DC WEDNESDAY

Washington Times - The D.C. Council unanimously agreed to freeze roughly $46 million in new spending until February, despite criticism that the plan will disproportionately affect low-income residents. Hundreds of D.C. residents protested outside of John A. Wilson Building, then filed into the council chambers to question the cuts, which follow the $131 million recently proposed by the administration Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Democrat, to address revenue shortfalls in upcoming city budgets. . . The plans calls for cutting at least $5.6 million from the city´s Housing First program, which provides subsidized housing for at least 400 previously homeless people, with an additional 400 people being scheduled to receive apartments later this year.

Bll Turque, Washington Post - A new group has organized around the proposition that fixing D.C.'s schools will require nurturing and developing teachers -- not just threatening them with dismissal for failing to raise student test scores. Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform was co-founded by a core of activists who agree with Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee that DCPS is in need of dramatic change. But they say that school reform requires a broader conversation than the one taking place between Rhee and the Washington Teachers Union over a new labor contract.

Washington Post - Rhee appeared at a news conference in Sacramento as part of the transition team of Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who will take office Nov. 25, replacing two-term incumbent Heather Fargo. According to The Sacramento Bee, she was presented by Johnson as one of the leaders of a transition team that could eventually total as many as 100 people. Rhee is a long-time friend of Johnson's and served as a member of the board of directors of St. Hope Public Schools, the system of charter schools Johnson founded in Sacramento.

As Roger Newell notes: Remember, this is the same person who said that she was too busy to appear before the City Council to answer questions from elected officials on how she is spending our tax money and educating our city's future.

Go to Google Maps, and type in your DC address and when the map comes up, there should be a small box with a photo called "street view." Click on it and something like the above should come up. In the upper left of the photo you'll see two arrows. Click on one of them and enjoy a 360 degree picture of the hood

Nikolas Schille notes: The imagery is still purposely outdated in the central business district. Check out the site of the old convention center.

Elizabeth Davis The chaos ensuing at Hart, and many of the restructured schools, is symptomatic of problems well beyond children behaving badly. I strongly suspect that 'children behaving badly' is a protest by students who are realizing that they are getting screwed, shafted, hoodwinked, pimped, bamboozled and processed for the pipeline into the prison industrial complex. They are unafraid to speak about classes with excessive caseloads, school library-media centers without a school library media teacher; core subject classes taught by substitutes (for an entire year!). . . just to name a few. The reconstitution process - plan for Hart, much like the ones chosen by DCPS for other failing schools, looked good on paper. Whether it's worth the paper it was printed on is another matter. I suppose only time will tell, because I'm certain that the teachers and principals working in them, won't. Silence breeds content. . . and the city has been cultivating a culture of silence and fear in DCPS for years. It's working.