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an independent newspaper EDITORIALS


Cleaning up at Arlington A The Army begins to remedy chaos in records and management.


RMY INSPECTOR General R. Steven Whitcomb was right in saying that the daily work of honoring, burying and ac- counting for the remains of our nation’s servicemen and women had to be a


zero-defect operation. Even one error is too much. The numerous discrepancies in account- ing and recordkeeping at Arlington National Cemetery, and the gravesite-maintenance fail- ures that resulted in headstones in streams, are inexcusable. The inspector general’s report, released on


June 10, found that the cemetery lacked up-to- date governing documents and standard operat- ing procedures, had no structure for self-assess- ment or external assessment, and lagged in infor- mation technology. Reports in the Washington Post and Salon.com found mismarked graves, mislabeled internal maps, and grave location rec- ords kept on cards. More than $5 million dedi- cated to the creation of a digital record system failed to result in any digitization of records, ex- cept as image files from which data could not be extracted. Thurman Higginbotham, the official


Holding out


I national education standards


F THERE WAS any lingering fear about the new national education standards lacking rig- or, it was erased by Massachusetts’s decision to sign on to the movement. Widely seen as hav- ing the toughest state standards in the country, Massachusetts nonetheless recognized the advan- tages — and wisdom — of common academic stan- dards. It is not alone in that judgment: More than half the states and the District of Columbia have al- ready adopted the standards, and about a dozen more are seen as leaning in that direction. Which makes Virginia’s decision to sit it out all the more puzzling. “The first step for the next generation of educa-


tion reform” is how Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville characterized the push to align what American students should be learning. The wide variation in state standards — the fact that expectations for what a third-grader should know in math are different in Florida than in Kan- sas — is a particularly illogical feature of American education. It has produced poor outcomes, un- equal schooling and contributed to the country’s falling behind its international competition. Past efforts to set national standards ran into a brick wall of opposition from those who saw a fed- eral intrusion into state autonomy. But the current push comes from the states themselves, with the Obama administration offering federal dollars as an encouragement, and there has been remarkable success in a short period of time, although the hard job of implementing the standards still lies ahead. Much attention was focused on Massachusetts, given its sterling reputation as a leader in educa- tion. Mr. Reville told us that painstaking effort went into the decision to sign on the national stan- dards, with expert panels established to compare them to that of the state. “We said we wouldn’t sign


Virginia’s damaging decision not to join in new


spearheading the digitization, lacked informa- tion technology experience and served as the cemetery’s contracting officer without any of the requisite training. Dozens of the cemetery’s con- tracts cannot even be located. Many of the errors stem from an excruciatingly


outdated system in which records are still kept on cards and maps are updated by hand, result- ing in discrepancies between the maps that visi- tors to the cemetery consult to visit the graves of their loved ones and the maps that cemetery workers use to determine open slots for burial. The remedy for this is simple, and the technology for maintaining digital records already exists in the private sector. Instead of reinventing the wheel, as cemetery officials initially planned, needlessly demanding that a special “Total Cem- etery Management System” be built from scratch, the cemetery should use available technology to make its records manageable — and sooner rath- er than later. Virginia high-tech companies have already volunteered their assistance. But the more fundamental failure was one of management, oversight and accountability. As


the contract investigation continues, the Army must hold accountable those who were responsi- ble for squandering the public’s trust — and mil- lions of dollars on noncompetitive, improperly documented contracts for an information tech- nology system that never materialized. Since the report emerged, change has been un-


derway. The management structure in which, as Secretary of the Army John McHugh stated, “by placing everyone in charge, no one was in charge,” has been replaced with an executive di- rector who reports directly to the secretary. This is an important step toward accountability, and the changes that have already been implemented — some as fundamental as creating standard op- erating procedures for when urns are exhumed to accommodate the burial of a family member — were much needed. But the most worrisome of all the inspector general’s findings was that some of the problems had been noted 12 years earlier, yet nothing had been done. Arlington National Cem- etery seems to be on the path to improvement. But continued monitoring will be necessary to hold it accountable.


