D.C. Council members must forcefully insert themselves into education reform rather than simply react to the initiatives tossed out by Mayor Adrian Fenty, the council’s policy arm concludes in a new report.

The findings of the fledgling Office of Policy Analysis are illustrative of an ongoing conflict between the executive and legislative branches in the new age of mayoral control over the public schools.

Council members view themselves as equal partners in the reform effort, while Fenty sees the legislative branch squarely in an oversight role, to “make sure we’re doing our job.”

Mayoral control “has yet to be proven as effective reform,” the policy office wrote in its 70-page report, and therefore “it is incumbent upon the Council to exert oversight to monitor, and if necessary provide solutions that would overcome obstacles to success.

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“It is vital,” the report states, “irrespective of political pressure, that the Council become a proactive oversight body.”

After six months under the new D.C. Public Schools structure — and having already approved numerous critical education initiatives, most at the mayor’s behest — Council Chairman Vincent Gray said the legislature is still working out its role. Gray has voiced consternation over the executive branch essentially springing its school reform proposals on the council with little warning.

The council was a “partner in the beginning of this” and now looks “impotent and uninformed,” Gray said in November. The policy report, he said Monday, “simply sets forth what the changes are and what the council needs to do to exercise its increased responsibility.”

The report urges the council to develop a comprehensive oversight agenda and to press forward with an effort “fraught with political minefields” even if it means being called “obstructionist.”

“With the radical change in the governance structure, I think everybody’s feeling their way,” Councilman Phil Mendelson said.

The mayor will always have the upper hand, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said. But by establishing an agenda, Cheh said, “it allows us to get our policy initiatives out front.”

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com