Pro-Schools Equals Votes: Mayoral Candidates Put Education First at Forums

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A chance to hear how candidates for D.C. mayor propose to fix the city's broken school system did not push parent Alicia Tobechi Rucker into deciding who she will vote for in the Democratic primary next Tuesday.

Mrs. Rucker, whose daughter is a 10th-grader at Woodson High School in Northwest, says each candidate's plan to reduce class size was appealing. But she doesn't think any of the plans will ever turn into action.

"This is only rhetoric," says Mrs. Rucker, who lives in Columbia Heights and also has two toddlers. "Once they get in office it will be a different story."

Few of those who attended the same mayoral forum on education issues Sept. 3 were willing to commit their vote to a candidate, even though the leading Democratic hopefuls vying for the job say reforming the public school system is the most important task facing the next mayor.

The 77,000-student system gained national notoriety for rock-bottom test scores, old, crumbling school buildings and a bloated bureaucracy.

The mayor "doesn't deal with curriculum," says Delabian Rice-Thurston, executive director of Parents United for the D.C. Schools, an …