TOM TOLES


TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR dletters@washpost.com


It’s about alcohol, not immigration


I believe that lax law enforcement may encourage some people to push the envelope. I have often been amazed by the behavior of drivers on the Beltway who, noticing that speeding laws are rarely en- forced, tend to behave as if other laws, primarily the laws of physics, therefore do not apply, and drive in a reckless and irresponsible manner. However, in commenting on the drunken driving incident in Prince William County that cost one nun her life and severely injured two others, Beryl Lieff Benderly [“Here illegally and driving drunk,” letters, Aug. 6] is either woefully ignorant of the effects of alcohol consumption on judgment or deliberately chooses to ignores the facts to score political points in arguing for immigration enforcement. Drunks, whether home-grown or imported, do not base their behavior on “if-then” propositions. They act with no foresight or impulse control. And perversely, it’s not always the drunk driver who pays the price for rash, irresponsible and thoughtless be- havior.


So, please, let’s respect the wishes of the good sis- ters who served with the victim and treat this trag- edy for what it was: another sobering reminder that alcohol and gasoline do not mix. NICK CURTIS, Alexandria


Who pays the bill for the spill?


Charles Krauthammer’s Aug. 6 op-ed column ad- dressing President Obama’s means of effecting ac- tions [“Who makes the laws, anyway?”] questioned whether the president’s actions were proper. He had some points: Legislation is preferable to administrative regulation.


But his point about the $20 billion BP cleanup fund was way off target. Mr. Krauthammer said President Obama “demanded a $20 billion federal- ly administered escrow fund for damages. Existing law capped damages at $75 million.” He is correct, but in absence of this demand, exactly whom does Mr. Krauthammer suggest pay the bill? The taxpayer?


WILLIAM C. DIXON, Alexandria


Why is Ms. Rhee holding back? In her Aug. 6 letter “How many teachers is D.C.


firing?” D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee couldn’t have been less transparent. She didn’t come forward with relevant details about why each of the 241 teachers was fired last month or information re- garding their evaluation ratings. It shouldn’t take a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain this information, which the Washington Teachers’ Union was compelled to file after being stonewalled, even though the information is required under the new contract. Ms. Rhee has received a lot of publicity for claim- ing she had the guts to fire teachers en masse. By not spelling out who got fired for what reason, she has damaged the reputations and livelihoods of all 241. She has done this before. When she fired 266 teach- ers in the fall of 2009, she initially claimed the ac- tion was for budgetary reasons, then told Fast Com- pany magazine that some of the teachers had sex with children or hit them. The comments, which she had to retract, smeared all of the terminated teach- ers and showed callous disrespect. If, as Ms. Rhee said in the letter, she is willing to stand by her decision to fire teachers, she should also be willing, in the interest of full disclosure and transparency, to reveal all the information on which the firings were based. RANDIWEINGARTEN, Washington


The writer is president of the American Federation of Teachers.


on to anything that wasn’t as rigorous as our own,” he explained. Massachusetts saw other advantages, such as


the efficiencies to be gained from common assess- ments and curriculum. Contrast that with Vir- ginia, which after agreeing to help develop the standards, has made clear it won’t adopt them, cit- ing the strength of its Standards of Learning. Nev- er mind that recent analysis by the Thomas B.


Fordham Institute showed that while Virginia’s standards for English are about as rigorous as the new national standards, the state’s math standards rank significantly lower. Virginia has been well served by its SOLs, and there would be some dis- ruption to move away from them. But by sitting on the sidelines, Virginia risks becoming irrelevant as the rest of the nation turns a new corner in education.


Mr. Cuccinelli chimes in Immigration law was clear enough without the Virginia attorney general’s opinion.


law enforcement officers the green light to check the immigration status of anyone they stop. Al- though the letter made headlines after news re- ports of the Aug. 1 death of a Virginia nun at the hands of an undocumented immigrant who was accused of driving drunk, it is dated July 30 — two days before the tragic accident. Mr. Cuccinelli is- sued his pronouncement in response to a law- maker’s query about the status of Virginia law. The opinion largely mirrors a 2007 letter issued by Robert F. McDonnell, then attorney general and now governor, which concluded that officers have the authority to ask about immigration sta- tus during routine stops. These opinions are non-


