At the beginning of the 1993-94 school year, D.C. Council member
Kevin Chavous enrolled his 9-year-old son in Holy Trinity, a
Jesuit-run parish school. Chavous explained to the Washington
Times that his son “needed extra attention” as a result of his
“starting to act up” in public school. The paper reported that
Chavous was unapologetic about the move because he saw a change for
the better almost immediately: “You have to do what is best for
your children,” Chavous said.
There aren’t many people who would disagree with that decision.
As a wealthy parent (in 1993, Chavous was already earning nearly
$150,000 a year as a lawyer), Chavous had the means to pay for
private schooling. Too bad that he and other D.C. Council
members-who oppose school choice for their less well-to-do
neighbors-don’t preach what they practice.
A survey I recently conducted of D.C. City Council members (3 of
the 13 members did not respond) shows that many of them send their
children to private schools. Only Carol Schwartz has children who
have graduated from DC public schools. Four (Chavous, Harold
Brazil, Vincent Orange and Kathleen Patterson) currently have
children either in private school or who have graduated from
private school. Two members (Adrian Fenty and Phil Mendelson) have
toddlers; two do not have children (Jim Graham and David Catania);
and three did not respond to my calls and e-mails (Linda Cropp,
Jack Evans, Sharon Ambrose). One council member (Sandy Allen) never
directly said whether her children went to D.C. public schools, but
she made it clear they hadn’t gone to private school.
At the same time, these “public” officials oppose school choice
for the District, which would provide parents with the means to
send their children to those same private schools-or wherever they
want to see their kids educated. Either way, the children would not
be stuck in D.C.-designated educational ghettoes.
Over the next few months, we can expect the members of the City
Council to denounce efforts to improve educational choices between
charter and public schools. D.C. Council member Fenty, who attended
the public schools until he enrolled in a Catholic school to start
the 9th grade, is expected as early as tomorrow to introduce a
resolution condemning vouchers.
It isn’t a new phenomenon for D.C.’s political and educational
leaders to fiercely defend the public school system while sending
their own kids to private schools. According to a 1977U.S. News
& World Report article, “Representative Walter Fauntroy, a
black Democrat who is the District of Columbia’s non-voting
delegate in Congress, has a child in private school. So does
Sterling Tucker, black chairman of the D.C. city council.”
District officials who avoid the local public schools have
counterparts in Congress. For instance, Heritage Foundation analyst
Jennifer Garrett found in 2001 that 47 percent of House members and
51 percent of senators with school-age children sent them to
private schools in 2001. Thirty-five percent of Congressional Black
Caucus members and 33 percent of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
members sent their children to private school in 2001. Most of
their members remain opposed to school choice plans outside of the
public school system.
In a commentary published last summer, Chavous wrote: “After
overseeing reform efforts in the D.C. Public Schools, I am
convinced that our traditional school system is capable of reform
— but incapable of reforming itself. Effective reform has to be
radical in nature.” Chavous personally engaged in school choice a
decade ago. It is time for lower-income parents to have options
beyond charters and traditional public schools.
