Report: D.C. public schools fail federal standards in reading and math

Okay...where are you hiding? Are you in the catholic schools, are you in the private schools, are you in the charter-schools? Oh please tell us...we are getting our act together! We are cleaning up, recruiting, sprucing up, hiring, firing, restructuring, talking, meeting, cooling, heating and everything else to make you feel welcome. We are waiting for you, could you please RSVP by October 4th or so? Don't go away, please come back to us and let us educate you today!!! What am I going to do with less people, how can I justify these enormous salaries...please don't embarass me!!!! I am listening are you telling me to close more schools, I will do that as long as you say that you will comeback to DCPS. I can assure you that we are not the "Britney Spears" of education because our comeback performance will be without any flaws. Ha, ha, ha

I am not surprised that the overall enrollment figures are down. Despite numerous efforts by Rhee and others in DCPS to improve, the charter schools are offering a tempting alternative to many low and moderate income families. These charter schools are really giving the public schools a run for our money. And they're sprouting up like weeds. Just the other day I must have passed by 5 of them. It's true that many of their teachers are not certified and not professional educators. But do you care if your child's math teacher is certified if he's a former CPA who wants to teach? Or a SPanish teacher who just got back from the Peace Corps in Latin America? If you look at the staff resumés for many charter school teachers, they are impressive and I hate to say so. So many of my teaching colleagues in the public schools are burned out, hate the kids, yell at them all day using bad grammar and teach by assigning pages in a workbook. No wonder parents are leaving the and going to the chart

Dr. Powell is always covering her tracks but she has some cob webs in her closet that need to be cleared but as usual things are covered up and then swept in a closet somewhere. She may be a hard worker, a lil over the top, but she has to get her comeuppance too! That is not the only grants funds that need to be checked on. DC Schools is in a mess and it has been for a long time. But where do you really start cleaning up and how long is it going to take. There are more folks working in the system for them own gain and getting away with fraud and will keep on keeping on. Grant funds have been messed over for years. No one actually checks on it. Some program are misguided and misused with grant fuds and some just don't even get to use their funds properly. Firing Victor isn't the start. That problem was there before he even took the position.

As for the former hard working employees with the impeccable work history... What goes around comes around... Don't think that a person can have the Daddy Warbucks and Imelda Marcos attitude or management and it not comeback and haunt you... Ha...surely you gest

I work for DCPS and staffed a summer school program several years ago. It had some kind of summer enrichment camp that was funded through the migrant education grant. (To be clear, my funding was not through this.) I found strange that DCPS was getting money for so-called migrant students, since I knew what they were and was fairly sure there were no migrant workers or children of migrants in DC. Yes, children were served, but these kids were not migrants. BTW, the names of 2 DCPS and one former DCPS employee mentioned in the article are long serving, hard-working educators who I have known for years. I hope they are not touched by a scandal not of their making.

Did no one notice that Washington, DC does not have extensive agriculture, so migrant farm workers are pretty scarce? Reality check, please.

I am finally learning the DCPS system of "grants" it is pretty basic. It seems you apply, then you receive, then you misuse, then you get caught, then you are investigated, then you provide excuses, then you retire or leave the system, then it is passed on to the next unsuspecting soul, then it is revealed to the public and then it is over.

The title implies we need permission to do without textbooks. Unless there has been a new influx of officials who are completely oblivious to DCPS then how does one warn...when they have been forwarned months earlier? It just so hard to listen to what we are goin to do to turn the system around. Then to hear that it is beyond our control, we are overwhelmed, we did not know how bad it was, until now. Did the interview process involve so much lying that all can be forgiven...no one is that damn committed. No wonder people take the money and run from this city...because we build our own "Frankensteins" in a sense of creating these monsters with left-over parts from previous victims...and when they turn on us...it becomes the horror-movie. What sequel is this to the school movie...is it number 6 or 7? I suggest the next script should reflect the prequel and make it a comedy...because this horror-tragedy format is getting quite draining at the moment. I've read the book...

Can someone please tell the public how many of Rhee's friends have been hired???? I stopped counting at 10. At least Barry had qualified people in his hiring frenzy of friends. Have any of these positions been advertised or are they given by the chosen one.

That is why they are getting the big bucks!!! Here we go again!

I resent the implications of the article that Texas is no longer leading the nation in high school dropouts. We are still number one in dropouts and as long as we continue along the path we have been following, first blazed by Gov. Bush and since faithfully followed by Gov. Perry, we will remain national champions. Go Longhorns!! Gig 'em Ags!!

It's unfair to compare DC, which is 100 percent urban, to other states.