Allow me to begin my remarks with a quote from a Washington Post article on D.C. Public Schools:

That article was written on February 16, 1997, after the D.C. Financial Control Board fired Superintendent Franklin L. Smith. Smith, who had been working to address the crumbling system, failed to institute any significant management reforms or improve student achievement in a five-and-a-half year period. Unfortunately, not much has changed.

After decades of failed policies, the system is in a sad state. But, as the Mayor knows, it cannot take as long to revive DCPS as it did to erode the system. Every minute of a child's education that is lost can never be replaced.  With only one month to go before the 2007-2008 school year begins, much remains to be done. The challenges facing Mayor Fenty and his new leadership team are monumental, and I want to commend the Mayor for making the education of the District's children a top priority. 

Entire generations of students going through D.C. public schools have suffered through the failures of a broken system immune to reforms. In the past 20 years, this is the sixth major reform effort and no tangible improvements in student achievement have been realized.

I will share a few statistics that highlight the problem:

• DCPS is on the U.S. Department of Education's grantee high risk list.
• Approximately $13,000 is spent per pupil per year, but only 40.5 percent of those dollars are spent on educational instruction compared to 54.4 percent for urban areas nation-wide.
• 33 percent of 4th grade students rate Above Basic in Reading compared to a national average of 62 percent and 45 percent rate Above Basic in math compared to an average of 79 percent across the nation.
• There are 74 critical health code violations, nearly 10,000 open maintenance requests, and 1500 urgent maintenance requests.
• 18 percent of students have special education needs and $75 million is given to other school districts every year because D.C. is unable to meet their needs.

These statistics do not paint a clear picture of the daily challenges students face in buildings without working bathrooms, falling plaster, doors with pad locks on them, and entire high schools without any working water fountains. These are not environments that promote learning.

A study of DCPS released in December 2006 by the Parthenon Group recommended that teaching, curriculum, testing, human capital operations, the central office and its support functions, special education programs, facilities management, and community-wide engagement all needed to be redesigned. In short, the reports necessitate that DCPS start over from scratch.

The issues being faced are not new. They are the same issues detailed in a 1989 report by the D.C. Committee on Public Education (COPE) entitled Our Children, Our Future.  The December 2006 study by the Parthenon group stated, "For almost 20 years, DCPS has had a clear vision of what is needed to improved student achievement." But the actions never lived up to the expectations. 

The challenge now is breaking the record of failure in implementing the reforms and achieving measurable success.

As the Parthenon study suggests, one of the major reasons for the failure of the school system - beyond poor management, crumbling facilities, unqualified teachers, and an overburdened bureaucracy - is the need for governance reform.

While public school systems in the United States are traditionally run by elected Boards of Education in many urban American cities, mayors across the country are increasingly seeking control of schools.

Several major cities have instituted governance reforms that have increased mayoral control, notably Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. In New York, since implementing mayoral governance of schools, for the first time since 1990, more than half of New York's elementary and middle school students are performing at or above grade level, and a record number of fourth-graders there are meeting state reading and writing standards.  This is the type of dynamic change DCPS is hoping to achieve with Mayor Fenty's reform plan.

It is important to lift the undue financial and bureaucratic burdens on resources, which will allow the focus to be entirely on improving student learning. However, governance reform is not a solution in itself.  Accountability standards and curriculum reforms must be implemented for educators, administrators, teachers, parents, and students to reach the ultimate goal: improve student achievement.

Public education should be the great equalizer, not the great demoralizer. 

When our educational systems fail, those who need the system most are paralyzed and disenfranchised. When our schools are hampered with issues of poor student achievement, poor management systems, poorly maintained data systems, and unfit facilities there is little to no attention given to the very individuals our school system is put in place to support - our children.

One thing is certain - the system that is in place is not effective, and has not been for years. There are pockets of achievement in the school system and many talented people working hard to cultivate an environment of learning and achievement. Hopefully, this reform effort will create more positive actors in the system.

The District of Columbia Public Education Reform Act of 2007 proposes to address these conditions and ensure accountability at the highest level - with the Mayor.  Congress approved the Mayor's plan to give him accountability, and this hearing marks our first steps in holding him to that.

In this hearing we hope to review the Mayor's plan to implement reforms, establish expectations for the plan's success, and set forth benchmarks for accountability.

I am hopeful that the efforts being made by the Mayor and his leadership team pay off and look forward to hearing how they plan to move forward to plant the seeds of progress.

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