Gray outlines education platform, attacks Fenty

The Washington Examiner
Gray outlines education platform, attacks Fenty
By Alan Suderman
Friday, July 2, 2010

D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray said Thursday he'd take the District's school reform efforts to the "next level," but without alienating large numbers of parents and teachers like he said Mayor Adrian Fenty has done.

At a news conference at Thurgood Marshall Academy, a college-prep charter school in Anacostia, Gray tried to cast himself as D.C.'s best hope for reforming the city's troubled schools while portraying Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee are too narrowly focused on test scores and gaining national exposure.

Gray added that the city's efforts need to rely on more than just Rhee's star status as a reformer.

"School reform needs to be sustainable in the District of Columbia," Gray said.

Gray's comments come a day after Rhee all but said that she would not serve under Gray if he were elected mayor. Rhee is seen as one of Fenty's strongest assets in the upcoming election, especially among more affluent white voters who could help decide the election.

Fenty and Rhee scheduled a news conference shortly after Gray's in which they touted the progress they'd made in reforming the city's special education programs and announced a new "comprehensive research and community engagement process" to further improvements.

The aim of the process, Rhee said, was for the city's school system to be able to provide more special educational services, rather than rely on expensive private programs that cost more than $200 million a year.

Gray also emphasized that he would "finally" reform special education and use the money saved to pay for the host of proposals he rolled out Thursday.

Gray's education platform includes expanding vocational training, spreading school renovation money around the city equally, increasing early and higher education programs, and doubling the number of guidance counselors, with the goal of increasing the number of students going to college.

Gray added that he'd make the school system, particularly its budget process, more transparent and open to the public. He accused Fenty of extending his "war on transparency" into the school system.