Rhee has not done enough for minority students
Re: “Fenty deserves four more years,” Editorial, Sept. 9
Chancellor Michelle Rhee is not really interested in helping minority students succeed. Otherwise, she would address the factors in their environment which negatively affect their learning. Instead, with strong support from the white community, she is concentrating her efforts on making D.C. Public Schools whiter.
Discounting the view that circumstances beyond the classroom make learning more difficult for poor children, she has fired many black teachers for the poor performance of their students and replaced them with young white teachers. Then she glosses over the achievement gap between the white and black children by either denying its existence or minimizing its significance.
As to whether or not the fired teachers are really underperforming, we only have Ms. Rhee’s say-so for that. In a previous mass firing, she claimed that she was getting rid of child molesters and physical abusers, but that turned out not to be true.
Charles M. Bagenstose
Upper Marlboro
Mayor Fenty’s defeat is no surprise
I’m not gloating or dancing in the end zone, but the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time, despite Examiner columnists Harry Jaffe’s and Jonetta Barras’ pathetic last -minute appeals to bail out Mayor Fenty.
Malcolm Barnes
Washington
Antiquated sewage system hinders cleanup efforts
Re: “Potomac River cleanest in decades, scientists say,” Sept. 8
Fifty years ago, a close friend who was also an expert on river pollution told me that nothing could ever be done for the Potomac River because Washington only has one sewage system. In other words, the bathroom and the rainwater in the street both empty into the same pipes.
He went on to say that the Blue Plains plant could purify the bathroom waste until it was potable in dry weather. But when the rains came, the plant simply could not handle the volume, and all they could do was open the gates and let the raw sewage empty into the river.
I think it is obvious that the entire city could never be dug up and a separate system installed, so the river pollution is here to stay.
Wendel Allen
Alexandria
