Harry Jaffe, The Examiner
2008-01-25 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Enough talking. Time to close schools.

The protesters have protested, the naysayers have said no, the professional whiners have whined.

Now let’s get down to the hard and hurtful business of closing the half empty schools that have failed to educate generations of Washingtonians. We can talk ourselves out of it, we can pussyfoot around to pretend we won’t cause pain — or we can do what we all know must be done.

The political moment is upon us, and it might not last. We have Adrian Fenty, a native Washingtonian mayor, elected with a citywide mandate, who is brave enough to risk his political future on the quixotic promise of making the schools work.

He has hired Michelle Rhee, a tough and dedicated school chancellor who has a proven record of improving academic achievement and a laser-like focus on reforming a system that does not work for too many children. Fenty has also hired Allen Lew, a facilities boss who’s man enough to make contractors perform as promised — or get the ax.

Could Fenty and Rhee have done a better job of naming the 23 schools on the chopping block? Perhaps. They certainly should have alerted D.C. Council members. But to complain that Rhee has not been open to the public school community is poppycock.

“I have taken every meeting requested of me about school closings from any group,” Rhee tells me. “I have returned each e-mail personally and taken every call. Someone commented to me this week that she’s been in DCPS for 12 years and has never seen so many community meetings about one issue.”

Here are the indisputable facts:

Good public education has spelled success for every immigrant group in this country, from the Italians and the Jews to the Vietnamese and the Indians. It is the common civilizing, socializing and educating institution that can lift all boats. African-American leaders knew this. Read your Frederick Douglass and your W.E.B. Du Bois. And for many generations, public schools worked for blacks.

But for the past 50 years, Washingtonians most in need of a decent education have been beaten down in our schools. The buildings have crumbled, the politicians have turned their backs, many teachers have abandoned their roles.

The result is generations of Washingtonians consigned to poverty: no jobs, lousy housing, poor health. The key to turning around the cycle of poverty is to educate our children, pure and simple. If that means closing schools, firing bad teachers, pushing out do-nothing bureaucrats, so be it.

I come not as a professional critic who has never had children in D.C. public schools. My kids wore coats when boilers broke, took classes with no textbooks, endured the occasional crummy teacher. But they also still benefit from some great teachers and challenging opportunities.

I understand and commiserate with parents, students and teachers who have to say goodbye to a neighborhood school they love. But for the common good, it’s time to close schools, and a guillotine is better than a thousand cuts.