Washington Informer

At-Large D.C. Council member David Catania made the point during a recent schools budget hearing that he wants to ensure that the proposed spending plans for city and charter schools are in compliance with Mayor Vincent C. Grays's Fiscal Year 2014 expenditures.

Catania, chair of the council's Education Committee said there's a lack of clarity between the two school systems' spending allocations that needs to be dealt with prior to the mayor's budget being approved later this month.

"While it is difficult to put an exact dollar on the existing inequity between charter and public schools, it is clear to me that one exists," Catania said. "Some advocates have put the number at as much as $80 million per year," he said, adding that facilities maintenance, legal services, teacher retirement funds and truancy reduction initiatives are just a few of the items identified that are funded for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) system but not for charter schools.

To that end, Catania, 45, said during a May 2 hearing at the John A. Wilson Building in Northwest, that the Public Education Reform Commission – an entity that Gray helped to create in 2010 – issued a report last year that highlighted the inequities and made a number of recommendations to improve transparency and uniformity in funding.

"You are left to defend a budget, that in many ways is indefensible," Catania later told Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who fielded questions from the eight-member committee, who included Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), and Mary Cheh, 63, who represents Ward 3.

According to Gray's latest budget proposal, spending investments will actually increase for District schools, despite Henderson's controversial plan to move forward to shutter 15 of the 129 DCPS buildings by the end of next year.

Overall, DCPS will receive about a one percent increase over its current budget of $811 million, to the proposed $818 million earmarked for 2014.

While the 2013-14 school year budget outlined by Henderson's administration includes significant reductions within the Central Office, it emphasizes investments in recruiting and retaining highly-effective teachers. However, due to sequestration issues, DCPS anticipates an 8 percent reduction in federal funding, thereby justifying many of the cuts in the school system's programs and services.

"Our budget proposal reflects input from parents, community members, and teachers. It sets us on a course to meet the goals we established in A Capital Commitment," said Henderson. "Most importantly, it balances the investments we make to ensure that all students have access to the opportunities they deserve."

Over the past few decades, DCPS enrollment has dipped from 80,000 students to 46,000 students, and along the way, the District's 57 free public charter schools – which educate 41 percent of all District students – have been opening at the average rate of approximately three facilities each year since they were launched in 1997.

Alluding to schools in the poorest areas of the city, and particularly those in Ward 8 where large pockets of poverty exists, Barry said, referring to DCPS's budget, that schools in greatest need don't necessarily receive the greatest amount of funding.

"But many parents are stuck in [those] areas," Barry, 77, said of their inability to enroll their children at other schools.

Barry also touched on low reading and math scores, saying parents regularly ask him about the abysmal test results.

"It's a serious problem and parents [who can] are choosing charter schools, because DCPS is not meeting parents' [or] students' needs."

Cheh mentioned programs for talented and gifted students as a means of getting more parents to enroll their children in the DCPS system.

"No, we do not have a tested talented and gifted program," said Henderson, 44. "In fact, we have the enrichment program in part, because some of the [Rose L.] Hardy Middle School parents I met when I first became chancellor, said they wanted their children to be able to have advanced course work," she said, adding that they all agreed on the enrichment model.

"[The enrichment model] doesn't say that one child is gifted and the other is not, but it might say that one child is gifted in English and the other is gifted in math," Henderson explained. "And this is where both [students] get access to advanced course work."

Plastic Bag Fee Doesn't Materialize

Marylanders should prepare to open their pocketbooks a little wider.

On March 29, the legislature approved Gov. Martin O'Malley's gas tax increase which will hike gas taxes during the next four years, beginning with a 4-cent jump this July. The money is expected to fund road improvement projects and mass transit.

The gas tax hike means more pain at the pump for motorists in Maryland, however, in another area Maryland consumers won't have to shell out more money.

A measure to have shoppers statewide pay for all those disposable plastic bags they get when they go shopping has disappeared – at least for now.

The Maryland General Assembly wrapped up its session on April 8, without taking a vote on legislation that would have required a 5-cent fee for each disposable carryout bag taken from a store.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III was in favor of the proposed law and had urged legislators to support the bill.

"In Prince George's County, we spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars a year cleaning up plastic bags," said Baker, adding that it will "help the county save money on the costs associated with the cleanup of the millions of plastic bags in our streams, parks and neighborhoods that are unhealthy for both wildlife and humans."

If the measure had been approved, for each nickel collected stores would receive 1 cent, customers would receive 2-cents credit for using their own bag and 2 cents would go to state – with half allocated to the Chesapeake Bay Trust and half returned to the counties.

