Testimony Against EdBuild
ANC 4D CHAIR RENEE BOWSER’S TESTIMONY ON RUDOLPH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND EDBUILD
December 11, 2006
I am Renee Bowser, ANC 4D Chair and Commissioner for SMD 4D02 which includes Rudolph Elementary School at 5200 2nd Street, NW. I am here to oppose the proposed contract between DCPS and EdBuild.
EdBuild is new: it was created in 2005 with Dr. Janey working in secret with Neil Albert while Mr. Albert was an employee of the District government. EdBuild is a business venture. EdBuild is part of New Schools Venture Fund which is principally a creator and developer of charter schools.
EdBuild and New Schools Venture Fund are about education as entrepreneurship. New Schools Venture Fund says it functions as a “value-added intermediary between donors and education entrepreneurs.” New Schools Venture Fund CEO Ted Mitchell stated “education is our most important enterprise.”At its core, EdBuild is about the business of controlling valuable public school buildings and other public school property. (The question is why is the DC Public School system, through Superintendent Janey and Chief Operating Officer Thomas Brady, eagerly helping EdBuild control valuable DC Public School property.)
How was EdBuild created? EdBuild was created by the business organization, Federal City Council. EdBuild had 4 people who incorporated the organization. Only one of the incorporators has an education background. The principal incorporator is Federal City Council Chief Executive Officer John W. Hill. Another is a principal in New Schools Venture Fund; a retired DCPS school administrator and a former Comcast vice president and general manager are also incorporators.
What does EdBuild bring? EdBuild says it brings targeted education to teachers to train them on learning standards and to implement assessments. The reality is that DCPS is already doing what it proposes to give EdBuild a contract to do. DCPS has spent $1 million to implement standards training systemwide which is available to all DCPS faculty. Why doesn’t DCPS help Rudolph Elementary School’s students by spending money to restore the well received pre-kindergarten program, full time music and science teachers, and physical education and science rather than paying EdBuild for training already provided?
EdBuild says it will provide turn key facility support. But EdBuild does not have expertise to determine what needs to be done to modernize the long-neglected DCPS facilities. It will have to contract with others to perform the functions of determining what emergency modernizing measures and what long term measures are necessary and how they need to be implemented. Further, any first class organization which owns a significant number of properties as DCPS does should have in-house expertise (such as building and structural engineers, maintenance experts, etc.).
Why is DCPS determined to contract out two times over for such expertise rather than develop such expertise in-house?
The third service EdBuild says it will perform is to control public school property. This is EdBuild’s reason for being. If EdBuild gets the contract over Rudolph Elementary and McFarland Middle Schools, the contract will provide a long term lease which gives EdBuild the authority to decide what goes into those buildings. EdBuild wants to put charter schools into Rudolph and McFarland. What building owner gives the outside contractor the full authority to sublease for tenants for the owner’s property?
EdBuild, since its creation, has operated in secret, without the knowledge and participation of the parents of DC Public Schools, its teachers, and the community surrounding the schools. When EdBuild was secretly working with Dr. Janey to make Ballou Senior HS a charter school, they did not notify or seek the participation of parents, teachers, or the interested community.
The bottom line question is that EdBuild benefits its interests; but how are the interests of public school students and public school proponents who endeavor to enhance public education for the long term served by contracting out services which DCPS is already performing or should develop the expertise to perform in-house?
Testified before and submitted to the District of Columbia Board of Education on December 11, 2006.
Renee L. Bowser
5322 2nd Street, NW
Washington DC 20011
202-466-1593
