Dreaming in the District

Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are among the numerous nations around the world where the United States or our citizens are actively and eagerly helping poor and disadvantaged children. All deserving to be sure, but at what point does charity truly begin at home? Or more specifically, the District of Columbia.

The capital of the most “powerful” nation on the face of the earth is incapable of educating its children — its most precious resource — and almost nobody really cares. In a city where with a few strokes of a pen, billions of dollars change hands or are wasted, 65,000 mostly minority children are purposely being consigned to the slag heap of society. Not only is it wrong, but all those who purport to care about education and the District should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

As one who grew up in poverty, I know well that education, any kind of education, offers one of the few and lasting escapes from life below the poverty line. Toward this end, I recently and proudly joined the board of EduSeed, a nonprofit that promotes education among historically disadvantaged communities. One of its most exciting and promising programs is SisterMentors, which promotes education among women and girls of color. It targets girls from the middle school level to women of color interested in post-college graduate degrees. While their success is phenomenal and heartening, their funds are less so.

Therein lies the problem. Organizations like EduSeed are very few and very far between. In the capital of the most powerful nation in the world, you would be hard-pressed to find people of real authority who truly care about the disadvantaged of the District, let alone D.C.’s long suffering children.

Oh, sure, there are plenty of well-meaning people in politics who are honestly saddened when they read about the miserable conditions of D.C. schools, the everyday danger faced by these children and the complete lack of hope that clouds their futures. They are really saddened. But then they turn the page or switch the channel and it’s all but forgotten. The constant pain and suffering of 65,000 young human beings is worse than forgotten. It’s ignored.

Like many people, I believe the District its school board and federal overseers have squandered millions and millions of dollars. But so what? Is the answer to punish these children? To literally rob them of a chance of success, happiness and a way out? That is not politics. It’s a slow-acting poison designed to kill a dream.

Every single day in the District, those with the absolute power to help these children — be they D.C. elected officials, members of Congress, educators or the media — travel through town, see these innocent children, know their plight and still choose to do nothing or very little. This happens every single day. “Obscene” is too kind a word for deliberately destroying a young life.

With this in mind, President Bush recently threw down the gauntlet to the Senate — especially the Senate Democrats beholden to the teachers’ unions — and challenged them to approve $14 million a year in tuition grants to D.C. families who want to direct their children away from failing public schools, toward the promise of private schools. By doing so, Mr. Bush rightfully wants to try to make the public schools and teachers more accountable.

In the meantime, for many legitimate reasons, the eyes of the world are turned to Washington right now. Best that they focus on “important” issues and not the shattered dreams of 65,000 children who, unfortunately for them, inhabit the most “powerful” city on the face of the earth.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former press secretary to Sen. Bob Dole, and a former White House and Pentagon official.