There is enough credit to go around. And that is not the essential question. Everybody smells sweet if they can set aside electoral posturing long enough to celebrate this shining example of how the District's elected officials can work together when it really matters. The essential question is: What sink hole will that money end up in?" DCPS never finished the difficult cut on what schools to keep open and what schools to close. Now that we have beaucoup bucks to spend are we going to keep open a bunch of schools whose student bodies should have been merged? Its not as if DC is spread out all over creation, we could combine some schools and gain efficiencies - even if you allow that smaller schools are easier to maintain discipline in.

Although my daughter will go to private school because her Belgian mother demands that she get French bi-lingual instruction, I'm convinced that DCPS needs to be fixed - in addition to the infrastructure, if we hope for the vast number of children in DC to become productive DC citizens.

Here is an example from my own personal experience trying as chair of the DC Environmental Planning Commission to introduce recycling into the schools. My research indicates that the DCPSs could save about $200K a year by separating out the white paper from the trash; and the contracts for trash and recycling collection. If DCPS would only institute a recycling contract for paper they could save some cash. Maybe not a lot, but if they are so cash strapped couldn't the Facilities Dept. take some easy advise layed on their lap? I'm telling you the answer is still no. Throwing cash at the problem is going to solve the problem all by itself. The smart politico is going to take credit for the cash and then step up and say if they are elected they will make certain that its spent wisely.

Credit goes to who stays the course on Public Schoos once the camera's stop rolling, AFTER the Election.

Now the charge is how and whom will manage this money.

I have faith in Janey and his fiscal background in managing troubled school systems.

I would give credit to Adian Fenty since he was always on camera....

The major credit must go to Adrian Fenty who stayed the course here despite being attacked by fellow councilmembers that he was only going to the schools to get publicity. Well the truth is that the publicity he got was for how sad the state of our schools are. He went back again and again to point out that our children and teachers are in schools unfit for teaching or learning. Fenty is an indifatiguable worker who when he perceives a problem will work at it till it is solved. The issue here is leadership. Fenty took the leadership to introduce the bill and get the discussion started. Linda and Kathy and Jack get credit for helping to work out the final format of the bill but if Adrian hadn't taken the bull by the horns and introduced a bill to fix the schools we would still be where we were and that was nowhere. Leadership doesn't mean you solve all problems on your own. It means you bring them to the attention of the public and work hard to make sure they are appropriately solved. I believe this is an indication of how Fenty will work as Mayor. He will be share the credit for successful initiatives with everyone but he will take the lead in bringing problems into the light and getting people to face them and deal with them.
Fenty will have a true partnership with both the Council and the people of the District.

The credit goes towards Kathy Patterson and Adrian Fenty. Patterson has done most of the heavy lifting after the cameras have gone home. Fenty has genuine interest and shows what kind of potential he has for the future. Technically, I am not a supporter of his mayoral campaign but I am revisiting that as well. Mendolson gets some credit but Jack Evans is in love with his business interest and has been luke warm at best. He should get a luke warm credit.

I guess Adrian Fenty has to get some credit for proposing a bold idea. But, in yet another indication of his lack of experience and expertise in such matters, Fenty's original plan was (according to CFO Nat Ghandi) irresponsible and implausible. It simply didn't add up. It took the hard work, depth and attention to detail of Councilmembers Patterson and Evans to develop a plan that would actually achieve the goal of modernizing our schools. This "experience gap" was summed up in Jack Evans's quip the other day concerning the baseball deal, when he said that some Councilmembers said the lease was the worst deal they had ever seen, when it fact it was probably the FIRST deal they had even seen.