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ABCDE Burma’s chance
ANINDEPENDENTNEWSPAPER EDITORIALS
A Mandela searches for her de Klerk. I
T TELLS YOU a lot about Burma that of two ostensibly historic events last week—its first national election in 20 years and the release from house arrest of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — the one that captured
the world’s attention, and has the potential to put the nation on a more positive path, was not the election. In turn, it tells you just about everything you
need to know about the election that the observer mission was led by North Korean diplomats. Burma (also known as Myanmar), a Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people, is rivaled inAsia only by North Korea for the repressiveness of its regime and the contrast between the wretched poverty of its population and the isolated splendor of its rulers’ lives. When the regime allowed a free election in1990, the overwhelmingwinnerwasthe National League for Democracy (NLD), led by
Renewed energy
Can President Obama and the GOP find some compromise?
“Whether it’s natural gas or energy efficiency or building electric cars, we have to move forward,” he declared this month. Taking this up now might seem like a strange
W
choice, since the battle over how — or, indeed, whether — to address climate change inspired months of extreme partisan disagreement over the past year. But everyone admits that cap-and- trade, that much-demagogued strategy to reduce the use of fossil fuels, is dead, at least for the moment. Instead of the grand, comprehensive approach the Democrats took this year,Washing- ton is reverting to a more familiar mode of energy policymaking, in which dozens of smaller-bore government interventions prod the energy sector in directions lawmakers favor. The piecemeal approach has produced policy
failures, such as the government’s counterproduc- tive support for corn ethanol. It’s more expensive for society — and it’s certainly costlier for the federal government—than simply putting a price on the emission of carbon. Still, some policy analysts insist, the next two
years don’t have to be a total waste. The president mapped out the contours of a possible compro- mise — a program of government support for natural gas, nuclear plants, clean transportation technologies, renewable sources of energy and efficiency. This echoes the “all-of-the-above” ener- gy proposal thatHouse Republicans endorsed last year in their American Energy Act. Other bills from the current Congress will feature in discus- sions next year, particularly an energy-efficiency proposal championed by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) that would tighten national building efficiency codes and a bill that investor T. Boone Pickens is pushing that would encourage Ameri- ca’s heavy trucks to run on natural gas. All of these would further distort American energy markets,
but nearly allhave at least the potential, in varying degrees, to cut carbon emissions. The American Energy Innovation Council, a
group of business leaders that includes Bill Gates, hopesthat the partiesmightyetbeable to agreeon a more ambitious and cohesive policy. It recom- mends a $16 billion annual investment in clean energy innovation, including research and sup- port for getting new technologies to market. An ideologically diverse group of think tankers from the Breakthrough Institute, the American Enter- prise Institute and the Brookings Institution agrees and argues that Congress should supple- ment that investment with subsidies that lower the price of new energy sources. They would also nurture the relationship between the Defense Department, which will increasingly demand clean-energy technologies, and clean-tech re- searchers. Even if cap-and-trade had passed, the logic goes, the government would still have had to
invest in scientific research to make green energy affordable; might as wellmake those investments, anyway. As with many of the other energy policy ideas
that have floated around the Capitol over the past fewyears, this sort of proposal suffersfromat least one large problem: How do you pay for it? One of the many advantages of cap-and-trade was that the comprehensive policy paid for itself.Now, this question willbeall themorecritical in themidst of large deficits and understandable public discom- fort with the nation’s fiscal position. The think tankers propose thoroughly overhauling other energy subsidies and taking revenue from off- shore drilling leases. Even if all these initiatives go forward, they
won’t add up to a response to climate change robust enough to match the severity of the warnings climate scientists are giving the public. But incremental action is better than none.
Getting a leg up on D.C. Council The process for filling certain vacancies is flawed. C
HANCES ARE that most D.C. residents have little idea of who sits on the D.C. Democratic State Committee. Despite its obscurity, this committee will soon play an
outsized role in picking a new member of the D.C. Council. And that should be an occasion for the council to revisit the all-important issue of how best to fill vacancies that occur in city government. An oddity of the city’sHomeRule Act governing
vacancies for citywide (not ward) council seats gives theDemocraticcommittee authority toname an interim appointment for the at-large seat that becomes vacant when Kwame R. Brown (D) is sworn in as chairman of the council. Among those reported to be interested in the post are former council member Vincent Orange,D.C. State Board
of Education member Sekou Biddle and Ward 8 activist Jacque Patterson. The candidate winning the committee’s appointment would still have to run in a special election to fill out Mr. Brown’s original term of office. The date of that election is unclear because of
legislation, passed by the council and pending in Congress, that would reduce the number of days for a special election from 114 to 70 days. The fate of this amendment to the city’s Home Rule Act is unclear in the lame-duck session, so election officials are holding off on scheduling the special election. It could be as early asMarch 15 or as late asMay. Onehastowonderabouttheneedforaninterim appointment, particularly if the special election
TAKING EXCEPTION An editorial’s double standard on my legislative work on schools TheNov. 11 editorial “Race away fromthe top”
calledintoquestionmyintegrityandclaimedthat I should recuse myself on voting, as a state senator, on education issues because I work for teachers andtheirunion. Ihaveworkedineduca- tion—as a teacher, elected unionleader andnow union staffer — for 35 years and served in the Maryland General Assembly since 1987. Why is ThePostnowdemanding that I recusemyself? Does The Post have a double standard? The
Posthasnever calledonlawmakerswithbusiness interests to recuse themselves on votes involving corporate tax loopholes. Nor has it asked for recusal by doctorswho vote formedicalmalprac- tice “tort reform,” or agribusiness owners who vote againstpollutioncontrols. The Senate committee I chair did not, as The
Post charged, vote against education reform.My Senate colleagues and I voted to allow school systems around our state to keep successful teacher andprincipal evaluationsystems.
