What Works

I don’t know who in the DC school system killed vocational education years ago but a lot of good people are now trying to bring back Carpentry, Electrical work, air conditioning and heating repair classes. Next week the $1.2 million renovation work at Cardozo high for a Construction trades program will be unveiled. Sixty students will move into the new wing of the otherwise dilapidated school building. The construction industry was the driving force behind the move, but someone in the school system had to be convinced that re-starting vocational-ed was worth the cost. A lot of students are dropping out or not going on to college. John McMahon, Chairman of Miller and Long construction says every student currently enrolled in Cardozo’s construction academy will be given a job. Now if school officials can just follow through with plans to re-open Phelps Vocational school in Northeast.

DC Mayor Fenty is expected to go along with DC Council members who want to authorize a new higher tax on Verizon Center tickets so that Wizards owner Abe Pollin can make renovations inside the building. Fenty, like the legislators, feels the city owes Pollin because he used his own private financing to build the arena which, along with the Gallery place metro stop, helped spur incredible economic development in the Chinatown area. City leaders will get one of the Verizon Center skysuites to use as they please as part of the bill introduced in the Council this week. We’ll be watching to see who shows up for the games.