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Jonetta Rose Barras
Calling what you do in the classroom teaching
- Where’s Ara Dozier when you need her? My seventh grade social studies instructor called what she did in the classroom teaching. These days it’s being heralded as “differentiated” instruction or learning.
Column: Drilling down in D.C. schools
- Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee tells a tale about a tour of the central administration of D.C. Public Schools that is revealing evidence of a major problem that confronts her, Mayor Adrian Fenty and other reformers.
- Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee tells a tale about a tour of the central administration of D.C. Public Schools that is revealing evidence of a major problem that confronts her, Mayor Adrian Fenty and other reformers.
Opinion: Grading D.C. contractors
- D.C. Council members love toying with the public. They lift us up only to slap us down. Consider the "Excellence in Local Business Contract Grading Act of 2007" as one example of the agony we endure.
- D.C. Council members love toying with the public. They lift us up only to slap us down. Consider the "Excellence in Local Business Contract Grading Act of 2007" as one example of the agony we endure.
Jonetta Rose Barras: For love of children
- Initially, I thought to join others who will analyze every minute detail of Tuesday’s election: What should Washingtonians expect in the era of Mayor Adrian Fenty? How will he respond to estimates that the District may enter fiscal 2008 with a $200 million gap between spending and revenues? (I’m a pig in slop when it comes to this kind of stuff.)
Jonetta Rose Barras: In D.C. public schools, there is nothing left to lose
- Raise your hand if you’re fed up.
Jonetta Rose Barras: Parking lessons from the D.C. Council
- Folks tuning into last week’s D.C. Council session received a lesson in how not to conduct government business and how to imperil public funds. They also were treated to antics rivaling an Amos ‘n’ Andy/Three Stooges movie. Where is Moe when you need him?
Jonetta Rose Barras: A school takeover: More than widgets and lazy managers
- D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty can look at today’s report from the State Education Office and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to understand a takeover of D.C. Public Schools means more than ensuring widgets are ordered, the bathrooms are cleaned and textbooks arrive on time. It certainly extends beyond whether the superintendent is supervised by the D.C Board of Education or a deputy mayor.
Jonetta Rose Barras: A pox on all their houses
- Some want the private sector in charge of D.C. Public Schools’ multibillion-dollar modernization fund — not Superintendent Clifford Janey. Others want the D.C. Office of Property Management to handle routine maintenance. Security already is under the Metropolitan Police Department.
Jonetta Rose Barras: Dan Tangherlini: The wizard’s assistant
- Folks who believe Adrian Fenty a wizard, capable of changing the District government into some warm and fuzzy steel bullet, cutting through an unresponsive corporation with a wave of his BlackBerry, don’t understand the contradiction of their desires. They certainly don’t understand the city’s entrenched, bloated and abusive bureaucracy.
Jonetta Rose Barras: Here’s to your health care
- Proposals to improve District government health care services have been like kudzu. D.C. General Hospital was shuttered by the control board, which advocated the creation of a HealthCare Alliance. This insurance program for the poor and working class, supported by Mayor Anthony Williams, got off to a rocky start, but is faring better.
Jonetta Rose Barras: Changing of the guard in Washington
- D.C. Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian Fenty has some employees scrambling for cover. Others, including Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, are feeling the love. Former managers, such as Dan Tangherlini, are being zealously courted.
Jonetta Rose Barras: Governing begins
- Jim Gibson, the former head of the D.C. Agenda, and others predicted in 1994 that Marion Barry could be elected mayor but would be unable to govern. Barry’s tainted past, the city’s fiscal woes, and a Congress with no patience for the executive’s infamous shenanigans collaborated to deny him a full political resurrection.
Jonetta Rose Barras: Don’t forget: It’s about the best interest of the city
- The collateral noise being heard in this final stretch to the District primary election is deafening, distracting and wholly disingenuous. Despite major media endorsements, including from the editorial board of this paper, mayoral front-runner Adrian Fenty continues to be accused by his chief opponent of being inattentive and reckless — ludicrous and laughable charges.