterday, are slated to testify before the D.C. Council this morning at the budget hearing for the school system.
Ehrgood was challenged yesterday in D.C. Wire's comments about whether she had any connections to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. We emailed Ehrgood, who told D.C. Wire the following about her background and her thinking behind the petition:
"I joined Teach For America in 1992, the same year as the Chancellor (although I did not teach in Baltimore as the TFA information says. I was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and then Trenton, New Jersey). [The chancellor] and I have never worked together in the same organization, although I have known of her work which is why I was thrilled when she was appointed to the position of Chancellor. I have known her to be a champion of high quality education for all students, even when it means making decisions that are not popular.
Ehrgood said no one on Rhee's staff, or Rhee herself knew that the group and petition was being formed.
"The people who are behind DC School Reform Now only want decisions to be made based on what is best for children. We fully recognize that this means difficult choices and strong political will from the Chancellor, mayor, and City Council; however these choices must be made now. We cannot afford to put the needs of adults ahead of our children any longer."
At least two dozen witnesses will weigh in on school funding priorities at the council hearing, according to an early witness list. D.C. Wire will keep you posted.
By Theola Labbé-DeBose |
April 8, 2008; 7:28 AM ET
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Posted by: John | April 8, 2008 8:29 AM
Thanks for the update on Ehrgood. Yesterday's comments show yet again that those people opposed to progress think that education reforms in DC must be some sort of conspiracy. If these defenders of the status quo put as much energy into fixing the school system as they did into opposing reforms, our children would be much better off by now.
Posted by: DC EdWatcher | April 8, 2008 9:09 AM
Both DC EdWatcher and John engage in disinformation regarding reform of District public education. Many of the programs being presented by Chancellor Rhee are not new to DC and cannot be called "reform". Moreover, all of the school modernization reform came from the efforts of community education advocates Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty are critical of now. The so-called critics of Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty's education efforts were joined in their criticism with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Senate subcommittee with oversight of DC. The GAO and the Senate Subcommittee faulted Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty because they do not have a long term strategy to improve DC public education and wrongfully believe a plan is not needed and the public can be excluded. The GAO stated the public must be involved in all aspects of improving District public education from the beginning, not at the end just to comment on what is proposed. This a democracy not a dictatorship. If the public has a right to be involved in the planning of dog parks and cafes, the public has a right to be involved in planning the improvement of District public education. For years these so-called critics have been demanding improvements in District public education only to be ignored by the Council and Mayor Fenty when he was member of the Council. It was they who supported the status quo. DC EdWatcher and John have it wrong.
Posted by: Robert Vinson Brannum | April 13, 2008 8:41 PM
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It is so refreshing to see someone stand up in support of Chancellor Rhee and her efforts to clean house.