were to occur inMarch. Is it really fair to give one person a leg up going into the special election? Does the process reward those with the best connections as opposed to those with the best qualifications or the best ideas? It’s curious that interim appointments occur only when a citywide seat is open. Consider, for example, that when the Ward 4 andWard 7 seats were left vacant in 2007 with the election of AdrianM.FentyandVincent C. Gray to higher offices, no one was named to fill those seats. Couldn’t the argument be made that it’s more critical to quickly fill ward seats, with the demand to help constituents get individual needs met, than at-large seats? There are, after all, four at-large members, in addition to the chairman who are elected citywide.
ABCDE The regulations that the State Education De-
partment promulgated would have forced school districts to drop successful teacher evaluation sys- tems and impose in their place a simplistic ap- proachthatdoesn’t complywithlegislationpassed by the General Assembly. For instance, the state education superintendent’s regulations would have replaced the successfulMontgomery County peer-assistance approach to teacher qualitywith a planthatwouldhaverequiredamassiveexpansion of student testing and imposed an unproven nu- merical evaluationformula. Post editorial writers make it hard to reason-
ably debate themerits of any legislative votewhen they throwaround charges of “conflict of interest” against those who disagree with them. I plead guilty to standing by teachers who support high standards for teacher quality. PaulG.Pinsky,UniversityPark
Thewriter, aDemocrat, represents the22ndDistrict in theMaryland Senate.
EUGENE MEYER, 1875-1959 • PHILIP L. GRAHAM, 1915-1963 KATHARINE GRAHAM, 1917-2001
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HERE CAN President Obama and ascendant House Republicans find compromise? The president has sig- naled one possibility: energy policy.
AungSanSuuKyi,whoeven then was under house arrest. The generals ignored the results and jailed many of the winners. No doubt Burmese leader Than Shwe hoped
that last week’s election would erase, finally, the memory of that 1990 poll. But the vote was so rigged, it had the opposite effect. Rules were written so that, no matter how people voted, the military would retain control; but even so, the regime could not resist Election Day intimidation and ballot-box stuffing. So it remains as true as ever that the only players with claim to political legitimacy are the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi. Therefore, her release Saturday from house
arrest, where she has spent 15 of the past 21 years, has to be seen as a moment of hope. Whether free or confined, Aung San Suu Kyi has never wavered from her openness to dialogue and her commit- ment to achieving democracy through nonviolent
means. Given her respectful relationship with the nation’s ethnic minorities and with the Burmese army — her father was a general and hero of the anti-colonial movement — she is uniquely posi- tioned to help the nation move from authoritari- anism to self-rule. She needs only a partner. Leaders of other nations, who welcomed Aung
San Suu Kyi’s release Saturday—“She is a hero of mine,” President Obama said — can help encour- age that partnership. They should make clear that continued repression will be met with increasing financial sanctions and accountability for the regime’s crimes against humanity. But they should also make clear that engagement and encourage- ment are possible if the regime chooses a different path: if, that is, it releases 2,200 other political prisoners, permits citizens to assemble and speak freely, and accepts Aung San Suu Kyi’s call for dialogue and reform.
TOMTOLES
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2010
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
dletters@washpost.com
How longer school days help The Nov. 8 Metro story “Extended school days
under considerationinDistrictpublic system” raised questions aboutwhether a longer school day leads to more learning. My experience at the Clarence Edwards Middle
School in Boston strongly supports the idea that more time is essential for increasingstudentachieve- ment. By 2005, Edwards was arguably the lowest-
performingmiddle school inBoston.The first stepin its renaissance came when we expanded learning time in September 2006. Edwards opened its doors that fall with a brand-new school day, adding 300 hours for learning and personalized instruction to the year by changing the dismissal time from 1:30 p.m. to 4:15p.m.Without this change,wewouldhave beenunable tomoveEdwards soquickly fromaplace ofunderperformancetooneofhighachievementand student participation. Today, Edwards is one of the highest-performing middle schools in Boston, even eliminating achievement gaps for our students in some categories, 89 percent of whom come from poverty.
