The Current
FRUMIN From Page V1 schools. The big challenge is ensuring we have successful local schools everywhere.” Frumin said the upcoming closures of more than a dozen public schools are concentrated unevenly in certain sections of the city. This will result in “neighborhoods ... that don’t have great local options or at least the hope they are going to get them,” he said. “Resentment is building. When you have closures in one part of the city, it gets very, very difficult to explain the need for expansion in another part.” The school system also needs to improve its wraparound services, Frumin said. “The best charter schools have tutors and social workers,” he said. “In Denver and Houston, they’ve increased staffing in public schools to
ZUKERBERG From Page V1 exchange,” he said. In addition, “major issues have not been decided by the council,” which he said “needs to promptly hold hearings, propose regulations and solicit participation from providers.” If elected, Zukerberg vowed to “work 24/7 to see that our exchange is set up on time, that our software is easy to use, and that our prices and plans are the most competitive in the country. Oregon and some other states are already online.” “When people log in on Oct. 1,” he said, “I want them to ... see their choices and the prices.”
implement lessons from charters. And it is working.” He also recommended locating more specialty programs within comprehensive high schools. And he said funding for athletics must not continue to focus disproportionately on boys teams. Frumin pointed to his experience with Wilson’s $105 million modernization. “I worked on that project from soup to nuts and gained an expertise that I can bring to other projects,” Frumin said. Discussing the city’s infrastructure needs, Frumin said he agrees with Mayor Vincent Gray that green measures like rain gardens and permeable pavement can help address a federal mandate to prevent sewage spills into the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. Lowimpact alternatives, he said, are preferable to constructing multibillion-dollar tunnels to store surplus stormwater.
Successful implementation of affordable health care would be a boon to the city, Zukerberg suggested — encouraging “businesses to locate and stay here” and giving both employees and companies “a major perk” through competitive health plans. On criminal justice reform, Zukerberg suggests decriminalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana and instead making that a civil infraction. “For adults it would mean a fine; for juveniles, it’s parental notification plus an educational class,” he said. Zukerberg said current penalties for marijuana create “an enormous drain on police resources” when police are needed more urgently to
MARA From Page V1 need “hooks” or “things that represent what higher-performing charter schools are doing” to remain competitive, such as language immersion programs. Mara also said he supports using school facilities — both public and charter — for after-hours vocational training for both students and adults in “industries and skill sets where jobs exist in the city and will continue to grow.” Athletics, art and music should be used to help engage kids in schools, he said. Students should be awarded academic credit for their work in art or music, and more sports teams should be set up so more students can participate. Students are less likely to skip school if they are held accountable by teammates and coaches, Mara said, and the in-class time set aside for athletics could also be used for remediation or Advanced Placement classes. Mara also said he sees a need for better marketing of schools. He cited Columbia Heights’ Tubman Elementary as a well-marketed example and said others should follow its lead. He also proposed a comprehensive A-through-F rating system that would make it easy for parents to understand the performance levels of all public and charter schools. On fiscal responsibility, Mara said it’s essential to maintain the independence of the chief financial officer. However, the new chief needs to make less conservative fiscal estimates so the city doesn’t have so much unanticipated revenue. Mara also said the city should be considering “tax relief for individuals and businesses”
Frumin suggested that the city find a way to establish a commuter tax in order to fund a regional infrastructure bank with a board including District, Maryland and Virginia members — similar to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. For further investments, Frumin said he favors increased spending on recreation. A facility akin to Montgomery County’s SoccerPlex might be appropriate for Anacostia Park, he said. “Kids in lowerincome areas do not have parks with playing fields,” he said. “It’s why Wilson and Bell [high schools] dominate soccer and Wilson dominates baseball.” On affordable housing, Frumin said the city’s growth “must benefit all our communities” and that part of the resulting revenue should fund ways to allow lower-income residents to live in the District. This should include government employees like librarians,
fight violent crime. “We arrest over 4,000 people each year for small amounts of marijuana,” he said. He also argued that the current approach saddles “young black men with permanent criminal records, which becomes a lifetime impediment to employment and advancement.” He noted that Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and 18 states have already decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. On education, Zukerberg said the city must support and replicate successful programs, rather than focusing just on the D.C. Public Schools system — “I don’t care if it’s DCPS, charter or parochial.” He takes issue with “high-stakes
now that the city’s reserves are close to its average spending for two months. To increase transparency, he proposed a website that would publicly track government expenditures. He also called for improved record keeping to prevent waste and fraud. Mara also said that there should be better evaluation of nonprofits so government money isn’t wasted on those “that aren’t capable of doing what they say they do.” On ethics, Mara said he supports moving to a system where political campaigns are partially publicly financed. Candidates would have to raise a certain amount of money through individual contributions, and then would be awarded a specified amount from the city. Corporate and union contributions would be banned. Mara believes that once in office, council members — exempting the current legislators — should not be allowed to hold outside jobs unless cleared by the council. If elected, he said, he would devote himself full-time to the council. Members should also not be allowed to receive gifts or even cups of coffee from lobbyists, Mara said, but they ought to be able to receive free admission to widely attended events such as Chamber of Commerce dinners. Mara also said the city’s open meetings law needs stricter enforcement, especially for boards and commissions. “In a number of these meetings, people aren’t able to follow what goes on,” he said. Mara, a native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., graduated from Marist College in 1997, where he majored in environmental science and political science. He received a Master of Business Administration in entrepreneurship from Babson College. He is newly married.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
police officers and firefighters, he said, and should also exist beyond separately subsidized affordable-housing units. “We need to use carrots to attract our workforce to the city: a voucher of something like $500 a month for mortgage or rent in the District for, at first, teachers, firefighters and police,” Frumin said. “If it proves successful, it can be expanded to other city employees. We could then offer incentives to businesses to offer something similar.” He also supports a proposal from Ward 4 Council member Muriel Bowser to enact a moratorium on increased property taxes for longtime residents at all income levels. Frumin grew up near Detroit, graduated from the University of Michigan and moved to the District to attend law school at George Washington University. He is married with three children, who all have attended D.C. public schools.