I


N SOME WAYS, the opinion issued last week by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II on immigration checks is unremarkable. In a letter, Mr. Cuccinelli essentially gave


binding and do not mandate specific action on the part of the law enforcement officers, giving local jurisdiction the discretion to decide what pro- cedures to adopt. This is a far cry from the recent- ly blocked portion of an Arizona law that required officers to check immigration status if they had “reasonable suspicion” that a person they stopped was in the country illegally. Yet Mr. Cuccinelli’s letter and his news conference serve as powerful reminders of the animus and ignorance that fuels so much of the immigration debate. Virginia already has a number of laws on the books that require officers to check the immigra- tion status of those who are arrested. For example, a 2008 law mandates that the immigration status of anyone arrested and jailed in the state must be checked. This approach dovetails with the federal Secure Communities program, which was begun


under the Bush administration and advanced by President Obama. The program makes it easier and more financially feasible for local and state jurisdictions to verify whether someone is in the country legally. This approach is a sensible one. But state and


local law enforcement officers should not be in the business of rounding up foreign-looking or foreign-sounding individuals to check on immi- gration status in the absence of a criminal vio- lation. Such an approach would only lead to racial profiling and probably scare many otherwise law- abiding immigrants from reporting crimes or co- operating with an investigation. As for Mr. Cuccinelli, he would do better to de- vote himself to Virginia’s genuine legal problems, rather than grandstanding about immigration matters that require no clarification.


Making smart meters truly smart The July 31 editorial “Gridlock,” which called for a


new regulatory doctrine for advanced metering or “smart meters,” missed an important point: A truly smart approach protects access to electricity for our most vulnerable neighbors. Smart metering saves money when utilities can remotely disconnect serv- ice and avoid visits to houses. But this can be a missed opportunity to intervene in a crisis, as illus- trated by the profile of the older couple in the July 19 Metro article “From good deed to dire straits.” De- spite their physician’s request for a delay, this med- ically frail couple fell through the cracks during a heat wave, and Pepco temporarily disconnected their service for nonpayment. Smart meters encourage conservation by en- abling higher charges for peak usage, but for seniors on fixed budgets, this just motivates them to turn off the air-conditioning when they need it most. Low-income seniors use less energy than average and tend to have older appliances — they have little to conserve in response to higher prices. Smart meters may be the prescription for our ail- ing energy grid, but they will be good medicine only if they also protect our most vulnerable people. Smart metering is smart only when peak pricing is optional and remote disconnections are prohibited for such customers. LYNNE PAGE SNYDER, Washington MEGAN SANDEL, Boston


The writers are working on a health-impact assessment of advanced metering, supported by a grant from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.


TAKING EXCEPTION Playing politics with polar bear facts


Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell needs to calm down and check his facts, because his wild-eyed claims about efforts to protect the polar bear in Alaska just don’t hold water [“On thin ice,” Washington Forum, Aug. 6]. As someone who lived in Alaska for almost 12 years, I have some knowledge of the stark reali- ties that these incredible creatures now face. Designation of habitat for polar bears will not


affect activities that do not require federal ap- proval or funding. And for projects that do, as- sessing the consequences of a project before em- barking on it is just common sense. Moreover, of the more than 17,000 projects evaluated because of critical habitat designations nationwide, less than 1 percent have had to be altered. That’s hardly shutting down “access to an entire state’s resources.”


As for oil and gas development, it may be a cornerstone of Alaska’s economy, but it is also a dirty business with potentially devastating con- sequences. Just ask the Alaskans in and around Prince William Sound, the site of the Exxon Val- dez oil spill. Ask them what the oil and gas busi- ness did to the “economy” that Mr. Parnell is so worried about. Finally, Mr. Parnell ironically says that “poli- tics should give way to science” when it is he who is setting aside virtually unanimous scien- tific opinion in favor of the politics of now. Sci- entists didn’t recommend these protections just to jam up Alaska’s economy; they did it because that’s where the science pointed them. Mr. Par- nell may be willing to ignore what scientists have to say, but not everyone agrees with him. MARYELLENOMAN, Fredericksburg


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The wrong course on teacher aid


It is disappointing that The Post’s editorial board, which consistently supports school reform, opposes efforts to keep teachers in the classroom by way of a $10 billion education jobs package [“Throwing mon- ey at education,” editorial, Aug. 6]. Across the coun- try, damaging budget cuts have forced school dis- tricts to lay off hundreds of thousands of employees, shorten school years and increase class sizes — to the detriment of students. All of these decisions were based on decreased revenue, largely due to the finan- cial crisis that was no fault of any principal, teacher or student. This emergency investment in our schools will


save teacher jobs and keep students in their class- rooms, learning, growing and succeeding. If we were to take the path suggested by The Post, we would let our schools suffer, stifle our students’ futures and re- verse the progress made in schools under the Obama administration. Congress won’t let that happen. GEORGEMILLER, Washington


The writer, a Democrat from California, is chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor.


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