JeffRiley,Boston
Thewriter is academic superintendent formiddle schools in theBoston public school district. l
In 1983, a landmark study, “A Nation at Risk,”
warned of the dire state of education in America. Among its recommendations was that American youngsters should spend more time in school. The report was met with the predictable resistance and inaction. The cries went up: “Quality, not quantity!” “All work and no play. . .” And in the 27 years since then, far too many students, particularly those who get little family support andwho could have benefit- ed themost, have been shortchanged. Somepeoplewill continue toinsist that extratime
won’t translate into learningmore. By that logic, we should be shortening the time spent in school rather than lengthening it — and saving taxpayers a lot of money into the bargain.But in every human endeav- or, time on task is amajor predictor of success. Study after study confirms the sizable academic loss that occurs over the summer, and unlike many of the problems that confront the nation today, that is one that has a solution. Kudos to D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) for initiating the discus- sion.
SuzyMaroon,Washington l
The Nov. 8 Metro article “Extended school days
under consideration in District public system” mis- leadinglystatedthat “TheDistrict’s schooldayis light compared with those in other public systems in the region.” D.C. students have more school hours than ele-
mentary school students in Arlington, Prince George’s, Fairfax, Montgomery or Anne Arundel counties. Their hours are equal to those in Prince Williamand Stafford counties. The chart comparing class time mistakenly shows an average Fairfax school day of over 6½ hours. Since Fairfax County dismisses almost all elementary school students early every Monday, Fairfax is equal to Prince George’s County in having an average day of 6 hours and 10minutes formost students. Although“PresidentObamaandEducationSecre-
tary Arne Duncan have called for longer days and shorter summerbreaks,”as thestorynoted, theyhave not set standards for theminimumnumber of hours intheschoolyear.Thereauthorizationof theElemen- tary and Secondary Education Act should set incen- tives for all schools to provide at least the number of hours currently offered in theD.C. public schools. VirginiaFitzShea,Alexandria l
The Nov. 8 article quoted me as saying that
extended learning time “has no effect on a whole range of student outcomes.” For the record, that statementwas part of a longerwritten description of a study on Massachusetts’ extended school time efforts, a description that goes on to consider the limits of that preliminary study and to explainwhat itwouldtaketomakeextended-timeinitiativeswork. Concerns about extending school hours arewarrant- ed; whatever schools are missing in those first six hours — strong leadership, quality teaching, a chal- lenging and engaging curriculum—won’t suddenly appear inthose extra hours.Andwith extended-time initiatives still few, there is not yet much empirical evidence. But research on learning and achievement
couldn’t be clearer: Low-income students needmore quality learning opportunities, throughout the day and throughout the year, to keep up and succeed on the same level as theirmore affluent peers. With the right kinds of staffing designs and
partnerships in which community-based organiza- tions, universities andbusinesses are integratedinto school-basedlearning, longerhours andanextended year shouldabsolutely bepart of theDistrict’s educa- tion plan.
ElenaSilva,Washington Thewriter is a senior policy analyst at Education Sector.
Mr. Holder is right on KSM’s trial TheNov.6editorial “TryingSept. 11’smastermind”
correctly asserted that Khalid Sheik Mohammed must facetrial,andsoon.However, thereisnoneedto search far and wide for a trial forum. One year ago, AttorneyGeneral EricH.Holder Jr. got it rightwhen he announced that the government would try KSM and his co-defendants in U.S. District Court. The president andCongress shouldsupporthisdecision. The trial of alleged embassy bomber and former
Guantanamo detaineeAhmedKhalfanGhailani is in its final stages and has gone off without a security hitch in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In fact, more than 400 terror- ism-related trials have taken place on U.S. soil with- out issue, and the trial of the Sept. 11 plotters should beno exception.The issue of security inNewYorkis a red herring. As the editorial correctly noted, trials could be conducted instead “in a courthouse in a less denselypopulatedpart of the jurisdiction.” A bipartisan group of more than 140 prominent
Americans, convenedbyus, agrees thatGuantanamo detainees should be tried in our traditional federal criminal courts. Our civilian court system is not subject to themany challenges faced by themilitary commissions system, which has managed to com- plete only five cases since 2002. We must not delay justice for Sept. 11 victims and their families any longer.Trialof theplotters infederal criminal court is the appropriate way to proceed in a manner consis- tentwiththeConstitutionandAmericanvalues. MasonC.Clutter,Washington
Thewriter is counsel for theConstitution Project’sRule of LawProgram.
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