Mayor’s school plan should have been tested

The D.C. public school system is the 900-pound sledgehammer that batters the city and political leadership.

An ill-equipped school system is the eternal threat to a city that is increasingly split between the haves and have-nots.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams, to his credit, decided that enough was enough and sought control of the public school system.

He was so convinced of his takeover proposal that he said he would resign if he could not improve the public schools in a year.

That is a substantial indication of his faith and commitment in the plan.

Politicians rarely stake their power and livelihood to a do-good maneuvering.

Of course, the D.C. Council voted against his plan, and the city’s public schools are where they have been for far too long. They are a budget-eating mess pretending to be in the business of educating the young. They are an embarrassment. They are a drain on taxpayers. Of all the city’s public services, the public schools are the most worrisome.

Here is the fundamental issue of a public school system that barely functions. It is selling off pieces of the city’s future. It is consigning all too many in the next generation to a life of crime or dead-end jobs or no jobs at all. By abdicating its responsibilities, the public school system has foist the problem on the region.

What happens to these kids? Where do they go? How do they end up? How many eventually rise above their circumstances and become viable members of society?

Well, the mayor asked the council to put the onus on him. He said he had a plan. It would be up to him to reform the schools. Put him in control. Let the superintendent report to him. Let there be no misunderstandings. Either he would improve the grim statistics in a year or he would leave office.

You have to appreciate the courage of the mayor’s convictions.

That alone should have swayed the council. If the mayor feels that strongly about it, why not let him make the attempt?

Nothing else has worked with the city’s public schools since who knows when.

Dumping gobs of money into the system has not worked. The city already has the second-highest per-pupil expenditure in the nation — $9,650 per student in 2001.

Changing superintendents has not worked. Paul L. Vance landed in the city as the superintendent with a plan to improve the schools. He is now the ex-superintendent after failing to make a mark in his roughly three-year stint. Elfreda Massie, the interim superintendent, also is on her way out the door, and another superintendent filled with promise and hope is on the way.

Meanwhile, with the mayor and council members endeavoring to fix that which is broken, the students sound the alarm with each national test score. The system’s drop-out rate is about 33 percent. Its truancy rate is the highest in the region.

Too many of these delinquents turn to the nefarious activities of the streets. Too many, babies themselves, wind up producing babies. Too many become familiar with the court system.

It is a cycle the schools cannot address alone.

In the case of D.C., however, the public school system is just one more institution that fails to meet its duties with the young.

No school is built to raise a child. But a school, if it is a good one with an able faculty, can reach a few more at-risk children. It can reach a few more children who come from broken homes or bad neighborhoods, who have not been inspired by a pastor or community leader.

As a home away from home for students, a school is an essential part of the maturation process. If a school system is busted, you can be certain of a price, and a steep one at that.

Everyone, of course, has the answer with the city’s public schools.

Do this, do that, and we all can live happily ever.

The mayor, though, is the only public official who was willing to stake his job to it.

You want the responsibility? You serious?

Here, then, it is all yours.

Rest assured, we will be checking back in a year.

Too bad the council thought otherwise.