Rhee weighs in on Fenty sons' school controversy

WASHINGTON - D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty didn't break any rules after getting his sons into a school out of their neighborhood zone.

This week, Fenty made good on a campaign pledge to send his twin sons to D.C. Public Schools.

But the Fentys aren't sending their sons to their neighborhood school, West Elementary School.

Instead, the twins are attending fourth grade at Lafayette Elementary School.

Lafayette Elementary School is one of the top-performing schools in the District and traditionally, there is a wait list for out-of-boundary students.

For weeks, Fenty has refused to even answer questions from reporters about how his kids got two of the highly sought after slots at Lafayette.

"I'm not even going to even answer one question about my kids. It doesn't matter how many times you ask me, I'm not gonna answer," Fenty told reporters on Thursday.

Fenty had a heated back-and-forth on the steps of City Hall yesterday as reporters peppered the mayor with questions about whether he abused his position as mayor to jump to the front of the wait list.

"How long are we going to stand here and have this conversation? Just let me know.…I'm not going to say anything different. Can I be excused to go?" Fenty said.

Rhee, who had been silent on the issue until Friday, tried to put out the fire.

"I can assure you that no rules were broken," Rhee said on WTOP's Education Summit. "We have a number of provisions that allow kids to go to out-of-boundary schools and all of those things were followed."

But Rhee would not say that every student who applied for the fourth grade class at Lafayette was admitted.

"No, I can't say that that's the case at all," Rhee said.

One of the provisions that would allow an out-of-boundary student to be admitted to a school is a waiver from the Chancellor placing the student ahead of others on the wait list.

Rhee would not say whether the mayor entered the lottery like other families, or if he jumped over students ahead of his sons on the wait list.

"All of the protocols were followed," Rhee replied with a grin.

While defending the mayor's decision not to have his sons attend his neighborhood school, Rhee pointed that the Fentys are in the majority of families sending their kids to public schools outside of their neighborhood.

"The mayor joined the ranks of more than half of the parents in DCPS who don't send their children to their in-boundary schools," Rhee said. "So I don't think there is anything particularly unusual about that."

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)