Kwame Brown's resignation creates further void in education

With the shocking and sudden departure of City Council Chairman, Kwame Brown, comes a void in one of the sole-remaining accountability vehicles for public education in the nation's capital.  While one of Kwame Brown's last acts as Chairman was to appoint a new head of the city council's powerful and money-driven economic committee, the city council education committee, which was also uncharacteristically placed under the committee of the whole in recent years, received no such special attention or new committee head.  With upcoming hearings already scheduled for education under the Committee of the Whole, it is unclear who chairs that committee or even whether it still exists.

Since being placed under the committee of the whole in 2007, the city council's education committee has been signature for poor meeting attendance by its members, unresponsiveness by its staff, few outcomes or feedback from its hearings and a lack of vision or direction overall.

We hope this new and unexpected development at the council will also signal a new direction for what we view as a committee more urgent and in need of a transition plan then economic development - the committee on education.

For year's DC VOICE and partners such as SHAPPE, 21st Century School Fund, Teaching for Change, Empower DC and MLOV have called for the establishment of a real education committee with active members, responsive staff and a chair undistracted by the business of running the full council.  I think it’s time we got our wish.