testing with one big test” to measure performance. Instead, he said he supports “evaluations throughout the year with quizzes and mini reviews.” Teacher evaluations, meanwhile, “should include surveys of satisfaction by students, parents and other teachers.” Advanced Placement classes are important, he said. “Students who can advance should have that opportunity.” But the city also needs more focus on job training and skill development during the high school years. “Good jobs,” Zukerberg said, “are going vacant because our high school graduates do not have the skills necessary to fill them. High school graduates can make it as
SILVERMAN From Page V1 On integrity, Silverman said that she supports transparency in government so that its “actions are understandable and accessible to taxpayers.” “I have a track record of pushing transparency,” Silverman said. “Until three years ago, decisions about the budget were made behind closed doors,” and “I led nonprofit groups advocating to push [then-Council Chairman Vincent] Gray to open up those negotiations, which wouldn’t have happened without my advocacy.” One of the future reforms Silverman said she would seek is to establish a practice of posting city contracts online. She also said called for more oversight of the Children’s Youth Investment Trust Corp., which offers out-of school-programs for District children. The group lost more than $300,000 in recent years, stolen by then-Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas Jr. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer, too, needs increased oversight and accountability, Silverman said. “We need to revisit how the CFO works with our agencies to make sure it is a structure that is beneficial.” In general, she said, there needs to be “better oversight of all of our agencies.” It shouldn’t be “a once-a-year thing with the budget” but rather “year-round work with … the tax and revenue committee.” Silverman supports banning direct corporate contributions to local candidates, noting that her campaign is not accepting them. On accountability, Silverman said her career examining city government from the
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dental hygienists. ... They can take courses to prepare for food service management careers.” Zukerberg noted that fewer than 10 percent of D.C. high school graduates complete college within six years. In addition, he said, there’s a problem of “for-profit colleges … snapping up high school graduates desperate to learn marketable skills and saddling them with huge student debts and graduating a very small percentage.” Born in Paterson, N.J., and a graduate of Hamilton College, Zukerberg came to D.C. in 1981 to attend American University’s law school. He is married and has two children who attend local public schools.
outside gives her a strong background. “I have detailed where the city spends its money. This is the kind of accountability I’m talking about: a comprehensive map of where the city spends its workforce dollars. I think we should be doing this kind of oversight and then I would ask the question, ‘What outcomes are we getting for these dollars?’” On investment, Silverman said the city should put more money toward affordable housing and schools because of substantial gaps here both in opportunities and income equality. She said the key reason for the significant unemployment east of the Anacostia River is that “schools are not performing to the level of Janney or Brent,” referring to high-demand elementary schools in Tenleytown and Capitol Hill. “We need to be honest [to parents] about their [children’s] skills and literacy levels and how we get them jobs,” she added. Silverman said she supports schools offering breakfast, lunch, and, if necessary, dinner for students who don’t get proper meals at home. “Then we need to make sure we’re funding housing programs so that the kid is not sleeping in a park, shelter or motel room,” she added. Silverman said the city should “put more money into the Housing Production Trust Fund,” which is the “best generator of affordable housing.” To further stimulate affordable-housing construction, Silverman said the District needs to enforce its existing inclusionary zoning laws, as well as explore other approaches. Silverman, who is single, grew up in Baltimore. She earned her bachelor’s at Brown University, where she studied economics and history.