However, the bill died in committee. Will it be resurrected during the next legislative session? It's possible.

For some time, grocery stores have been pushing to reduce the use of disposable bags as part of their sustainability initiatives.Safeway's goal is to reduce the number of plastic and paper bags used by one billion by 2015, according to the grocery chain's website. Giant deducts from shoppers' bills 5 cents for each reusable bag that they bring with them. Giant stores also accept plastic shopping bags, dry cleaning bags and newspapers and sends that material along with shrink wrap from its stores to a plastics recycling company. The plastic is turned into composite decking, which is sold at Lowe's, the website states.

Aside from taking up space in the landfill from plastic disposable bags that get discarded, the bags are also a problem in the recycling process.

At the county's Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Capitol Heights, plastic bags interfere with the automatic sorting equipment. The bags often get caught in the conveyor belts, jamming the rotating discs and causing the system to shut down. Workers at the MRF spend an average of four hours per day, at a total cost of $110,000 a year, clearing the bags and other materials from the screens, according to county officials. In addition, there's not much of a recycling market for plastic bags. Currently, the county receives $20 per ton for plastic bags, which ends up costing the county money.

A 2012 Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments report showed that 40 percent of all trash clean up consists of discarded plastic bags. Officials in Prince George's County say they spend approximately $900,000 a year for community clean-up staff to pick up debris that includes plastic bags.

Candidates Debate Returning Citizens' Issues

The candidates for the D.C. Council at-large special election discussed the needs of returning citizens in the District during a forum sponsored by the Re-entry Network for Returning Citizens based in Northeast. The forum, which took place at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library in Northwest on March 30, attracted more than 30 individuals.

The candidates who participated included former journalist Elissa Silverman, interim D.C. Council member Anita Bonds, Ward 3 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Matthew Frumin, Ward 1 State Board of Education member Patrick Mara, attorney Paul Zukerberg and community organizer Perry Redd. Former D.C. Council member Michael Brown missed the forum although his attendance had been confirmed. Several days later, the public learned that Brown had decided to pull out of the race.

"It is with extreme disappointment that I am announcing my withdrawal from the at-large council race," Brown, 48, released in a statement that appeared on his website on April 2. "I have some very important personal and family matters that require my immediate attention."

Throughout the two-hour forum, advocates on behalf of returning citizens stayed focused on their specific concerns.

Yango Sawyer, co-founder of the Coalition of Returning Citizens, queried candidates about D.C. Council member Marion Barry's (D-Ward 8) recent bill – the Returning Citizens Anti-Discrimination Act of 2012 – that would have essentially outlawed discrimination regarding employment of returning citizens.

The bill didn't pass the D.C. Council in December 2012.

Redd, 48, a returning citizen, said that he supports re-introduction of Barry's bill "... it is the right thing to do" and he was joined by Bonds, 67, and Zukerberg, 55.

However, Mara, 38, said that the bill may be a deterrent to businesses that are interested in setting up shop in the District.

"We need to look at a better approach to helping returning citizens, such as stressing the importance of family values and workforce development," he said.

Silverman, 40, said that she would add amendments to Barry's bill "to make sure that returning citizens and employers are both protected." Frumin, 53, said that he would have further discussions with Barry about the bill before supporting it."

Budget Autonomy Referendum on the Ballot

While the April 23 at-large D.C. Council special election has received the overwhelming attention of the media and political activists, District voters will also vote on whether the city should have budget autonomy from the U.S. Congress.

DC Vote in Northwest, an organization dedicated to achieving full citizenship for District residents, is the main force behind D.C. Home Rule Charter Amendment 8, a referendum that would allow the D.C. Council and the mayor to pass an annual budget and spend its own tax dollars without the approval of Congress. Eugene Kinlow Jr., DC Vote's public affairs director and a staunch advocate of the referendum, said that the time has come to take a stand and tell the U.S. Congress and President Obama how District residents feel.

"We want to be able to control our own destiny in the District," said Kinlow, 51. "We should not have to answer to anyone about how we spend our own money. We have the support of the D.C. Council on this, as well as D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and our delegate to the Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton."

If the referendum passes – and it is expected to do so – the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate would have to pass a resolution of disapproval. President Obama would have to sign it within 35 days of the results of the referendum being certified by the D.C. Board of Elections. Kinlow, who lives in Southeast, said that the disapproval resolution is not likely to pass because "it is difficult for this Congress to work together" and "based on what I have seen from the Oval Office, the president will not sign it."