Adrian Fenty aims to fix our troubled public schools, but when schools open next month he'll have to confront a sad and persistent problem: Students will not have enough textbooks - thanks to former Superintendent Clifford Janey.

Last May, Janey puffed out his chest and made an important announcement: All 55,000 students in D.C. Public Schools will have new science and social studies books for the new school year.

This was big news here in the capital city only because the inept school system often had been unable to provide books for students on the opening day of school. Or midway through the year, for that matter.

Janey said the city had paid $7.1 million for a reserve of 375,548 science and social studies books and related materials. Books were on their way.

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Then Janey was let go by Mayor Fenty.

When Michelle Rhee took the job of chancellor last month, she came to town and immediately started visiting schools.

How, she asked teachers, were the new books?

Not here, they answered.

"They got some new books," Rhee tells me, "but not the right books and not enough books."

Rhee quickly alerted Fenty.

"Our conclusion," he tells me, "is when the system says books have arrived, each school has one book."

Rhee said she was surprised, since Janey made such a point of crowing about his big book order.

"It's the same age-old problem," she says. "The teachers don't have the books they need. We'll try to scramble and move stuff around. We're making some headway, but we have a problem."

It's a problem that students in D.C. must be used to by now.

Schoolbooks arrived late in 2004, so the school board ordered Janey to find out why. After conducting an audit, school officials blamed inaccurate student enrollment projections, a lousy computer system - and dogs who ate the order forms.

The lack of books is no joke for students. My daughter is signed up for biology, calculus and U.S. history at Wilson Senior High. I have no confidence she'll have the books she needs. How does she explain that in a college application?

We cannot blame Fenty or Rhee. It took months for Fenty to guide his school takeover plan through the D.C. Council and Congress. He got control last month and then convinced Rhee to become the school chief. She wasn't official until the council confirmed her Tuesday.

Consider it Clifford Janey's parting gift.

"It's a fixable problem," Fenty says. "We've given Michelle the support to move as fast as possible to the get books our students need."

The only good news is that Rhee might be able to choose books she prefers, rather than the ones Janey ordered, which apparently have not arrived.

The bad news is that D.C. public school students are getting shortchanged - once again.

hjaffe@washingtonian.com