By Marion Barry
May 13, 2008
As a former mayor of the District of Columbia and a current member of
the D.C. Council, I've seen the city's schools deteriorate by any
measure you can think of. Our system has become one of the nation's
worst in terms of educating children.
Mayor Adrian Fenty, Chancellor Michelle Rhee and others are
aggressively tackling the problems facing D.C. schools. They are
pu****ng for real change. I fully sup****t the rapid transformation of
our public school system into one of the best in the world. It's hard
work, and we won't agree at every step of the way. But we do agree on
the im****tance of the proposed investments in District public schools,
public charter schools and the D.C. Op****tunity Scholar****p Program to
the effort to reform our schools.
To fix our schools, we have a responsibility not just to talk but to
act. That's why I'm joining those firmly in favor of the package of
federal money for D.C. schools that Mayor Fenty proposed and that
President Bush included in his budget. If Congress approves this
package, the District will get $74 million in fiscal 2009 for our
public schools, public charter schools and scholar****ps, so that our
lowest-income residents can attend private schools that their parents
choose. I want Congress to know that the District's leaders sup****t
this package.
I know it may surprise some that I would sup****t a school voucher
program, but I am proud to do so -- and I especially sup****t the D.C.
scholar****ps. Many here in Wa****ngton also favor this program:
community and business leaders, educators, parents, and elected
officials who are putting children first. I would oppose this voucher
program if it took money from the D.C. public schools, but it doesn't.
I sup****t this package because it provides much-needed financial
sup****t to all D.C. schools and because it offers parents a choice
without hurting public schools. That's a win-win situation. We must
make sure that children in the District are given every chance to
attend schools that work for them. To do anything else is wrong.
Moms, dads, aunts, uncles and other guardians in my community tell me
that these programs are making a difference in their children's lives
and giving them hope they have never had. I salute them for working to
make the right choices for their children. In March, I held a
community meeting at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, where
several families whose children have scholar****ps told me how much the
program has done for them. One mom, Wanda Gaddis, has worked for a
long time, including serving as a parent advocate at her daughter's
public elementary school, to make sure her daughter gets a great
education. At the meeting, I learned that her daughter is attending a
private school in Ward 8 through the D.C. Op****tunity Scholar****p
Program.
Gaddis told me, "The schools in D.C. were not educating my child. At
first I did not have a choice, but I am so thankful that I and so many
other parents did get choice with the Op****tunity Scholar****p Program.
I can't begin to tell you how much my child's education has improved
since starting with this program. It is a program that is helping to
educate our children so they can have better, more productive lives
and in turn create better communities here in Ward 8 and across D.C."
I am a father and understand how parents want and need to choose
what's best for their children. When my son, Christopher, was entering
fourth grade, my wife and I had to decide where he would go. We had
enough money to send him to a private school and had the option of
doing that, sending him to our neighborhood school or sending him to
an out-of-boundary school. We chose to send him to Murch, in Upper
Northwest, even though we lived in Southeast.
Over the years, Christopher went to public schools, and I am grateful
that we could choose the right environment for him. I was fortunate
that I could afford the right school for my son. As I have been in
years past, I am focused today on those who most need help. We need to
give the same op****tunity to the District's low-income parents, and
this package would help ensure that all parents in our city have
choices about where their children attend school.
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Marion Barry, a Democrat, represents Ward 8 on the D.C. Council. He
was mayor of the District from 1979 to 1991 and from 1995 to 1999.
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