Polls show Clinton with more than a ‘narrow’ lead over Obama

Re: “Mayor backs Obama’s run for president,” Local, July 18

In his article on D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s backing of Barack Obama for president, Michael Neibauer says that Hillary Clinton has a “narrow” lead in the polls. I question his definition of “narrow.”

With the most recent polls showing Clinton with a 16 percent lead nationally, the same in New Hampshire, more than 25 percent in New York, nearly 20 percent in Florida and Nevada, and about 12 percent in California, I would think that using the term “narrow lead” is not appropriate. I haven’t seen any polls in the District of Columbia, but Clinton won the recent Democratic straw poll in Ward 3.

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It may still be early in the 2008 presidential race, although primary voting actually begins in less than six months with early voting in Florida. But let’s at least report on the race accurately.

Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington

D.C. government ineffective

I’ve been a resident and business owner in Washington for more than 25 years in Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights and now Adams Morgan. I am still amazed at the ineffectiveness of most D.C. government agencies. Corruption in the departments of Motor Vehicles, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and Transportation; the state of the city’s hospitals and schools, the condition of our streets; and the lack of confidence in the Metropolitan Police Deptartment are all causing discomfort for Mayor Adrian Fenty. But previous strategies, shake-ups and reorganizations all ended with negative results.

The problem is insider deals and a lack of transparency in a city government that is beholden to high-rollers and developers. Washington is definitely a city of the haves and the have-nots.

No increase in the College Access Program? For Pete’s sake, how about increases based on performance?

Bertram Keller
Washington

Mo.Co. spurns teachers

The Montgomery County school system is making unplaced, experienced teachers with masters degrees wait before having a chance at getting a job next year until all of the new graduates with open contracts get hired first. The county had seen a drop in student enrollment and is in the unusual position of having too many teachers.

On top of that, the county has to pay for these newbies to get their master’s degrees within the next five years, while teachers who already have them are given the boot. Where is the media outrage?

Rumor has it that Superintendent Jerry Weast is trying to racially balance the teachers, which is why the county is doing this. I believe a poll of the teachers who are not yet placed would not find any minorities on the list. This is reverse discrimination and unfair to current teachers who have families and need a job as much as anyone else. Whatever happened to merit-based hiring as called for by the new federal No Child Left Behind law?

I am an engineer, not a teacher, but I know of three teachers with master’s degrees and 10-plus years in the classroom who are afraid they’ll lose their homes if they don’t have a job when school starts next month. The county will not even let them know whether there is a possibility they’ll be hired until a few days before school starts because the new grads have until then to decide whetherthey want the job.

These teachers live and breathe teaching, but their dream is being given away to kids who statistically will drop out of teaching within the first five years. This is outrageous behavior for a top-rated school system.

To make things even worse, one of these teachers was being interviewed by several principals who wanted her on their staff, but the administration ordered them to stop all interviews until the new grads were placed. You can imagine how crushed she felt. She wants to teach, the principals want her, and the parents want her teaching their kids, but Weast and his administration are blocking them. It will take years for a new hire to be as good as these experienced teachers are right now, if they last that long.

But experience apparently doesn’t count any more, only your ethnicity. And the public doesn’t even know that this is going on.

Steve Kerich
Olney