I went to a government high school in the early 1980s in a small southern town, and my biggest concern was whether the football player I had a crush on was getting back together with his girlfriend. Sometimes I’d lie awake at night wondering if the next day’s ensemble was cool enough. Occasionally I had serious issues, like how to sweet-talk my father into letting me go out with my friends even though I was grounded for coming home after curfew the week before.
Of course these things pale in comparison to what kids have to deal with today, especially in urban schools. While reading “Students want police inside D.C. schools,” in today’s Washington Times, I reminisced about my superficial teen angst. The kids in D.C. schools may have similar “problems,” but they also worry about getting shot or stabbed, something I couldn’t even imagine at 16. It definitely puts things in perspective.
At the annual YMCA D.C. Youth and Government Legislative Weekend at American University, D.C. students talked about the need for police officers in the schools. Security guards aren’t cutting it. Instead of discussing certain academic programs they wanted to see in their schools or other mundane concerns as peer pressure to be cool, etc., they’re talking about the need for more cops in the schools.
The D.C. government is notorious for mediocrity and mismanagement, so the fact that the D.C. Council voted to retain a shoddy security company after its shoddiness was proved comes as no surprise:
Security for D.C. schools is provided by Watkins Security Agency of D.C. Inc.The contract with the company was set to expire Jan. 7, but the D.C. Council approved emergency legislation in December to retain it until at least June.
The decision came despite a report by city auditors last summer that found the firm to be the “least technically competent” and most expensive among five bidders, The Washington Times reported.
Watkins was first hired on a three-year contract in 2003, but school officials failed to seek D.C. Council approval as required by city contracting law, so the company has been paid through a series of short-term contracts.
According to the inspector general, school officials overpaid the company by as much as $8.8 million when picking it over the other bidders for a three-year, $45.6 million contract in 2003.
How much are you willing to wager that this security agency was selected under a skin color preference program? Instead of picking the best company for the lowest contract price, they chose a “minority” owned outfit and got shafted. Entitlement programs was not where I was headed with this post, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s as important as the D.C. school’s security problems.
I’ll do a little digging and let you know what I find out.
