Vincent Gray takes a mighty long time to make any decisions

[Anonymous]

That's Mr Consensus Builder for you. Nothing is going to get done in this city.

"Still Processing: The Post's Mike DeBonis looks at how Vincent Gray has handled school Chancellor Michelle Rhee's decision to fire 165 poor performing teachers. The answer: the Graybot is still computing. "So far, Gray has punted. Nearly a week after the firings, Gray said little more than he wanted to 'look further at the basis for the dismissals.' Gray has navigated his Good Ship Consensus through similar narrows. Last fall's reduction-in-force involved teacher performance, but it was triggered by a budget shortfall, and Gray seized on the questionable basis for that shortfall to challenge the layoffs. Now he must address the difficult question of rooting out underperforming teachers head on. The usual pro-worker pieties expressed by Democratic politicians don't hold so well when it comes to teachers. Even the most true-blue parents tend to want assurances that their kids won't be taught by incompetents. Rhee, who has made improving teacher quality the sine qua non of her reform effort, has moved quickly to guarantee that. The IMPACT evaluation system developed by her administration takes into account observations from fellow educators inside and outside a teacher's school, in addition to growth in student test scores. If he wants to duck the difficult question, Gray's education plan offers several hints on how he'll do it. He wants to hold 'teachers accountable, while giving them the resources and respect they deserve'—so he might argue that teachers haven't been given the requisite support. And the plan promises to 'swiftly . . . implement the independent evaluation of the current IMPACT evaluation system as required in the new teachers' contract'—meaning Gray could say the firings should be held up pending that evaluation. Either way, if Gray questions the firings, he will be directly defending teachers found to be ineffective. ... Gray campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes expanded slightly on the candidate's no-comment on Thursday, raising questions about whether IMPACT uses 'objective evaluators.' She added that Gray has 'requested more information' from DCPS. But Rhee hasn't exactly been hiding under a rock: In addition to more than 150 sessions with teachers, DCPS held a public town-hall meeting on IMPACT in February, plus a special briefing for D.C. council members and staff. Gray's need for information may have more to do with his need not to alienate interest groups." In case you missed it yesterday, LL reblogged an interesting swipe at the way DCPS measures test scores by a prof at Columbia University."

[Anonymous]

I'm confused... because Gray has taken more than a week to evaluate ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE firings there is something wrong with him? If he had already done so, he'd be getting blasted for moving too quickly. How about a little perspective?