Mayor’s Citizen Summit
III This Saturday!
Citizen Summit III, hosted by the Mayor’s Office,
is being held this Saturday from 8AM to 4PM
at the new Washington Convention Center
(801 Mt. Vernon Place, NW; Mt. Vernon Sq. Metro station). All district
residents ages 13 and up are invited to attend. To register
to participate if you haven’t already done so, or for more information,
call 202-727-0882 or visit the following website: www.citizensummit.dc.gov
Education has been designated as one of the three priorities
for the day. During the day’s discussion of this issue, participants
will be asked to evaluate several options for addressing the challenges,
including:
- improving the quality of teaching;
- beginning the education process in early childhood;
- providing “wrap around” social services to students;
- providing focused support for low-income youth between the ages
of 13-24; and
- accelerating the renovation of schools by consolidating underused
facilities.
21st Century School Fund strongly advocates that
more should be done to:
- shift funds from expensive full-scale renovation for a few schools
to improve basic facilities for all schools;
- co-locate charter schools and other government programs in the
schools to help offset costs; and
- lobby for federal contributions and public-private partnerships.
Taking these steps would help reduce the need to consolidate
or close neighborhood schools. Making basic facilities fixes
in all schools needs to be a top city priority!
For instance, 21CSF encourages all citizens to support “Pledge
to Rebuild Our Public Schools 100%” (PROP100). This
is a local organization formed last spring with a mission of “the
adoption by the Federal Government of the financial responsibility
for its fair share of the cost for rebuilding and modernization
of our schools.” PROP100 achievements include obtaining the support
of the Mayor and all Council members, and meetings with members
of Congress. For more information or ideas on ways to support this
effort, please contact Jack Koczela (Jack.Koczela@verizon.net),
Helen Hagerty (helenmhag@aol.com), or Brian Cohn (beecohn@aol.com).
Also, the DCPS Full Funding Campaign will be handing
out flyers on the school budget in front of the Convention Center
to all citizens from 8AM to 10AM, and then a multi-issue social
demonstration will be held at 10AM.
|
Adobe Acrobat PDF document