Mary Landrieu responds to her critics

Mary Landrieu, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, is defending her addition of a rider to the appropriations bill that stipulated that DCPS must sell surplus property to Charter schools at 25% off their assessed value. (second story down)

For the second year in a row, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., as the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has run afoul of some Washington, D.C., officials for her decisions about local schools. Last year, Landrieu irked supporters of vouchers, including Washington Mayor Anthony Williams, for opposing a plan, ultimately approved by Congress, to set up a pilot program in which parents could get vouchers to transfer their children from Washington public schools to private schools. This year, Landrieu again heard criticism, from Williams as well as some of the same people who applauded her stand against vouchers. At issue this time was her decision to add a rider to a giant spending bill that gives charter schools the right of first refusal for surplus school property. Some D.C. officials, along with the editorial writers at The Washington Post, accused Landrieu of usurping local control because the provision could tie the city's hands and cost it badly needed revenue. That's because charter schools can purchase the surplus property at 25 percent below market value. Landrieu said she has nothing to be sorry about. For two years, Landrieu said, Congress has inserted language just recommending that the city do more to help charter schools, some of which are operating in "decrepit facilities." Those "polite" suggestions were generally ignored, Landrieu said, convincing her that a more forceful provision was needed. Landrieu contends that D.C. parents, many of whom are forced to send their children to underachieving public schools, ought to have more options, and charter schools may be the answer for at least some of them. Charter schools, while receiving taxpayer financing, are free to offer their own curricula and programs outside the control of D.C. public school administrators and school board members. "I'm willing to take a few lashes that are being dished out if it means that the children in the city get more opportunities for a quality education," Landrieu said. The Washington Post, in its editorial, said that Washington is already probably "the most charter-friendly" jurisdiction in the country and that Landrieu's legislative rider amounted to a "highhanded, anti-home-rule approach" and set "a bad lesson for charter schools to learn."