ACTION

position statements

Congress Seeks to run Local D.C. Schools

The D.C. Public Schools System (DCPS) definitely needs fixing.  A lot of fixing. This website runs education advocacy pages to reform DCPS. However, the DCPS does not need fixing by the United States Congress.  DCPS does not need fixing by Congressman Jeff Flake or Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.  Nevertheless, attempts are underway by both federal lawmakers to use the Congressional oversight authority to impose their fixes on local D.C. schools.  Representative Flake is sponsoring legislation through HR 684 to create a school tuition voucher plan for children with income of up to 185% of the poverty line. Sen. Hutchison has in FY 2003 for the second year in a row, imposed caps on fees awarded to attorneys representing special needs children who are seeking appropriate educational services.  Rather than allowing D.C. lawmakers, residents and school reformers to tackle the problems, Congress is attempting to do the job for them.

Special Education

Congress has through Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison imposed caps on Special education fees.

The Congress should not be running the public school system of D.C..  Although Sen. Hutchison can claim the support of some elected officials for her legislation capping attorney's fees, she can not refute the reality that it was she and not the local lawmakers who offered the legislation.  She simply exposed an endorsement of antidemocratic methods of imposing this  legislation. The lawmakers at the local level represent the will of the people only when they use the established process of offering legislative proposals with public input and putting it to a vote before their peers and the community.  The written support of individual school officials, even if it is the School Board president, does not prove the people support her position. 

The real question is why the fees had to be capped.  The answer is that the city, like many jurisdictions around the country, is failing to meet legally mandated procedural deadlines for providing diagnostic and other services to children for whom disabilities are a barrier to learning. The city however must solve this problem through an inclusive process where local stakeholders help steer  the process toward resolution. Click here

A Letter to Arizona citizens.
Dear Editor and citizen of Arizona:
 
Did you know that Governor Janet Napolitano wants to set up an office in Washington so that she can lobby Washington on behalf of Arizonans? This was reported in the Arizona Republic (see http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special12/articles/0224napolitano24.html).
 

The primary reason is that she believes that the Arizona delegation to the United States Congress is not doing their job. She indicates that you just don't see much of Representative Flake, among other members. We think that we know why. Congressman Jeff Flake is expending a lot of energy on some constituents - except those constituents are not his own - trying to impose a controversial, unproven plan on Washington D.C. schools. He is spending time, energy and the political capital that belongs to Arizonans, especially his Sixth Congressional District, on local Washington, D.C. schools. Is this why you sent Mr. Flake to Washington? What you probably don't realize is that residents of Washington, D.C. do not have voting representation in Congress. D.C. residents are subject to the budgetary , legislative and judicial control of Congress - even our locally raised taxed dollars can be controlled by Congress.  There are provisions of the United States Constitution that provide for some limited oversight over D.C. matters, which many scholars interpret to mean federal property. However Congress has read this to mean over the years that they get to review line by line the budget that controls the number of school buses, the hours of our neighborhood libraries and the type of programs we create for homeless people.
 

Some people like your Congressman Jeff Flake step outside even that broad fiscal oversight role and create whole new programs for local Washingtonians - programs that local Washingtonians do not even want.  If we wanted them, we have our own local legislature and our own very able non-voting member of Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton. (If Congress were to give the vote to her and two colleagues in the Senate we could lobby for our own federal school reform dollars).  Washington, D.C. becomes the testing ground for, in this case school vouchers.   School vouchers allow children to take public dollars to private school placements, and usually involve some supplementation of tuition by the family. An Arizona state study says that vouchers don't work. Read more about that here: http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/EPRU/documents/cerai-01-17.htm.
 

But your position on school vouchers aside, did you really expect when you elected Mr. Flake that he would occupy himself with drafting legislation, making deals to get it passed, fending off opposition, accounting for his position in the media, making a name for himself among some party higher ups - all on local D.C. issues?  I think not. Well, we residents of Washington, D.C. encourage you to do something about Mr. Flake's extracurricular activities. Here is what you can do since the Congressional election cycle just recently ended and you can't register your opinion at the ballot box for a while now.
 
1.  Tell your Congressman to 'leave D.C.', that is stop engaging in local D.C. affairs.  You can do that at our website - www.leavedc.com.
 
2.  Tell Mr. Flake to withdraw his legislation to create vouchers. It takes up time that belongs to you.
 
3.  Tell your Congressman to start a campaign to abolish each and every D.C. subcommittees in the United States Congress - the House and the Senate.
 
4.  Tell Congress to support legislation in Congress right now to free D.C. by working to support legislation that promotes D.C. autonomy on fiscal, legislative and judicial matters and free Congress of the burden of Congressional governance of local D.C.
 
Congress needs to work for its own constituents not local D.C.  Help our movement in D.C. to get your Congressman out of our D.C. affairs and back on track doing what you elected him to do: represent Arizona in Congress.
 

FROM THIS WEBSITE:
1. D.C. residents, email newspapers in member districts to tell America that Your Congressman should get to work for their own constituents and leave D.C. to manage its own.
2. Americans, email, call and fax your Congressman to Get Them Back To Your Issues.
3.Americans tell Congress to abolish the D.C. subcommittees, resign any and every seat on any D.C. subcommittees, and support legislation to free D.C. and Congress, so that Congress can work for its constituents not local D.C.

Call to Action:  (Full Menu of Actions Here)

Residents of D.C. and constituents of Congress from around the country are urged to work to return Congress to the business of its own constituents.  Take action, America:

• Tell Congress to get back to the concerns of its own constituents, not those of local Washington, D.C.

• Tell Members of Congress to resign from the D.C. subcommittees of the House and Senate.

• Tell Congress to abolish the D.C. subcommittees in the Senate and the House of Representatives

• Tell Congress to support legislation by Cong. Norton and Sen. Joe Lieberman to put an end to Congressional involvement in Washington, D.C. affairs.  Local D.C. affairs are a drain on our Congress!

1. D.C. residents, email newspapers in member districts

ACTION NEEDED: Governing local D.C. is a distraction for Congress.  What is the best way to get your Congressman back to the affairs of its constituents? 

FROM THIS WEBSITE:

1. D.C. residents, email newspapers in member districts to tell America that Your Congressman should get to work for their own constituents and leave D.C. to manage its own.

2. Americans, email, call and fax your Congressman to Get Them Back To Your Issues.

3. Sign the petition To Tell Congress to abolish the D.C. subcommittees, resign his seat on any D.C. subcommittees, and support legislation to let D.C. free Congress to work for its constituents not local D.C.

to tell America that Your Congressman should get to work for their own constituents and leave D.C. to manage its own.

2. Americans, email, call and fax your Congressman to Get Them Back To Your Issues.

3. Sign the petition To Tell Congress to abolish the D.C. subcommittees, resign his seat on any D.C. subcommittees, and support legislation to let D.C. free Congress to work for its constituents not local D.C.