My good friend, Kris Benjamin, and I had a converstion the other day. Kris is one of the most dedicacted and sincere local activists I know, and she had several very good ideas to fix the mess at DCPS. While everybody is focused on structure, here are some concrete changes that can be implemented immediately in her opinion. She is a former employee of DCPS and I think her ideas carry lots of merit:
Shared resources of MPD and D.C. School security will provide solutions in addressing school security concerns, and relieve teachers from the burden of being in class referees.
Coordinating programs between Parks and Recreation, the Libraries and DCPS will help move children from schools to other constructive activities and will decrease the time a student spends idle. After-school hours are the times children are likely to commit crimes or be victim to a crime.
A better management of construction authority can coordinate city services and make school management more efficient. Examples of such are Water and Sewer, Urban Forestry (in the case of a dangerous tree) and DDOT, all of which relate to school maintenance but are not coordinated under the current system.
I will continue with more solutions to the schools crisis tomorrow. Kris had so many ideas it is impossible to write them all in one post.
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1 comment:
The only thing that will fix the schools is to hire the best principals possible and give them control over their budgets and hiring and firing authority.
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