Even in an industry — and American politics is an industry — suffering an overabundance of individuals with outsize chutzpah, D.C. Council member Marion Barry tops the charts.

Consider the School Closing Fairness and Accountability Act of 2007 introduced by Barry, with an assist from Ward 5’s Harry Thomas and Ward 7’s Yvette Alexander. If passed, the bill would among other things set steps for how and when the public would be notified of school closings; mandate so-called co-location of organizations within low-enrollment schools; and require council approval before any school is closed.

“This [process for] school closings was not the right way to do it. This has set back the reform movement somewhat,” Barry said this week. “There should be tremendous public debate and a process to follow that keeps us all abreast and involved every step of the way.”

That Barry should morph suddenly into an advocate for District schools is curious.

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After all, it was during his tenure as mayor that parents and education advocates filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the city and the D.C. Board of Education for the poor conditions of D.C. Public Schools facilities and insufficient funding for academic programs. (That lawsuit was just one of many during Barry’s tenure that served as testimony to his administration’s indisputable neglect of children and poor people.)

No doubt Barry will point to his tenure decades ago on the school board and his often acknowledged, but mediocre, summer jobs program as example of his concern for the young people of the District.

Don’t believe the hype. Barry is a master politician, expert at misdirecting conversations and criticisms — an important tool in his various campaigns to remain in political office.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee rightly developed a proposal — not a plan — to improve academics in schools and presented it to the council and the public. (Isn’t this what should be expected from an education expert being paid $275,000 a year.)

Residents began officially commenting this week on the Fenty/Rhee proposal. The document is likely to be tweaked and perhaps even changed as a result. There is no indication that this process is flawed, demanding legislative intervention.

What’s clear is that Barry and some other politicians are more vested in maintaining their place at the public trough than in the future of the District’s children.

Next week politicians’ priorities will be on full display when they take up the mayor’s supplemental budget and a proposal that will give the chancellor the ability to quickly effect the quality of school system staff. These two measures combined with the proposal to fund academic improvements in the DCPS through school closings are the foundation of education reform. The council’s failure to endorse these efforts can only be interpreted as a retreat from its pledge to place children first.

Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU radio’s D.C. “Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta.”