Those and other projects spell j-o-b-s and more m-o-n-e-y in the ward, where officials said the unemployment rate has dropped from 13.2 percent to 12.8 percent.
“Ward 5 selected an honest broker with no baggage who can move the ward forward,” said Thomas, who said Ward 5’s baton is in good hands for the upcoming budget-balancing act.
“He has a clean slate, and we moved in a good direction,” Thomas added. “The ward is in good hands.”
Thomas, who pleaded guilty to charges of embezzling public funds and filing false tax returns, learned last week that he is scheduled to report on June 20 to the federal prison camp in Montgomery, Ala., to serve his 38-month prison term.
Prosecutorial leverage
D.C. schools officials proved last week that what’s old can indeed be made new again.
Officials were astonished back in the 1990s, when our schools were a laughingstock, that parents in Maryland and other states showed no shame in sending their children to D.C. schools, which had a lousy reputation. The city tried to tackle the problem head-on with the Public School Enrollment Integrity Amendment Act of 2001, which passed unanimously.
But now comes word that both our charter schools and special-education placements are being invaded by nonresidents.
The numbers are not jarring, but D.C. taxpayers shouldn’t be covering the costs of suspected residency fraud for 276 students, including 126 in traditional schools, 118 in non-public schools and 32 in charter schools.
The good news is that state Superintendent of Education Hosanna Mahaley has said her agency will turn over the suspected cases to the D.C. Office of the Attorney General for prosecution.
It’s easy to have a soft spot in such illegal cases, but this is an old problem clearly in need of a new approach.
Prosecute the lawbreakers before summer’s end and beef up oversight before the fall enrollment is under way.
Public schooling is not free.
Just ask the Ohio mom who was prosecuted for falsifying residency documents to send her daughters to an out-of-boundary school.
It’s obvious that she and other parents need broader options where they and their children actually reside.
View Entire Story© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Award-winning opinion writer Deborah Simmons is a senior correspondent who reports on City Hall and writes about education, culture, sports and family-related topics. Mrs. Simmons has worked at several newspapers, and since joining The Washington Times in 1985, has served as editorial-page editor and features editor and on the metro desk. She has taught copy editing at the University of ...
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